The Ludwig-Uhland-Institute for Historical and Cultural Anthropology (LUI) is an exceptionally well-funded research institution and home to numerous international and interdisciplinary research projects. These are characterised by ethnographic and cultural-historical approaches to topics of high social relevance. National and international partner institutions currently include Humboldt University Berlin, University of Freiburg, Bauhaus University Weimar, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (Israel), University College London (UK) and Jagiellonian University Krakow (Poland).
The interdisciplinary projects build bridges to ethnology, history, computer science, information science, communication studies, media studies and political science, among others. The projects also involve cooperation with numerous non-university partner institutions, especially museums, cultural heritage institutions and software development companies, and have an impact on society and public discourse through targeted science communication. Thematically, the projects focus on museum, collection and memory research, diversity research and digital anthropology, in line with the current focus of the LUI's three regular professorships. The field of digital anthropology is also institutionally anchored at the LUI through the work of the international Digital Anthropology Lab. These focal points are complemented by the thematically focused Collaborative Research Centres (Sonderforschungsbereiche, SFBs), the projects of the Centre for Language Studies (" Arbeitsstelle Sprache "), as well as teaching and research cooperations within the framework of the European university alliance CIVIS (see below).
