Dr. des. Helmar Kurz

Dr. des. Helmar Kurz studied ethnology, religious studies and archaeology. Until recently, he was a research assistant and lecturer at the Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology, to which the M.A. program “Visual Anthropology, Media & Documentary Practices” is affiliated. His main research interests are religious anthropology, medical anthropology, migration, transcultural psychiatry, media and anthropology of the body/senses. From 2015-2018 he was a fellow of the DFG research program “Diversification of Mental Health: Therapeutic Spaces of Brazilian Spiritism”, which resulted in his dissertation “Voice of Good Sense: Diversification of Mental Health and the Aesthetics of Healing in Brazilian Spiritism”. He is a board member of the Association for Anthropology and Medicine (AGEM) and co-editor of its journal Curare: Journal of Medical Anthropology. From 2020 to 2022 he will coordinate the Master’s program “Visual Anthropology, Media & Documentary Practices” at Universität Münster Professional School. He continues to coordinate exams and give tutorials on ethnographic methods and anthropological writing skills, especially in the first modules of the program.