Profile
Abstract
Claudia Lang is an Associate Professor of Anthropology and Health at the University of Leipzig and the University of Maastricht. Her research focuses on the intersection of mental health and social life, situating the lived experience and care of mental distress in wider social relations, particularly in South Asia (India).
In one current research project, she focuses on digital mental health innovations. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork with designers and users in India, she explores the political, economic, and moral aspirations and worries associated with such digital tools; and the new forms of care and intimacy they produce.
In another current research, she explorer the experience of grief, the ethics and politics of grieving in wounded environments, and the potential grief has for the transformation of relations in a more-than-human world. The study will develop a concept of environ-mental health, and thus move beyond human-centric notions of mental-health.
Professional career
- since 04/2025
Associate Professor of Anthropology and Health - 11/2019 - 10/2024
Heisenberg Position, Leipzig University - 09/2018 - 07/2019
Postdoctoral research fellow with the ERC project GLOBHEALTH at the Centre de Recherche Médecine, Sciences, Santé, Santé Mentale et Société (cermes3), Paris - 04/2018 - 09/2018
Stand-in professor for Prof. Dr. Ursula Rao, University of Leipzig, Institute of Anthropology - 09/2016 - 03/2018
Postdoctoral research fellow with the ERC project GLOBHEALTH at the Centre de Recherche Médecine, Sciences, Santé, Santé Mentale et Société (cermes3), Paris - 07/2016 - 08/2016
Visiting professor at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi - 04/2016 - 09/2016
Employed research fellow LMU Munich, Institute of Anthropology. Project leader of the project “The local reality of depression: Depression in the context of biomedicine and subjectivities of depressionin Kerala, South India“, funded by DFG - 10/2015 - 03/2016
Stand-in professor for Prof. Dr. Helene Basu, Westfälische Wilhelms-University Münster, Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology - 04/2015 - 09/2015
Employed research fellow LMU Munich, Institute of Anthropology. Project leader of the project “The local reality of depression: Depression in the context of biomedicine and subjectivities of depressionin Kerala, South India“, funded by DFG - 10/2014 - 03/2015
Stand-in professor for Prof. Dr. Frank Heidemann, Ludwig Maximilians University Munich, Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology - 07/2012 - 09/2014
Employed research fellow LMU Munich, Institute of Anthropology. Project leader of the project “The local reality of depression: Depression in the context of biomedicine and subjectivities of depressionin Kerala, South India“, funded by DFG - 09/2009 - 08/2011
Employed research fellow at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, Institute of Anthropology. Project “Glocalizing depression in the context of Ayurvedic psychiatry in Kerala, South India”, funded by DFG - 10/2007 - 03/2008
Employed lecturer at the Ludwig-Maximilian-University Munich, Institute of Anthropology - 06/2006 - 05/2007
Employed research fellow at the Ludwig-Maximilian-University Munich, Institute of Anthropology, pilot project "Local reception and transformation of the concept of depression in the medical pluralism of South Asia", funded by BGF - 11/2002 - 10/2004
Employed research fellow for the, project “Intersexual people between the two sexes”, Ludwig Maximilians University Munich, Institute of Anthropology, funded by BGF
Education
- 10/2014 - 03/2016
Mentee in the LMU Mentoring Programm in the context of LMUexcellent, Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich - 06/2006 - 11/2016
Habilitation at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich. Referees: Prof. Dr. Frank Heidemann (LMU Munich), Prof. Dr. William Sax (South Asia Institute, Heidelberg), Prof. Dr. Mitchell Weiss (Swiss Tropical Institute, Basel) - 11/2002 - 02/2006
Dr. phil., Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology, thesis title: Intersexualität. Menschen zwischen den Geschlechtern (Intersexuality. People between the two sexes) at grade “summa cum laude”
Claudia Lang is an Associate Professor of Anthropology and Health at the University of Leipzig and the University of Maastricht. Her research is at the intersection of mental health and social life, situating the lived experience and care of mental distress in wider social relations. Claudia's focus is on mental health, digitization, ecological distress, global health, planetary health, and traditional medicine, primarily in South Asia (particularly India).
In one current research project, she focuses on digital mental health innovations. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork with designers and users in India, she explores the political, economic, and moral aspirations and worries associated with such digital tools; and the new forms of care and intimacy they produce.
In another current research, she explorer the experience of grief, the ethics and politics of grieving in wounded environments, and the potential grief has for the transformation of relations in a more-than-human world. The study will develop a concept of environ-mental health, and thus move beyond human-centric notions of mental-health.
Claudia is author of Depression in Kerala. Ayurveda and mental health care in the 21st century (Routledge, 2018) and co-author of Global Health for All: Knowledge, Politics, and Practices (Rutgers, 2022), and The Movement for Global Mental Health: Critical Views from South and Southeast Asia” (Amsterdam University Press, 2021).
- show detailsLovell, A. M.; Read, U. M.; Lang, C.Genealogies and Anthropologies of Global Mental HealthCulture Medicine and Psychiatry. 2019. 43 (4). pp. 519–547.
- show detailsLang, C.Inspecting Mental Health: Depression, Surveillance and Care in Kerala, South IndiaCulture Medicine and Psychiatry. 2019. 43 (4). pp. 596–612.
- show detailsForkel, S.; Schubert, S.; Corvin, L. et al.Contact allergies to dental materials in patientsBritish Journal of Dermatology. 2024. 190 (6). pp. 895–903.DOI: 10.1093/bjd/ljad525
Claudia Lang's teaching aims to introduce students to current debates and anthropological topics and to support them in developing their own questions, critical thinking and independent scientific work. The teaching approach is the combination of lectures and seminars, individual and collaborative, theoretical and practical learning in and outside the classroom, and the integration of research and teaching.
Specific subject areas are medical anthropology, anthropology of religion, global health, South Asia, gender and methods.
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Courses in recent years
Qualitative Research Methods in Global health, Maastricht University
Governing Health in a Global Context", Maastricht University
Culture, Medicine and the Politics of Madness in India, Tufts University, Boston, USA
BA and MA Seminar: Mad worlds: Anthropology of mental health, illness and psychiatry, U Leipzig
MA Anthrop Lab: Research and writing colloquium, U Leipzig
MA Anthro Lab: Research and writing colloqium, U Leipzig
MA Writing colloqium (english), U Leipzig