Director at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology

The Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology is one of the world’s leading centres for research in socio-cultural anthropology (www.eth.mpg.de). This international hub of research, with employees from 50 different countries, is located in Halle (Saale), Germany and closely collaborates with universities in Halle, Leipzig, and Erlangen-Nuremberg. The Institute is part of the Max Planck Society, an independent non-governmental, non-profit association dedicated to fundamental research in the natural sciences, life sciences, social sciences, and humanities (www.mpg.de).

Call for Nominations

The Max Planck Society invites nominations, including self-nominations, for the position of Director at the Max Planck Institute (MPI) for Social Anthropology. The Director will lead a research Department at the Institute and contribute to the Institute’s mission. We are particularly interested in scholars whose work engages one, or both, of two interconnected questions:

1. The making of norms. How do human communities establish, contest, and transform the rules that govern social life, especially in the context that, in many societies, consensus formation has become ever more challenging? This line of inquiry attends to the procedural and ethical dimensions of social order: the mediation of disputes, the construction of legal and customary frameworks, the negotiation of justice, the boundaries of inclusion and exclusion, and the moral claims that underpin collective life.
2. The making of meanings. How do people collectively construct frameworks for understanding their lives – narratives, symbols, values, and interpretations that give shape to experience – especially with the rise of social media and decline of established cultural hegemonies? This line of inquiry attends to the hermeneutic and expressive dimensions of social life: the stories that communities tell about themselves, the sensemaking practices through which events become intelligible, the foundations on which truth claims are made, and the cultural forms through which shared realities are constructed and contested.

These two themes are not discrete domains but different analytical vantage points that address the same fundamental question: What are the social processes of creating and sustaining the terms of collective existence? The new Director will have a background either in anthropology or in a related discipline, such as qualitative social science, law, media studies or philosophy, and have demonstrated a consistent interest in and engagement with anthropology. Ideally, their research will address pressing issues in the twenty-first century and at the same time open up new lines or modes of inquiry. The themes, methods, and regional focus are open, but the research must be grounded in empirical investigation and contribute to broader anthropological debates. The successful candidate will also be expected to build collaborations within the Max Planck Society and with leading global research institutions.

The Max Planck Society, an equal-opportunity employer, is firmly committed to diversity and inclusion in all aspects of recruitment and employment. The Max Planck Society especially aims at increasing the number of women as Directors at its Institutes and at eliminating discrimination on the basis of gender. We therefore welcome nominations of individuals from groups that are otherwise underrepresented in leadership positions in the Max Planck Society and its Institutes. We particularly encourage nominations of women. In case of equal qualification women will receive preferential consideration, unless legally relevant interests based on the personal circumstances of the latter prevail.

Nominations, including self-nominations, should be sent by email to the following address: nomination@eth.mpg.de

Nominations must include the following:

• the nominee’s name and current affiliation;
• a brief statement (200 words max.) specifying the reasons for nomination, especially reasons that are not evident in the nominee’s official profile, including publications and CV
• (if possible) the nominee´s CV, including a list of publications.

All nominations will be treated in the strictest confidence. This call will remain open until midnight (CET) on 30 June 2026.