Gisela Welz

Gisela Welz is Professor and Managing Director at the Institute of Cultural Anthropology and European Ethnology, Goethe University Frankfurt, within the Faculty of Linguistics, Cultures and Arts. She has held this position since 1998, succeeding Prof. Dr. Ina-Maria Greverus. Her academic career includes prior teaching roles in Frankfurt and Tübingen, a habilitation in Empirical Cultural Studies, and visiting positions at NYU, UCLA, and universities in Cyprus, Lisbon, and Manchester. She is actively involved in interdisciplinary research networks and institutional leadership.

Her research focuses on urban practices, governance and expert knowledge, and culture and economy. She investigates urban restructuring, cultural politics of diversity, environmental governance, food heritage, and the effects of Europeanization and neoliberalism. Her work often centers on Cyprus, Germany, and Portugal, with a strong emphasis on ethnographic fieldwork and methodological innovation.

Recent publications show a trend toward theoretical and public anthropology, engaging with assemblage theory, more-than-human relations, and interventionist ethnography. Her scholarship bridges empirical research with critical theory, focusing on heritage, knowledge practices, and socio-ecological challenges in the Anthropocene.

• PROSE Award 2016 in Anthropology for European Products

She supervises MA and PhD students and leads externally funded research projects, including collaborations with ISOE and the DFG-funded Scientific Network on Public Anthropology. She is a founding member of the Lab for Studies of Science and Technology (LaSST) and affiliated with the REGULATE research group on groundwater governance. Her work integrates academic research with societal impact, promoting public engagement in anthropology.

She has led multiple third-party funded projects on urban transformation, heritage, and ethnographic knowledge formats, and continues to shape the discipline through interdisciplinary collaboration, institutional leadership, and mentorship.