Research interests
Material culture, visual anthropology, museums; object biographies; obsolescence; globalisation, consumption, capitalism; anthropology of seasons; practical knowledge, skill; infrastructure, anthropology of maintenance and repair, anthropology of technology

Research area
Europe (UK & Switzerland), China

Short bio
Kiah Rutz undertook her BA in Classical Archaeology at UCL and then obtained an MPhil in Visual, Material and Museum Anthropology from the University of Oxford. She primarily specialises in the fields of material culture and visual anthropology as well as their methodologies and their application in ethnographic research and museum displays. For her PhD project, Kiah studies the cultural significance of snow and winter in Swiss Alpine regions and the social, economic and political implications of their slow disappearance through a material lens. The project will generate an understanding of relationships to landscape and environment, seasonality, future imaginaries and adaptivity in the Swiss Alpine regions, while situating findings within global capitalism and the climate crisis.

Publications
Rutz K. & McCaffrey R. 2023. Building Culture: Constructing Visual Continuity in Hangzhou before G20. Visual Studies.

Sohrab S. & K. Rutz. 2023. Field-Work: Recontextualizing Swiss Tools at the Völkerkundemuseum. (Self-published zine created with students during spring term 2023)

Rutz K. 2020. The Trail of Three Brothers. Routed Magazine.