31.01.2025Farewell, Mareile Flitsch!

For 16 years Mareile Flitsch has been professor for Social and Cultural Anthropology at the ISEK, University of Zurich, and director of the Ethnographic Museum UZH. She will retire at the end of January 2025.

Her farewell lecture  on 5 December 2024 was entitled "Der Menschen Pfiffigkeit. Abschliessende Überlegungen aus einer Ethnologie der Könnerschaft" (On Human Cleverness. Final Reflections from an Anthropology of Skill). Mareile Flitsch thus closed the circle to her inaugural lecture on 2 April 2009 "Des Menschen Fertigkeit. Ethnologische Perspektiven einer neuen Wertschätzung praktischen Wissens" (On Human Skill. Anthropological Perspectives on a New Appreciation of Practical Knowledge). She once again displayed her innovative research in material culture, which has substantially contributed to establishing today's understanding of anthropology of skilled practice. The examples given by Mareile Flitsch in her lecture illustrate how she and her team have raised the profile of the Ethnographic Museum UZH during her time in office.

Prof. Dr. Annuska Derks, Co-director Department of Social Anthropology and Cultural Studies, will take over as interim director of the museum. As soon as Mareile Flitsch's successor has been appointed, we will announce the incoming professorship and museum director.

We say goodbye to our director, and thank her for her continued commitment and her infectious enthusiasm for the anthropology of human skill.

Photos of the farewell lecture on 5 December 2024: Lorena Strohner.

Team Ethnographic Museum UZH