We are delighted to announce the publication of the monograph "Heritage and the Making of Political Legitimacy in Laos: The Past and Present of the Lao Nation” by Phill Wilcox. This book takes a fresh look at issues of legitimacy, heritage, and national identity for different members of the Lao population. It argues that the political system has become sufficiently embedded to avoid imminent risk of collapse but suggests that it is facing new challenges primarily in the form of rising Chinese influence in Laos.

For further information please follow the link.

Understanding Asia colloquium series continues with a new theme Transnational Care and new round of speakers this winter term. The colloquium series is a joint cooperation of four working groups - WG Missbach, WG Nguyen, WG Pfaff and WG Vasilache. Please see the attached link for details of all the lectures in this series and details of how to register. All are warmly welcome to join. 

WG Social Anthropology (WG Pfaff) launched a new lecture series titled Shaping Asia. The theme of the series in this winter term is Heritage. Please see the attached link for details of all the lectures in this series and details of how to register. All are warmly welcome to join. 

The colloqium series is a joint cooperation of four working groups (WG Missbach; WG Nguyen; WG Pfaff and WG Vasilache) of the Faculty of Sociology, Bielefeld University. Lecture coordinators are Dr. Phill Wilcox (phill.wilcox@uni-bielefeld.de) and Dr. Éva-Rozália Hölzle (eva_rozalia.hoelzle@uni-bielefeld.de).

To register for the zoom events, please click on the "Register here" displayed next to each individual lecture below. The link will lead you to the site where you will be able to sign up for the respective lecture. Thank you in advance for your participation!

Prof. Dr. Minh Nguyen is giving a talk based on the paper “Peasants, Migrant Workers and “Supermarkets”: An Ethnographic Account of Chinese Development from the Margin” at the School of Global Studies, University of Sussex, on Tuesday March 18th, at 16:00-17:30 CET.

Zoom Meeting ID: 981 5093 9409
Passcode: Sussex

A review of “Waste and Wealth” was published by the Society for the Anthropology of Work. Please follow the link for further information [here].

An exchange forum between sociology faculties of Nanjing University, Vietnam National University (Hanoi) and Bielefeld University takes place on Tuesday, 19^th of January 2021 at 8am German time, 2pm Vietnam time, 3pm China time. Scholars from three institutions will briefly present their current research on a topic related to social transformations, with a view to highlighting forms of global connectivity and interactions in particular contexts.

The blog Fieldwork meets Crisis is part of the DGSKA Autumn School, which takes its starting point in the current pandemic moment, which substantially affects our discipline. In their blog posts, the participating researchers give insight into challenges and opportunities of ongoing research in times of the pandemic, and document not only pandemic field sites, but also current theoretical debates and emerging fields of anthropological research.

Die Herbstschule nimmt ihren Ausgangspunkt im aktuellen pandemischen Moment, das unser Fach in seiner Gänze betrifft und zu verändern scheint. Selbst wenn die Corona-bedingten Veränderungen der ethnologischen Forschung  (hoffentlich) nicht von Dauer sein werden, provozieren sie wichtige Fragen und Diskussionen, die über den pandemischen Moment hinausgehen und für die Ethnologie relevant bleiben.

Phill Wilcox, from AG Social Anthropology, Bielefeld University, has co-convened a roundtable on digital methodologies for the EASA 2020 conference on 22. July 2020.

The roundtable “Methodologies on and offline: doing ethnography ethically in the digital age” examines how digital technologies impact the anthropological methodology by discussing issues related to the ethics of digital research, the contemporary understanding of the field site, public intimacy, data management, the notion of public/private, and online/offline identities.

• Professor Dr. Minh Nguyen has published the paper Portfolios of Social Protection, Labour Mobility and the Rise of Life Insurance in Rural Central Vietnam in Development and Change.
• Dr. Jake Lin has published the paper Psyche Matters: Resistance from the Chinese Sweatshop of the World in Perspectives on Global Development and Technology.
• Dr. Phill Wilcox has published a paper “Don't ever change”? Cultural heritage and social development in “timeless” Luang Prabang in Journal of Cultural Heritage Management and Sustainable Development.

Minh Nguyen  is the co-editor of the current South East Asia Research, Volume 28, Issue 1: “Beyond the State? The Moral Turn of Development in South East Asia”. This a special issue of South East Asia Research on moral development in Southeast Asia, edited by Associate Professor Annuska Derks and Professor Minh Nguyen. Looking “beyond the state”, articles in this special issue examine new assemblages of humanitarian and development actors.

Auf der Seite des "Max-Planck-Instituts für ethnologische Forschung" finden Sie unter dem Titel "Das Alumni-Interview: 10 Fragen an Minh Nguyen" ein kurzes Interview mit Minh Nguyen. Bevor sie 2018 als Professorin für Sozialanthropologie an die Fakultät kam, wirkte Minh Nguyen zwischen 2011 und 2016 als Research Fellow innerhalb der Fokusgruppe "Social Support and Kinship in China and Vietnam" am "Max-Planck-Institut für ethnologische Forschung" in Halle/Saale. In dem Interview blickt Minh Nguyen auf die Anfänge ihrerer Karriere und ihr damaliges Arbeitsumfeld am MPI zurück.

Link zur deutschen Fassung des Interviews.