You can study European Ethnology/Cultural Anthropology/Popular Cultures at various universities in Switzerland. The subject can be found under different names internationally and in Switzerland.
The discipline focuses on cultural processes in Europe. Its focus is on things that are taken for granted in everyday life and people’s way of life. Culture, a key term in cultural anthropology, does not mean “high culture” or the preserve of the educated middle class but more the way in which people shape their life and give it meaning, and the rules they follow to communicate, understand one another and differentiate themselves from one another. Consequently, the subject deals with different expressions of culture and society, both one’s own and foreign, and employs a variety of research approaches, primarily in the area of qualitative empirical methods. In addition to general research, practical issues with a concrete empirical basis play an important role.
At the universities of Basel and Zurich, [empirical] cultural studies/cultural anthropology/popular cultures can be studied as a separate major or minor subject resulting in a BA/MA/PhD:
- Basel, Seminar für Kulturwissenschaft und Europäische Ethnologie
- Zürich, Institut für Sozialanthropologie und empirische Kulturwissenschaft (ISEK) – Populäre Kulturen
At the French-speaking universities, the subject is taught as one discipline with social and cultural anthropology:
- Fribourg, Lehrstuhl für Sozialanthropologie im Bereich Gesellschafts-, Kultur- und Religionswissenschaften
- Lausanne, Laboratoire d’anthropologie sociale et culturelle
- Neuchâtel, Institut d’ethnologie
PhD education is completed at one of the institutes or chairs listed above and is complemented in part with interdisciplinary collaborative programmes.
- Basel, Seminar für Kulturwissenschaft und Europäische Ethnologie
- Zürich, Institut für Sozialanthropologie und empirische Kulturwissenschaft (ISEK) – Populäre Kulturen
- Fribourg, Lehrstuhl für Sozialanthropologie im Bereich Gesellschafts-, Kultur- und Religionswissenschaften
- Lausanne, Laboratoire d’anthropologie sociale et culturelle
- Neuchâtel, Institut d’ethnologie
- International PhD program „Transformations in European Societies“ - Universities of Basel, Graz, Edinburgh, Kopenhagen, München, Murcia, Tel Aviv and Zagreb
Various institutes have educational collaborations with museums: