VANDA - Vienna Anthropology Days

09/07/2026

CALL FOR SESSIONS OPEN NOW!!!

The Vienna Anthropology Days (VANDA) invites proposals for Sessions and Labs. VANDA is an international conference that brings together around 200 participants. As a more-than-mainstream conference, VANDA creates space for scholarly exchange, critical reflection, and collaborative practice in and beyond conventional conference formats. In addition to the conference, VANDA will feature an ethnographic film programme and a range of social activities.

The Call for Panel invites to propose traditional panels and roundtables, as well as open formats defined by the convenors. The Call for Labs encourages participatory and collaborative formats in and out of the university. There is no general conference theme; proposals on any research topic are welcome.

We particularly welcome contributions that foster collaboration between researchers at different career stages, experiment with new forms of knowledge production, engage underrepresented perspectives, and contribute to critical, creative, and interdisciplinary conversations in anthropology and across the social sciences and the humanities.

VANDA is hosted by the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology at the University of Vienna.

Please submit proposals for sessions and/or labs by August, 4th 2026 to [email protected]

You will be notified of the outcome by late August. A separate Call for Papers for accepted open sessions will follow.

08/07/2026

It’s time again to SAVE THE DATE!!!

February 16th - 19th 2027

07/07/2026

VANDA takes place from the 16th to the 19th of February in Vienna. Save the date!

VANDA is an international conference and festival held biennially in Vienna, bringing together around 300 anthropologists, social and cultural scientists, and interdisciplinary artists.

VANDA fosters scholarly innovation, critical reflection, collaborative formats, and creative exchanges, alongside an ethnographic film programme and social events.

VANDA is a green, socially inclusive conference and offers a unique social activity program. It is organised by the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology at the University of Vienna, in cooperation with the Institute for Social Anthropology at the Austrian Academy of Sciences, the Department for Sociology and Anthropology at Central European University, and the Weltmuseum.

Due to a transition in the organizing team, the next edition will take place from 16–19 February 2027. We plan to return to the usual September schedule in 2028

CALL FOR SESSIONS OPEN NOW!!!

Website: https://univie.eventsair.com/vanda2027/

25/09/2024

22/09/2024

The last few days have been spent preparing the KSA Institute at Universität Wien to be the perfect venue for the Vienna Anthropology Days 2024. We can't wait to welcome you to our conference tomorrow!

21/09/2024

PROGRAM UPDATE
We have updated the scientific program for VANDA 2024. Please find the updated version here and on www.vanda.univie.ac.at

20/09/2024

We are looking forward to one of the social activities we are offering at our conference next week! From Monday to Wednesday you can join CLUBA. for some training sessions.

Find out more about the activities on www.vanda.univie.ac.at

19/09/2024

The VANDA 2024 conference kicks off next week, and we are very excited to introduce you to some of the workshops in the scientific program!

On Wednesday 25 September, the workshop “𝗕𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗧𝗼𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗿𝗼𝘄: 𝗘𝘅𝗽𝗹𝗼𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗜𝗻𝗳𝗿𝗮𝘀𝘁𝗿𝘂𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗙𝘂𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗲𝘀” will discuss the relationships between specifically large-scale infrastructures and futurities –affective and ideologically loaded desires, or fears of being in the future– by reflecting on two questions:

1) What role do futurities play in the imagining, conceiving, and making of infrastructures and their futures?

2) How do infrastructural futurities shape the relationship between infrastructure development and sociocultural life worlds?

This workshop ( #19) is convened by Philipp Budka (University of Vienna), Giuseppe Amatulli (Carleton University), and Ria-Maria Adams (University of Vienna). It is framed in the ERC Advanced Grant project .

📅 When: Wednesday 25 September. Part 1 (11:00 - 12:30 CEST) and Part 2 (13:30 - 15:00 CEST).

📍 Where: Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Vienna. Universitätsstraße 7, 1010 Vienna, 4th floor, Room 1.

📷 1: Philipp Budka; 2: Ria-Maria Adams.

InfraNorth ERC Universität Wien

19/09/2024

The VANDA 2024 conference kicks off next week, and we are very excited to introduce you to some of the workshops in the scientific program!

On Wednesday 25 September, the roundtable “𝗔𝗿𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗰 𝗦𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗥𝗲𝘃𝗶𝘀𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗱: 𝗠𝗶𝘅𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗠𝗲𝘁𝗵𝗼𝗱𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗦𝘁𝘂𝗱𝘆 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗺𝘂𝗻𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝗧𝗿𝗮𝗻𝘀𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻” will discuss challenges and best practices of anthropological and social science research on Arctic sustainability and communities in transition. It will assemble anthropologists and other social scientists to discuss these and other ethical and methodological questions drawing on their research practices in the Arctic and beyond.

This workshop ( #22) is convened by Olga Povoroznyuk (University of Vienna) and Mia Landauer (REBOUND, Arctic Centre, University of Lapland). It is framed in the ERC Advanced Grant project , the project funded by Strategic Research Council, and the project funded by the FFG Belmont Forum.

📅 When: Wednesday 25 September, 15:30 - 17:00 CEST.

📍 Where: Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Vienna. Universitätsstraße 7, 1010 Vienna, 4th floor, Room 1.

📷 1 and 2: Olga Povorozynuk.

InfraNorth ERC Universität Wien

19/09/2024

The VANDA 2024 conference kicks off next week, and we are very excited to introduce you to some of the workshops in the scientific program!

On Monday 23 September, the panel “𝗛𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆 𝗼𝗳 𝗮𝗻 𝗢𝗽𝗲𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗛𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗼𝗳 𝗮 𝗖𝗹𝗼𝘀𝘂𝗿𝗲: 𝗣𝗼𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗪𝗮𝘆𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗦𝗼𝗰𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝗔𝗻𝘁𝗵𝗿𝗼𝗽𝗼𝗹𝗼𝗴𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗥𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵 𝗼𝗻 𝗥𝘂𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗮 𝗧𝗼𝗱𝗮𝘆” will discuss different ways social anthropological research on Russia can be conducted in light of the ongoing war. It will reflect on experiences of switching to or applying alternative approaches to “being there” methods, the role of digital media/technologies in research, as well as reassessments of data collected in Russia before the war and/or the history of countries’ openings and closures to “outside” inquiries in general.

This workshop ( #25) is convened by Stefan Krist, Elena Davydova, Olga Povoroznyuk, and Peter Schweitzer (University of Vienna), and is framed by the ERC Advanced Grant project .

📅 When: Monday 23 September, 9:00 - 10:30 CEST.

📍 Where: Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Vienna. Universitätsstraße 7, 1010 Vienna, 4th floor, Room 1.

📷 1 and 2: Olga Povorozynuk.

InfraNorth ERC Universität Wien