Melody Howse

Melody Howse is a Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, affiliated with the Department of 'Anthropology of Politics and Governance' since January 2024. She holds a PhD in Social and Cultural Anthropology (2023) from Leipzig University, an MA in Visual and Media Anthropology from Freie Universität Berlin, and a BA in Visual Communications from the Surrey Institute of Art and Design.

• PhD: Social and Cultural Anthropology, Leipzig University (2023)
• MA: Visual and Media Anthropology, Freie Universität Berlin
• BA: Visual Communications, Surrey Institute of Art and Design

Her research explores racialized experiences in Europe, particularly Black experiences in Germany, through interdisciplinary lenses including sound studies, visual/media anthropology, affect theory, and critical phenomenology. She employs collaborative, visual, and sonic methods to investigate how race is embodied and spatialized in urban environments like Berlin, with a focus on Black diaspora practices of 'Refusal' and counter-narratives.

Melody was awarded a Leverhulme Trust studentship for her PhD work. Prior to her academic career, she worked as a filmmaker in the UK, a practice that continues to inform her research methodology.