Journal Blog
Growing public outrage with the political responses to conflicts and complex emergencies have led to increasing calls for solidarity with affected populations that identify a shared humanity. Disenchantment with political authority makes it more important than ever for the humanitarian sector to engage with the political discussion, rather than distancing from it in the quest …
When Frantz Fanon (1961) framed the legitimacy of anti-colonial armed struggle in The Wretched of the Earth, he likely did not imagine that his arguments would resonate, some seventeen years later, with a movement: Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK—Partiya Karkerên Kurdistanê), which would adopt armed resistance in the context of the Kurdish struggle in Turkey. Important scholars …
Continue reading “Identity Politics: Reflections from Turkey”
From the mid-2000s, Senegal has had an anti-trafficking law to prosecute emigration attempts and activities that relate to facilitating passage out of the country. Implemented following Senegal’s ratification of the Palermo Protocols, this law ushered in a new legal practice of making some forms of movement illegal, or at the very least, suspicious. These activities, …
Continue reading “The Legal Aftermath of Emigration Control: A View from Senegalese Courts”
This blog post is a response to LOST PREDICTIONS by Fiona Murphy and Eva van Roekel, and LOST PREDICTIONS II by Maruška Svašek, with and without ChatGPT (depending on who you’re more afraid of). Any emotions expressed here are entirely fictional, except empathy, which stubbornly insisted on staying. The old lamp buzzed faintly, like a …
This blog post is a reply to LOST PREDICTIONS by Fiona Murphy and Eva van Roekel Maruška Svašek without ChatGPT Karel entered the museum with a visceral urge to be surrounded by artefacts. To be sucked in by the collection and erase himself. The trip to Berlin had shaken him to the core. On top …
Let’s be honest. Anthropology is plagued by dull, pretentious, and sometimes even meaningless prose: language that is at best imprecise and at worst incomprehensible. Now and then, examples of clear and evocative writing emerge from the literature like flowers from the weeds. Yet many anthropologists will privately acknowledge that the general state of the discipline’s …
Professor Karel Mulder sat at his desk, wreathed in the noble decay of academia—a kingdom of paper that had long since declared independence from any attempts at order.
What happens when the prediction fails, but the system marches on as if it hadn’t? When the algorithm forgets what the body remembers?
In photo and video material of violent conflict, a phenomenon regularly occurs that needs interpretation: perpetrators of violence who appear to enjoy their actions, or bystanders laughing or smiling while others commit violence.
What can soldier humour tell us about international relations? To begin with, humour is a universal social practice …
The dominant discourse about war is that soldiers deployed and fighting in it dominate the landscape, and the animals which live in it. This paper focuses on the ways that Zimbabwean soldiers were made to understand the sacredness and spirituality of the Democratic Republic of Congo landscape: river water, swamps, snakes and ghosts by the local Congolese civilian people.
Commenting on my research for the WarFun project, someone once remarked that I must be using a very broad definition of fun — one that, apparently, included everything. In a way, they were right. But my usage of the term fun did not come from nowhere. It gradually emerged through engaging with the sources I had at my disposal.
I am currently wrapping up an essay film, Falling, about my fraught relationship with Pepe and his brother, two retired Argentine military officers whom I met during my doctoral research on crimes against humanity from the perspective of those who suffered and those who perpetrated political violence.
Women have always helped shape Mozambique’s political narrative. Today, that role is more visible than ever. Their political commentary, through song, dance, or digital media, is forceful and clear.
Diplomatic pressures on countries in West Africa to cooperate on migration-related issues has been high, and growing, in recent years. Numerous policy initiatives underscore this, going back to the 1992 Declaration on Principles Governing External Aspects of Migration Policy, which included the idea of EU return agreements with countries of origin and transit. Most recently, …
Continue reading “African agency in response to EU externalization efforts”