The Master Program at a Glance

The Master Program at a Glance

Our M.A. programme provides you with analytical skills, methodological competence and intercultural sensitivity, preparing you for an career in academia as well as in various professional fields. You learn to describe and understand the many ways in which humans live together, organise their lives and think about the world. You apply anthropological approaches and research methods to better comprehend local lifeworlds, to analyse them in relation to contemporary global issues and theories and to address societally relevant questions. Faculty in the programme has regional expertise in Asia, Africa, Latin America and Europe, resulting in a broad comparative outlook. A particular emphasis in teaching lies on the Institute’s research foci in economic, environmental and political anthropology. You therefore have the opportunity to draw on this expertise, while at the same time we support you in developing your own specialisation.

Methods Training

At the core of our English-language, research-oriented Master's degree programme stands the planning, implementation and evaluation of your own mentored research project. In developing your project, you will consider the relevance of theory and receive training in data collection, data analysis and academic writing. By conducting your own research project, you will acquire practical methods skills and analytical capabilities for understanding local lifeworlds within global contexts. In our experience, such skills are the best qualification not only for scholarly work, but also for jobs in diverse fields beyond academia. 

Joint research-based learning

Through joint research-based learning, you can acquire intercultural methodological skills and gain valuable experience with inclusive processes of knowledge production, which are of central importance for reciprocal and decolonial teaching and research practice. We emphasise research ethics and collaborative, often reciprocal, methods, and build on the Institute's long-term partnerships with different institutions, most notably with Gadjah Mada University (UGM) in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Since 2004, students of social and cultural anthropology from the University of Freiburg and Gadjah Mada University have been carrying out joint research training, alternating annually between Germany and Indonesia.

Practical Orientation

In addition to academic work, you will also be able to collaborate with professional anthropologists working outside academia. Most of our alumni work in applied contexts, and we work together with a wide network of anthropological practitioners, whose perspectives often feed into teaching. We closely co-operate with the Freiburg Film Forum, the Museum "Natur und Mensch" in Freiburg, and some 30 other institutions in the region that are members of the Institute's professional network. The “Professional Practice” module will allow you to gain career-oriented practical skills. In this module, you can undertake an internship in a field relevant to social and cultural anthropology, or work on an independent project in applied or public anthropology.

Qualifications & Employment perspectives

The aim of our Master's programme is to provide you with analytical skills, practical strategies for action and intercultural sensitivity that will enable you to work in various professional fields, to engage in research and to contribute anthropological skills to inter- and multidisciplinary settings. You will become familiar with the global issues at play in today’s world, and gain both an international outlook and practical competences in dialogue and exchange across lifeworlds. Important areas of employment for graduates are in academia, media, museums and cultural mediation, in development cooperation and foreign cultural policy, in the area of asylum and migration, and in global civil society work.

Program Structure

Modul Overview

International mobility

Our institute’s team is networked with numerous international partners in teaching and research in Southeast Asia, Africa and Latin America. We advise and support you in the planning and implementation of international mobility together with our cooperation partners in the respective regions. The programme offers a particular mobility window in the third semester, which you can use to carry out your mentored research project, in a self-organised manner, in the context of our tandem research training or in connection with one of our current research projects.

Study documents & Guidelines

So far, the official examination regulations are only available in German. However, our module handbook contains all relevant information.

Prüfungsordnung [Examination Regulations] (PDF in German)

Module Handbook (PDF)

For administrative questions about the application process, the course of studies, the recognition of achievements etc. please contact:

Dr. Felipe Fernández ma-koordination@ethno.uni-freiburg.de

For more informal questions about the institute, the teaching programme, opportunities to implement your own research ideas, cooperations and networking with professional practice or living and studying in Freiburg, please contact:

Antonia Tungel antonia.tungel@ska.uni-freiburg.de