People
Sanderien Verstappen
leads the Vienna Visual Anthropology Lab. She is associate professor in social and cultural anthropology, focusing on visual anthropology. She teaches specialized courses in visual and multimodal ethnography as well as general anthropology courses in Bachelor, Master and Doctoral programmes. For more information, see her website: www.sanderienverstappen.com
Paul Katterl
coordinates the Vienna Visual Anthropology Lab and is responsible for the daily management of the Lab and the communication with students and staff. As a student assistant with previous training in graphic design, he is interested in museums, placemaking, consumption, and the potentials of visual and multimodal methods in anthropological research and knowledge production at large.
Suzana Jovicic
collaborates with the Vienna Visual Anthropology Lab in the context of the interdisciplinary project We:Design ( we-design.at ) which aims to involve youths in participatory visual practices and digital design processes. She is specialised in digital, design and psychological anthropology as well as collaborative and interdisciplinary research and teaches at the University of Vienna.
Christoph Fink
is a post-doctoral research fellow at the Vienna Visual Anthropology Lab. In his research, Christoph asks how urban activists choose which roles to perform in media and in public, and whether some roles give them an advantage in gaining impact on the political discourse offline and online. He draws on visual anthropology methods in analysis, in theory-building, and in public outreach. christophfink.com
Sophie Wagner
is a visual anthropologist, curator, and filmmaker, collaborating with the VVAL in realizing the ethnocineca Filmwerkstatt. Sophie works at the intersection of health, care, and technology in practice, using multimodal and experimental methods. She is a PhD candidate at the University of Bern and research fellow of the “Health Matters” research group at the University of Vienna.
Helen Vaaks
collaborates with the Vienna Visual Anthropology Lab as part of the project "Enabling Migrants to Cycle", investigating representational politics of cycling in Vienna. Additionally, she was involved in the film research projects "work between us" and "Women on the Move". She is an audio-visual anthropologist focused on human-environment interactions, community involvement, migration, and education.
Greca Meloni
is a post-doctoral researcher and visual anthropologist. She works at the intersection of environmental anthropology, multispecies theories, and visual ethnography. She teaches visual ethnography and drawing as a visual ethnographic method to explore non-human entanglements. In her research, she uses different visual techniques, including filming and drawing, to analyze the relations between humans, plants, insects, and the environment.
Katharina Gartner
collaborates with the VVAL in the context of teaching cultural anthropology, anthropology of sound, and podcasting. Katharina is an interdisciplinary reseacher and lecturer on expressive cultures, with a special interest in music, youth and urban Africa. Her academic work is inspired by her practical experience as a counselor for youths and their families, and as a performing musician.
Former associates
Viktoria Paar
coordinated the Vienna Visual Anthropology Lab from 2020 to 2024. She was responsible for the daily management of the Lab and the communication with the students. Viktoria is a Visual Anthropologist with interest in Sensory Ethnography, ritual, affect, and atmosphere research. She is a video producer for many local civil society projects in Vienna. www.fortunaproductions.at
Werner Zips
was a.o. university professor of anthropology and a filmmaker at the University of Vienna. He taught courses in anthropology of law, environmental anthropology, and Caribbean and African studies, and stimulated generations of anthropology students to learn about filmmaking. Since 1993 he has made more than 50 films, many of which have been screened at prime time on the Austrian public television channel ORF.
Elaine Goldberg
collaborated with the Vienna Visual Anthropology Lab as part of the project "Sorgeräume" about caring communities in Austria. She is a researcher and ethnographic filmmaker with a focus on audio-visual explorations of epistemic practices and spaces.