Wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin im Bereich Sozialanthropologie (Prof. Pfaff)
nach Vereinbarung/ by arrangement
Wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin im Bereich Sozialanthropologie (Prof. Pfaff)
Wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin im Bereich Sozialanthropologie (Prof. Pfaff)
Fakultätskonferenz (Mitglied des akademischen Mittelbaus)
Forschungskommission (Mitglied der wissenschaftlichen MitarbeiterInnen)
Academic Education
2017-08-28
Defense of the doctoral dissertation (summa cum laude)
2012-02 – 2017-08
Doctoral studies in Social Anthropology, Bielefeld Graduate School in History and Sociology, Bielefeld University, Germany
2009-04 – 2011-07
Master of Arts in Sociology (major in Social Anthropology), Faculty of Sociology, Bielefeld University
2007-04 – 2009-03
Bachelor of Arts in Sociology (major in Social Anthropology), Faculty of Sociology, Bielefeld University
2002-09 – 2004-10
Study of Sociology, Faculty of Social Sciences, Eötvös Lóránd University (ELTE), Budapest, Hungary
1995-10 – 1996-08
Journalism (major Investigative Journalism), Ady Endre College for Journalism, Nagyvárad, Romania
Professional Career
2019-10 – today
Coordinator in the Research Network Shaping Asia
2020-04 – today
Research associate in the project “Knowledge Production and Circulation” of the Shaping Asia Research Network, led by Prof. Dr. Joanna Pfaff-Czarnecka
2017-10 – today
Research associate and lecturer at the Research Group Social Anthropology, Faculty of Sociology, Bielefeld University
2018-10 – 2019-03
Post-doctoral fellow at the M.S. Merian – R. Tagore International Centre of Advanced Studies “Metamorphoses of the Political: Comparative Perspectives on the Long Twentieth Century” (ICAS-MP), an Indo-German research cooperation funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, New Delhi, India
2017-03
Visiting lecturer at Kathmandu University, Nepal
2013-03 – 2017-03
Research collaborator and lecturer at the Research Group Social Anthropology, Faculty of Sociology, Bielefeld University
2011-03 – 2014-03
Research collaborator in the research project “Micro dynamics of political communication in the World Society. The Social Life of the Democracy Concept in Bangladesh and Senegal”, funded by DFG, Research Group Social Anthropology, Faculty of Sociology, Bielefeld University
2010-02 – 2011-01
Student assistant in the research project “Ethnicization and De-Ethnicization of Politics. Media, Actors and Semantics of Ethnicity in Transnational Communicative Space”, funded by DFG, Research Group Social Anthropology, Faculty of Sociology, Bielefeld University
2001-09 – 2003-01
Project manager of regional development projects for the Ministry of Economy and Traffic as well as the Department for Information Systems of the Prime Minister’s Office, Regionális Fejlesztési Holding RT., Budapest
1996-09 – 2000-08
Independent reporter
Conference papers
2021-01-09--10
“Knowing the Forest: Modes of Living at the Borderlands of India and Bangladesh”, paper presented at the Workshop “Knowledge on the Move: Connectivities, Frontiers, Translations”, The University of Tokyo, Japan.
2019-09-05--06
“Pragmatic Ethnography: Or How to Peel Back the Layers of Meaning across Space and Time”, paper presented at ZIF Workshop “Entangled Comparisons: Grounding Research on Asia – Expanding Research Methodologies”, Bielefeld University, Germany.
2019-04-15
“Anthropology, Ethnography and Ethics of Fieldwork”, paper presented at Institute for Interdisciplinary Research on Conflict and Violence, Bielefeld University, Germany (invited talk)
2019-02-24
“Succession, Responsibility and the Moral Transformation of the Self in a War-Khasi Family at the Bangladesh-Tripura Border”, paper presented at M.S. Merian – R. Tagore International Centre of Advanced Studies “Metamorphoses of the Political: Comparative Perspectives on the Long Twentieth Century” (ICAS-MP), an Indo-German research cooperation funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, New Delhi, India
2019-02-15
“The Intricate Layers of Experiencing Land Loss in North-East Bangladesh”, paper presented at Department of Political Science, Kamla Nehru College, New Delhi, India (invited talk)
2018-12-13
“Anthropology and Ethnographic Fieldwork”, paper presented at Council for Social Development, New Delhi, India (invited talk)
2018-07-11-12
“Cruel Unity: Practices and Ideas of Belonging in a Bangladeshi War-Khasi Family”, Bielefeld, Bielefeld University
2016-12-12-14
“Moving On: Agency Beyond Indigenous Rights Activism at the Bangladesh-Assam Border”, 5th Asian Borderlands Conference, Kathmandu
2016-11-30
“Aakrosh: Triggers of Wrath in Madhupur Forest”, Max Weber College, University of Erfurt, Germany
2016-06-24-26
“Radical Hope and a Crisis of Being”, Association for Asian Studies 2014 Annual Conference, Kyoto, Japan
2015-05-18-19
“Time, Violence, Militarization”, 9th European PhD Workshop on South Asian Studies, Flasterbo, Lund University, Sweden
2014-07-23-26
“'Latent Powers': Expanding Army Cantonments in Bangladesh”, 23rd European Conference on South Asian Studies, Zürich, University of Zürich, Switzerland
2014-03-27-30
“'Green Grabs': The Violence of the Protected Areas in Bangladesh”, Association for Asian Studies 2014 Annual Conference, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
2013-10-24-26
“Democracy on No-Man's Land? Dispossession, Violence and Fear at the Bangladesh-Assam Border”; Conference: “Spaces of Violence in Democracies”, ZIF, Bielefeld University
Scholarly organization
2018-07-11-12
Co-convener with Prof. Dr. Joanna Pfaff-Czarnecka, “Price of Belonging”, Academic Workshop, Bielefeld University
2016-07-27-30
Co-convener with Prof. Dr. Joanna Pfaff-Czarnecka, “The Price of Belonging”, 24th European Conference on South Asian Studies, Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Warsaw, Poland
2016-06-24-26
Co-convener with PD Dr. Antje Linkenbach Fuchs and Prof. Dr. Joanna Pfaff-Czarnecka, “Hope, desire and the work of becoming: transcending marginalization in India, Bangladesh and Nepal”, Association for Asian Studies 2014 Annual Conference, Kyoto, Japan
2012-10-16-17
Co-organizer of the international workshop
“Controversial Democratic Spaces: Land, Environment and Human Rights in Bangladesh”, University of Dhaka, Bangladesh
Publications
forthcoming
Land, Life and Emotional Landscapes at the Margins of Bangladesh. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.
2020
'Pragmatic Ethnography: Or How to Peel Back Layers of Meaning by Extending Research across Space and Time.' Working Papers in Social Anthropology 377. Bielefeld: Bielefeld University.
2020
'Frost, Nicola, and Tom Selwyn (eds.): Travelling towards Home. Mobilities and Homemaking.' New York: Berghahn Books, 2018. Anthropos 115 (1): 220-221.
2017
'Between Fear and Hope at the Bangladesh-Assam Border.' Asian Journal of Social Science 45 (6): 748-777.
2012
’Land is like mother to us Khasis’: The Situation of Indigenous Peoples in the Hilly Regions of Sylhet. Solidarity: Bangladesh Indigenous Peoples Forum 09 August: 115-124.
Teaching Experience
Grants and third party funds
Memberships
2017 - today
Member of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Sozial und Kulturanthropologie
2014 - today
Member of the Royal Anthropological Institute
2013 - today
Member of the European Association for South Asian Studies
2013 - today
Member of the Association for Political and Legal Anthropology
2013 - today
Member of the American Anthropological Association
Languages
Hungarian (mother tongue); English (fluent); German (fluent); Romanian (good reading and writing command); Bengali (advanced), War-Khasi (advanced)
Research projects
2018 -
Imaginations of Good and Bad across Generations: The Family as a Site of Moral Transformation (postdoctoral research project)
The project "Imaginations of Good and Bad across Generations" will track the transformation of “everyday ethics and morality” by paying attention on intergenerational relations as well as conflicts over a longer period of time in one particular Bangladeshi family. By working out the history of one family through generations the project's second aim is to understand how the political and social context, in which the family is embedded, changes over time thus enabling the understanding of larger historical transformations.
2012-02 – 2017-08
Land, Life and Emotional Landscapes: Politics of Survival at the Margins of Bangladesh (dissertation)
"Land, Life and Emotional Landscapes: Politics of Survival at the Margins of Bangladesh" is an in-depth ethnographic study based on 24 months of intensive fieldwork. The study analyses the struggles over land in northeastern border regions of Bangladesh from the perspective of small-scale indigenous farmers who have already lost or are threatened with losing their land. Theoretically and empirically the research project is positioned at the intersection of anthropology of violence and anthropology of life working out both the micro manifestations of violence but also the different modalities of agency of the affected farmers and thus shedding light on life under heightened uncertainty.
Research areas
Regional research areas
Bangladesh and North-East India (Assam, Tripura and Meghalaya)
Fieldwork experience
27 months of fieldwork (2010-2018) in Bangladesh and in the borderlands to Tripura, Assam and Meghalaya.