Country of residence

Germany

Brief introduction

Student assistant, Max-Planck Institut for Social Anthropology Halle a. d. Saale

Education

Magister Artium* (equivalent to Master) in May 2012, Leipzig University, Anthropology (not completed yet), Religious Studies (completed) and Journalism (completed)

Academic profile

As listed above my acemdic interests concerning anthropology include among others migration (especially asylum procedures), feminist anthropology, transmodernity, Writing Culture. I'm working with and doing research about Roma/Gypsy communities since seven years, being a member of the Forum Tsiganologische Forschung (FTF) in Leipzig. I am editing the E-Journal Tsiganologische Mitteilungen. The TM-editor team is publishing mainly scientific articles and interviews with and of people who are working with Roma/Gypsies worldwide. Additionally, members of the FTF are organizing an annual workshop called "Netzwerken" with the aim of connecting researchers doing Romani Studies inside and outside of Germany. Personally, I mainly conducted research regarding Roma/Gypsies in Germany, Macedonia, Serbia and in Turkey including historical topics such as the Nazi persecution of Roma/Gypsies during the Second World-War, Post-War compensation procedures, relation to other minorities and majorities, Roma and migration within Europe, present conditions of Roma as asylum seekers,  Romani activism, religion of Roma such as Islam (orthodox Sunni Islam and and heterodox Sufism, Pentecoastalism, Jehova's witnesses etc.), assimilation of Roma, Roma identities etc. It is thereby and generally crucial to me to perceive minorities in a relational context, by not only focussing on them in an isolated way but to show the historical, social, political and economical context they live in. This affects the inclusion of other people around minorities that they have come in touch  - including anthropologists.

Publications

• Book Review. Julia von dem Knesebeck. The Roma Struggle for Compensation in Post-War Germany. Hertfordshire: University of Hertfordshire Press. 2011. Published@ romanis.eu
• "You perform being a Gypsy". An interview with the anthropologist Judith Okely. Published in: Tsiganologische Mitteilungen Nr. 15, 15.11.2011
• Mobilität und Flexibilität – wandernde Konzepte und ihre Experten. Eine nomadologische Reise in die postmoderne Tsiganologie. Published in: Fabian Jacobs & Teresa Lorenz (eds.) Vielheiten. Leipziger Studien zu den Kulturen der Roma und Zigeuner. Leipzig, Leipziger Universitätsverlag, 2011

Keywords

migration (especially asylum procedures), feminist anthropology, transmodernity, Writing Culture

Contact

akirah13@gmail.com browse members list