This is a two-semester project course of the Anthropology master's degree program, which deals with a subject of central ethnological importance each year. Students of the Changing Societies master's degree program can take this course in the module "Changing Societies Lab". In the preparatory semester, participants deepen their qualitative methodological skills, develop an independent research project and write a proposal for it. The project ideas are presented in the "Anthropological Crossroads" colloquium. The field research takes place during the semester break. The follow-up semester is dedicated to the evaluation and interpretation of the collected ethnographic material. All participants write an individual research report and present their results in the "Anthropological Crossroads" colloquium.

All in all, the two-semester project course pursues the following learning objectives:

• Development of own research questions according to individual interests and appointments
• Deepening and applying ethnographic research methods
• Evaluation of the collected data in the form of a report and presentation of the results in the "Anthropological Crossroads" colloquium

Students in the Changing Societies master's degree program can decide to either do a field research course or the research labs within the module “Changing Societies Lab”. If they decide to do the research labs, the students are required to participate in research projects twice for 6 ECTS each (approx. 180 working hours). The work done within the project counts as course work, no additional written papers or exams need to be taken. The idea is that the students' work will benefit/ and support the projects and the students in turn gain insights into ongoing research at the Department of Social Sciences. Students can be involved in all stages of the research process from literature research, data collection, data preparation and analysis to publications or other formats of research output/communication/dissemination and should be given a variety of tasks as part of their involvement if possible. The research labs can be offered in English or German.