The Research Group Political Anthropology and Visual Culture meets on a monthly basis and discusses the ongoing research projects of its members. The members are PhD candidates and postdoc researchers at the Institute of Social Anthropology whose work relates to the two research areas Political Anthropology and Visual Culture. PhD candidates at the Institute who work in these research areas are automatically members of the research group. 

The research group also has a number of affiliates which regularly contribute by sharing their work with the group. The affiliates have a close relationship with the Institute and many of them have graduated from it. Currently, the affiliate members are:
André Chapatte, Michelle Engeler, Divine Fuh, Kathrin Heitz Tokpa, Andrea Kaufmann and Noemi Steuer.

Guests whose work relates to the shared themes of the research groups are welcome to present their work.

Apart from the two research areas, the research group has some cross-cutting themes: urban settings and methodology. The latter is chiefly based on the Emic Evaluation Approach (EEA) that has been developed in projects at the Institute. (See Basel Paper on Political Transformation, issue nr. 3 (2011) for the EEA methodology).

Prof. Till Förster is the head of the research group. Currently,  Miriam Badoux is the chair of the research group.