Thomas John, M.A.

Thomas John is an anthropologist and filmmaker whose principal focus is visual and media anthropology. He likes to explore different strategies for the representation of social realities and human cultural experiences. John received his BA in social anthropology and comparative religious science from WWU Münster and an MA in Visual and Media Anthropology from Freie Universität Berlin. He is a PhD student at the Latin American Institute (FU) and a member of the DFG-funded International Research Training Group ‘Between Spaces’.

Movements, Actors and Representations of Globalisation’. His doctoral research investigates the indigenous media and art scene in southern Mexico. Thomas has taught visual anthropology at the Institute of Ethnology (WWU Münster) since summer term 2013. He has been a research associate at the Institute (Nov. 2012-Aug. 2014) and, currently, in the DFG-funded Collaborative Research Center SFB 1171 Affective Societies. Thomas co-designed the MA program ‘Visual Anthropology, Media and Documentary Practices’ with Helene Basu and the WWU Weiterbildung GmbH. In 2013, he was co-curator of RE: Critical Dialogue on photography, film and the documentary arts. His film Darkmoon (2013) has been screened at about 15 festivals, such as DOCSDF, Ethnocineca, Salento International Independent Film Festival & more. It won the award for the best student film at the International Festival of Ethnographical Film (Belgrade).