Prof. Dr. Anna Lisa Ramella
Fon +49.4131.677-2295 (Sekr.), anna.ramella@leuphana.de
Vita
Anna Lisa Ramella is a visual and media anthropologist, and since March 2024 Junior Professor for Methods in Cultural Studies at the Institute for Sociology and cultural organization (ISCO) and the Center for Methods at Leuphana University. She studied Italian and Spanish Literature, Linguistics and Cultural Studies in Berlin and Madrid, and Transcultural Studies in Bremen. Her multimodal thesis La Vie Du Rail – eine Zugstrecke in Mali als Transitraum (2012) was shown at international film and media festivals such as SVA, GIEFF, Cinemanthrop and Anthropologies numériques.
She received her PhD in media ethnography titled “Steady Rollin': Tne musictour between movement and stabilization“ in 2019 at the DFG-funded research training group "Locating Media" at the University of Siegen. It was published with Transcript in 2021 under the title Mit Bands auf Tour: Eine Medienethnographie des Unterwegsseins (On tour with bands: A media ethnography of being on the road). The accompanying video installation "Rhythms of Attunement" was shown in the film programmes and exhibitions of international conferences.
From 2019 to 2023, she was a postdoc at the CRC Media of Cooperation at the University of Cologne in Martin Zillinger's project "Testing Future", where she conducted fieldwork in the context of fisheries and cut-flower industry in the Kenyan Rift Valley. A hybrid docfiction film titled "Tomorrow | Kesho" with cameraman Ben Bernhard is currently in postproduction, the video loop "Leftovers" was shown at Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum in 2025.
From 2023 until joining Leuphana, she was a research associate at the Institute für Social and Cultural Anthropology of the University of Cologne.
Her teaching assignements brought her to the Universiteit van Amsterdam, Freie Universität Berlin, Universität Bremen and Alice Salomon Hochschule Berlin.
From 2015 until 2022 she was Co-speaker of the EASA network Anthropology and Mobility (Anthromob). 2016 she co-founded the Collaboratory for Ethnographic Experimentation (#COLLEEX) of which she was co-speaker until 2021.
Since 2021 she is co-speaker of the Ethics working group and Media Anthropology working group of GASCA (DGSKA), with which she organizes the series "Multimodal Digital Engagements".
From 2018 to 2022, she was member of the editorial committee of the book series Worlds in Motion (ed. Noel Salazar, Berghahn Books) and between 2021 and 2022 of the multimodal online journal Entanglements (eds. Sevasti-Melissa Nolas and Christos Varvantakis).
At Leuphana she is vice-chair of the ethics board.
In her current research project, she examines ecological and political transformations in the context of postplanetary futures, sustainability discourses and practices in current space exploration and the design of yet-unknown worlds and mobilities.
Teaching
At Leuphana, I focus on teaching ethnographic, audiovisual and multimodal methods. I also offer methods consultation in the field of qualitative research.
Formerly, I have taught on topics such as visual, digital and media Anthropology, postcolonial theory, film practice, ethnographic methods, textual analysis, transculturality, ruins and imperialism, anthropology of the future as well as regional seminars on both B.A. and M.A. level in Berlin, Bremen, Amsterdam and Cologne.
Research Interests
Social Studies of Outer Space, Mobilities and Migration, Antrhropology of the Future, Rhythm, Media Ethnography, Visual Anthropology, Digital Ethnography, Postcolonial Theory
Projects
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Ruins in space, sustainability and outer space imaginaries
Anna Lisa Ramella (Project manager, academic)
→Project: Research
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Testing Future: Kesho | Tomorrow
Anna Lisa Ramella (Project manager, academic)
Project: Research
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Postplanetary Futures: Un/knowing outer space ecologies
Anna Lisa Ramella (Project manager, academic)
Project: Research
Publications
Books and anthologies
- Anthropologie der Praxis
Felix Girke (Editor) , Christian Meyer (Editor) , Anna Lisa Ramella (Editor) , Martin Zillinger (Editor) , 2024 Stuttgart , 350 p.Research output: Books and anthologies › Collected editions and anthologies › Research
- Living with ruins: ruination and future-making in Kenya (and beyond)
Uros Kovac (Editor) , Anna Lisa Ramella (Editor) , 2024Research output: Books and anthologies › Special Journal issue › Research
- Filming Futures: Future-making and speculative fiction in ethnographic film and multimodal practice
Anna Lisa Ramella (Editor) , Steffen Köhn (Editor) , Igor Karim (Editor) , 2023 GöttingenResearch output: Books and anthologies › Special Journal issue › Research
- Fieldwork meets crisis
Mirco Göpfert (Editor) , Andrea Behrends (Editor) , Thomas G Kirsch (Editor) , Minh T. N Nguyen (Editor) , Anna Lisa Ramella (Editor) , Thomas Stodulka (Editor) , Magnus Treiber (Editor) , Asta Vonderau (Editor) , 2022 Köln , 250 p.Research output: Books and anthologies › Special Journal issue › Research
- Mit Bands auf Tour: Eine Medienethnographie des Unterwegsseins
Anna Lisa Ramella (Author) , 2021 Bielefeld , 194 p.Research output: Books and anthologies › Monographs › Research
Journal contributions
- From ruins and rubble: promised and suspended futures in Kenya (and beyond)
Uroš Kovač (Author) , Anna Lisa Ramella (Author) , 01.11.2023 , in: Journal of Eastern African Studies, 17, 1-2 , p. 141-164 , 24 p.Research output: Journal contributions › Journal articles › Research › peer-review
- Fieldwork meets crisis: Introduction
Mirco Göpfert (Author) , Andrea Behrends (Author) , Thomas G Kirsch (Author) , Minh T. N Nguyen (Author) , Anna Lisa Ramella (Author) , Thomas Stodulka (Author) , Magnus Treiber (Author) , Asta Vonderau (Author) , 01.01.2022 , in: Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, 147, 1-2 , p. 1-12 , 12 p.Research output: Journal contributions › Other (editorial matter etc.) › Research
- Material para-sites: lateral future-making in times of fragility
Anna Lisa Ramella (Author) , 01.01.2020 , in: Etnofoor, 32, 1 , p. 43-60 , 19 p.Research output: Journal contributions › Journal articles › Research › peer-review
- States of play/ing: Sonic dwellings on a music tour
Anna Lisa Ramella (Author) , 01.01.2019 , in: World of Music, 8, 1 , p. 65-86 , 22 p.Research output: Journal contributions › Journal articles › Research › peer-review
- Deciphering movement and stasis: Touring musicians and their ambivalent imaginings of home and belonging
Anna Lisa Ramella (Author) , 01.01.2018 , in: International Journal of Tourism Anthropology, 6, 4 , p. 323-339 , 17 p.Research output: Journal contributions › Journal articles › Research › peer-review
Contributions to collected editions/anthologies
- Mobile Geographie
Anna Lisa Ramella (Author) , Roger Norum (Author) , 01.06.2026 1 ed. Baden BadenResearch output: Contributions to collected editions/anthologies › Contributions to collected editions/anthologies › Research › peer-review
- Devices
Anna Lisa Ramella (Author) , Steffen Köhn (Author) , 01.01.2026 , p. 439-451 , 13 p.Research output: Contributions to collected editions/anthologies › Chapter › Research › peer-review
- Thinking Through Mobilities: A Collaborative Essay on the Entanglements of a Popular Concept
Anna Lisa Ramella (Author) , Silvia Wojczewski (Author) , Fabiola Mancinelli (Author) , 01.08.2025 , p. 105-113 , 9 p.Research output: Contributions to collected editions/anthologies › Contributions to collected editions/anthologies › Research › peer-review
- Socialities of practice: Stuckedness, accountability and mobile imaginaries among Kenyan migrant fisherpeople descendants
Anna Lisa Ramella (Author) , 02.04.2021 London , p. 320-332 , 13 p.Research output: Contributions to collected editions/anthologies › Chapter › Research › peer-review
- Finding one’s rhythm: A ‘tour de force’ of fieldwork on the road with a band
Anna Lisa Ramella (Author) , 01.01.2018 , p. 71-93 , 23 p.Research output: Contributions to collected editions/anthologies › Chapter › Research › peer-review
Activities
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Praktiken der Verflechtung: Ein Blumeneimer in Kenia
Anna Lisa Ramella (Speaker)
Activity: Guest lectures › Transfer
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Commoning futures through audiovisual methodology: experiments with co-scripted fiction
Anna Lisa Ramella (Speaker)
Activity: Conference Presentations › Research
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Un/Commoning Media and Curatorial Practices
Anna Lisa Ramella (Speaker) , Simone Pfeifer (Speaker) , Anja Dreschke (Speaker)
Activity: Conference Presentations › Research
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Anthropology and/of the Unknown: from Unearthing to Off- the-Earth
Anna Lisa Ramella (Speaker)
Activity: Guest lectures › Research
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Filming the future's pasts: Future-making amidst ruination
Anna Lisa Ramella (Speaker)
Activity: Conference Presentations › Research
Courses
Im Rahmen der Tutorien haben Sie Gelegenheit, Ihre Fragen rund um die BA-Arbeit im Austausch mit Ihren Kommiliton(inn)en zu klären und Ihren Themenfindungs- und Schreibprozess in der Gruppe zu reflektieren.
Part I ("Navigating the Worlds of Science," Sessions 1–5) lays conceptual foundations: what distinguishes science from other knowledge production, key epistemological debates (positivism vs. subjectivism, qualitative vs. quantitative approaches), and different research goals (normative/positive, descriptive/explanatory/predictive). Students learn to identify and sharpen research questions, engage with theory through deduction, induction, and abduction, and move from abstract concepts to measurable operationalizations.
Part II ("Quantitative Research: From Data to Causal Claims," Sessions 6–9) focuses on causal inference. Students learn the potential outcomes framework, causal diagrams, and threats to causal claims (confounding, selection, reverse causality). Sessions progress from observational and quasi-experimental designs (difference-in-differences, instrumental variables, regression discontinuity) through a hands-on research design workshop to experiments and the distinctions among internal, external, construct, and statistical validity.
Part III ("Qualitative Research: Making Sense of Social Worlds," Sessions 10–13) shifts to interpretive methodologies. Students explore how different epistemological frameworks construct "data" and "the field" differently (ethnography, interviews, discourse analysis), practice hands-on data collection methods (participant observation, interviews, sensory/walking methods), learn multiple coding and interpretive strategies (thematic analysis, discourse analysis, Grounded Theory), and engage with the challenges of writing, representation, and ethics in qualitative research (thick description, reflexivity, positionality).
Throughout, the pedagogy is highly interactive: students analyze published papers, critique causal claims, conduct field exercises on campus, code their own collected material, and produce analytical texts for peer review—building practical skills alongside theoretical understanding.
Zusätzlich wählt jede/r Studierende ein Vertiefungsseminar aus dem Angebot aus. Hier werden spezifische Methoden und Theorien vertiefend behandelt und oft auch selbst erprobt. Sie sind frei in Ihrer Wahl im Rahmen der zur Verfügung stehenden Plätze. Die Vertiefungsseminare sind also nicht an spezielle Vertiefungsgebiete gebunden. Zu den Themen der Vertiefungsseminare vgl. die Überblicksliste in myStudy.