Bernhard Tschofen

Bernhard Tschofen is Professor of Popular Culture Studies at the University of Zurich and Co-President of the Swiss Academy of Humanities and Social Sciences (SAGW). Trained in ethnology, art history and empirical cultural studies in Innsbruck, Tübingen and Vienna, he has held chairs in Tübingen (2004-2013) and Zurich (since 2013) and directed the Ludwig-Uhland-Institute and the Institute for Social Anthropology and Empirical Cultural Studies (ISEK).

Education:

• 1984-1992: Studies in Ethnology & Art History (Innsbruck), Empirical Cultural Studies & Art History (Tübingen)
• 1992: Master’s degree, University of Tübingen (“very good”)
• 1999: PhD, Faculty of Social & Behavioural Sciences, University of Tübingen (“very good / magna cum laude”)
• 2001: Habilitation in European Ethnology, University of Vienna

Research interests span the anthropology of space, Alpine tourism, regional ethnography, everyday and historical folk culture, heritage and museum studies, visual & material culture and knowledge cultures. His work combines ethnographic fieldwork with historical analysis to explore how landscapes, food, sports, museums and symbols shape regional and national identities in the Alps and beyond.

Recent publications (2020-2024) cluster around three intertwined themes: Alpine environments and tourism (ski culture, therapeutic villages, landscape perception), heritage and gastronomy (geographical indications, Sura Kees cheese, culinary regionalism), and human-wildlife relations (return of wolves, rewilding policies). This output demonstrates a sustained interest in the cultural negotiation of nature, space and tradition in contemporary Europe.

Scientific awards:

• Förderpreis der Stadt Wien für Wissenschaft (2003)
• Wissenschaftspreis des Landes Vorarlberg (2012)

Tschofen has led numerous large collaborative projects funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation, the German Research Foundation and the German Federal Ministry of Education & Research. He is vice-president of SIEF (2017-2021) and serves on advisory boards of museums in Vienna, Bregenz and Zurich, underlining his impact on public folklore and heritage governance. No doctoral students are named in the supplied text and no personal e-mail is provided.

His current projects focus on the politics of folk music on Swiss television (1960s-1990s) and on ethnographies of wolf re-introduction in Switzerland, ensuring that his research continues to bridge academic ethnology, public debate and cultural policy in the Alpine region.