Laboratory: Anthropology of Environment | Human Relations

Research group for the ethnographic inquiry into ecologies, infrastructures, bodies and knowledges
Laboratory: Anthropology of Environment | Human Relations

Collaborative reading session of “Struggling for Time. Environmental Governance and Agrarian Resistance in Israel/Palestine”, June 18, 2026 – 10-12 am CEST with the author Natalia Gutkowski

On Thursday, June 18, 2026, 10 – 12 am CEST, we will meet for a reading & discussion session of Natalia Gutkowski’s amazing book “Struggling for Time: Environmental Governance and Agrarian Resistance in Israel/Palestine” (Stanford University Press, 2024). Struggling for Time examines how time is used as a mechanism of …

Field Trip: Colonial Legacies and Risky Attachments – Walking the Anthropocene in the Neighborhood of IfEE, with Milena Bister – June 4, 2:30 pm CEST

In the course of the workshop “Anthropocene Ruptures: Crossing Borders, Building Connections”, Milena Bister (IfEE, IRI THESys & LAEHR) organizes a Field Trip around the Institute for European Ethnology building, connecting Anthropocene debates and colonial legacies. The Workshop is co-organized by the Vienna Anthropocene Network, CTS at Charles University Prague, …

Guest Lecture: Iván Sandoval-Cervantes: “A cog in the machine: violence against animals in Mexico” – June 3, 2026, 6pm CEST

In this presentation, I discuss violence against animals in Mexico as part of a “violent machine.” I argue that by taking a serious look at violence against animals we can gain new insights into how violence in Mexico operates by analyzing how it is connected to other forms of violence …

LAEHR Event Series Summer Term 2026

LAEHR warmly invites to our event series in the current summer term of 2026! Everybody is very welcome to join! —— “A cog in the machine: violence against animals in Mexico”, Iván Sandoval-Cervantes (University of Nevada, Las Vegas) —— In this presentation, I discuss violence against animals in Mexico as part of …

Public Guest Lecture: Ute Eickelkamp: “Porosity in Time and Space: Visualising the underground in a post-mining world” – 12 February, 2026

Once a major centre of heavy industries in Europe, Germany’s Ruhr Valley is transitioning into a postcarbon, climate-adjusted ecology and economy. Scholars studying the Ruhr’s “great transformation” as well as key actors in this transformation readily acknowledge that the return of nature above ground depends on the high-tech management of …

Public Talk: Melanie Garland: “Anarchiving Ocean Margins: From Saltpeter Routes to Lithium Frontiers” – 22 January, 2026

In this public session of the Lab, we will be discussing Melanie Garland’s ideas for her upcoming research project. The project reimagines maritime heritage by tracing the colonial, ecological, and cultural resonances of the German–Chilean saltpeter trade, carried by German sailing ships across the 19th century, and its links to …

Guest Lecture: Marisol Marini: “Common Body and new immunological imaginaries and metaphors as a habitability tool” – 15 January, 2026

In this public guest lecture, Marisol Marini (University of São Paulo) will discuss and illuminate the foundations that led to the development of the idea of the Common Body as a diagnostic and fabulative tool in the face of socio-environmental conflicts. The proposition of the Common Body aims to highlight …