Research

Annika Strauss' current research interests lie at the intersection of social anthropology, mental health, and sexualities. They are passionate about teaching and collaborating with students of social anthropology, as well as facilitating participatory research with individuals from diverse backgrounds outside of academia. Building on their academic foundation, Annika completed a theatre education program in 2022, which has enabled them to integrate theatrical and reflective methods into teaching and their research approach over the past decade.

From 2018 to 2022, Annika served as project coordinator for a community health initiative in the Ruhr region, where they worked collaboratively to develop preventive measures for medically underserved populations in Bochum. Their ongoing research projects include a comparative study on teaching intimacy in Indian and German contexts, as well as a collaborative research project utilizing theatrical methods to explore sexuality in Münster.

In 2023, Annika published their monograph "Madness, Bureaucracy, and Gender in Mumbai, India" with Berghahn Books, which is based on their doctoral research.

Research Stays

Research Stay, IIT Palakkad, India

November 2025–December 2025

Research stay at the IIT Palakkad on the topic "Silence in the class room – a comparative study of teaching about mental health and sexualities in Germany and India", funded by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD)

Ph.D. Research, psychiatric institutions in Mumbai/India

March 2011–September 2013

Several research stays at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences Mumbai on the topic "Gender and Psychiatry in Mumbai", funded by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD)

Qualification research, psychiatric NGO in Maharashtra/India

September –December 2008

Conducting research on the topic "Management of Madness in Western India" supervised by Katy Gandevia, Tata Institute of Social Sciences Mumbai, funded by a scholarship from the Heinrich Hertz Stiftung NRW

Research internship, Center for Transcultural Psychiatry and Psychotherapy (ZIPP), Charité Berlin

March 2007

Conducting a short-term research project on "Perception of Possession among Psychiatrists and Psychotherapists employed in the Department of Psychotherapy and Psychiatry"

Research Focus

Annika Strauss’ research interests include medical and psychological anthropology (Particularly Transcultural Psychiatry), anthropology of the body and senses, gender and sexuality studies (queer anthropology), participatory health research, organizational anthropology and bureaucratic practices, critical social anthropology and pedagogy, methodological and emotional reflexivity throughout all stages of fieldwork, autoethnography, collaborative and creative research methods (including performance ethnography, Theatre of the Oppressed, and photo voice), artistic research and ethnographic writing.

Research Area

South Asia, Germany, class rooms and stages all over the world

Teaching Approach

I teach thematically in the areas of psychiatry and social anthropology, medical anthropology, understanding and analysis of ethnographic texts, theater and performance, as well as critical ethnographic research on institutions, and topics related to gender, sexuality, and intimacy from a comparative cultural perspective. Methodologically, I focus on collaborative, performative, emotionally reflexive, sensory, and sensual research methods.

My teaching is based on dialogical forms of learning, research, and instruction that aim to enable students and instructors to work together to gain knowledge from their collective experiences and reflections in research fields and relationships. Critical and feminist social anthropologists have addressed the situatedness of knowledge, reflection on positionality, and research ethics in their writings. These approaches have led to the development of problematizing "scientific othering" (unreflectively objectifying "otherness"), and consequently to the development of collaborative, and decolonizing research methods. As a result, ethnographic knowledge production has become more self-reflective, interactive, dialogical, and polyvocal. These disciplinary developments have also led to a fundamental change in didactic and pedagogical approaches at institutes of social anthropology, which fortunately no longer view the acquisition of specialized knowledge as a passive reception of a body of knowledge that is imparted in a top-down manner.

In my seminars, I support students in working independently to develop, explore, and critically prepare content. This includes group work, learning presentation and interaction tools, as well as a reflective and supportive feedback culture. When dealing with sensitive topics such as violence, mental health, or intimacy, it is particularly important to me to establish a learning-promoting and mindful group structure that also provides emotional support. I consider the seminar room a deliberately designed space where we are aware of our diverse socio-cultural and biographical backgrounds, support each other in our learning endeavors, and take responsibility for our actions and emotions to the best of our abilities (so-called "accountability spaces"). Due to my training in theater pedagogy, I can integrate theatrical, experience-based, and emotionally reflective methods into my teaching, combining academic content with bodily and sensual impressions and insights.

In my vision of an inclusive, diversity-sensitive, and power-aware academic community, mutual recognition and reciprocal learning are paramount. I am committed to enabling students to actively participate in knowledge production and to try out different roles – as researchers, teachers, and knowledge disseminators – during their studies. My goal is to create spaces for reflection in and through my teaching, where it is possible to identify and address factors of disadvantage and discrimination in the academic context, as well as to thematicize and reflect on structurally unequal relationships between students and between students and instructors.