Bernhard Leistle

Biography

I am a cultural anthropologist working at the intersection of anthropology, philosophy and psychology. My main theoretical interest is the translation and application of concepts from philosophical phenomenology (in particular Merleau-Ponty, Levinas and Waldenfels) to empirical research problems in anthropology. In recent years, my work concentrated on exploring the fertility of the phenomenological notion of the Other for anthropology. Results of this effort will appear shortly in form of an edited volume published by Routledge. Previous ethnographic research focused on trance- and possession ritual in Morocco which I interpreted in terms of a structured appeal to participants’ senses and bodies. Through structural analogy between the senses appealed to and cultural concepts like that of jinn, possession ritual was shown to communicate cultural meanings in pre-reflective, pre-objective ways. Currently, I am preparing research on the intertwining of culture and psychiatry, both in Morocco and in Canada. On the undergraduate level, I am teaching a wide variety of courses, ranging from Introduction to Anthropology (ANTH 1001) and Ethnography of North Africa (ANTH 2660), to Culture and Symbols (ANTH 2500) and Ritual (ANTH 3510). For graduate students I am offering courses corresponding to my research interests: Anthropology of Performance (ANTH 5505) and Phenomenology for Anthropologists and Sociologists (ANTH 5501). I am particularly interested in working with graduate students in the topical areas of embodiment, sensory experience, identity and otherness, psychiatry as a field of discursive practices.

Research Interest

Phenomenological anthropology, anthropology of psychiatry, semiotics, Morocco