Chris Hann

Areas of Specialization: Ethnography, History and Anthropology
Christopher Hann is one of the founding Directors of the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology and a well-known British social anthropologist. He studied philosophy, politics and economics at Jesus College at Cambridge, before taking on his graduate studies at University of Cambridge’s Corpus Christi College. As a graduate student, he focused his research on Eastern Europe, learning to speak and read Hungarian, and conducting field work in the Hungarian village of Tázlár.

Perhaps best known for his ethnographic work, Hann has also explored the connections between anthropology and history. His work has investigated Marxist-Leninist-Maoist socialism and the evolution of civil society. His anthro-historical work has examined anthropology through the lens of social issues, capitalism, wealth distribution and politics. He collaborated with Thomas Hylland Eriksen on “Overheating”, a globalization research project at the University of Oslo.

He was named a member of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences in 2008 and was awarded the Rivers Memorial Medal by the Royal Anthropological Institute. Most recently, the organization granted him the Huxley Memorial Medal.

He has several published works, including Turkish Region: State, Market and Social Identities on the East Black Sea Coast, Postsocialism: Ideals, Ideologies, and Practices in Eurasia, and Galicia: A Multicultured Land.

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