Winner of the Public Anthropologist Award 2024
The winner of the Public Anthropologist Award 2024 is Maria-Theres Schuler for her book Disability and Aid. An Ethnography of Logics and Practices of Distribution in a Ugandan Refugee C…
Tag: Humanitarianism
From Despair to Where? Anthropology, critique, political practice and the case for radical optimism
Allegra Lab · From Despair To Where? Anthropology, critique, political practice and the case for radical optimism TRANSCRIPT OF THE AUDIO ESSAY (listen if…
A critique of humanitarianism on the brink of genocide
That humanitarian language, materials, and practice offer a space for politics to hide (Feldman, 2018, p. 131) can probably not be more clearly illustrated than through the fact…
Verantwortungsbewusstsein – On German Responsibility
For many years now we have met Germans who declare that they are ashamed of being German. I have often felt tempted to answer that I am ashamed…
AnthroKino
In November and December, Allies meet (online) to watch ethnographic films and discuss with their makers. We have a wonderful line up of movies that explore humanitarianism (The…
Never Again Means Never Again For Anyone
I am not a scholar of Palestine. While I’ve spent time in the region and written about the occupation, this is not part of my scholarly ethnographic work.…
Give a Hand To the Fallen, as Long as You Are Standing: Earthquake Disaster Relief among Afghans
Mullah Yaqub appeared in the doorway of his Quranic school, and smiled when he saw me, shaking my hand firmly. He looked tall in his long dark-blue felted…
Going beneath the surface: The subtler messages about forced displacement in ‘The Swimmers’
The screen is dark, the music sombre. There are sounds of muffled voices and explosions. The dark screen breaks to reveal blue skies as the words “2011: A…
“ARE YOU HEADING TO THE FUN ZONE?”: NOTES FROM THE POLISH-UKRAINIAN BORDER
Research takes you to unexpected places. After finishing my PhD, I got a postdoc position at the ERC-funded project WARFUN led by Antonio De Lauri at the Christian…
At a turning point – climate change and the responsibilities of humanitarian actors
Climate change is going to be the game change to the humanitarian world. How? By sheer necessity. There is no other way. Otherwise, the humanitarian system will be…
Humanitarian Techniques of Trust
“Trust in humanitarian action” was the top item on the agenda of the 33rd international conference of the Red Cross movement which took place in Geneva in December…
Mobile Humanitarians: an afterword
This webinar series set out to explore the relationship between mobility and humanitarianism, and our speakers opened up several new areas for thought and discussion. Over four episodes,…
Mobile Humanitarians: Mobilities after Displacement
In this webinar series, we explore the relationship between mobility and humanitarianism in the course of four episodes. We – this is Till Mostowlansky, an anthropologist at The…
Race, Security, and the Contradictions of Humanitarianism
In this webinar series, we explore the relationship between mobility and humanitarianism in the course of four episodes. We – this is Till Mostowlansky, an anthropologist at The…
Being Like Family: Humanitarian Mobility and Metaphors of Kinship across Asia
In this webinar series, we explore the relationship between mobility and humanitarianism in the course of four episodes. We – this is Till Mostowlansky, an anthropologist at…
Building Aidland: Aid Workers and the Creation of a Global Aid Industry in the 1970s
This webinar series explores the relationship between mobility and humanitarianism. Anthropologists and historians have defined humanitarianism as concern and action assisting a distant Other. Hav…
“Nothing About Us Without Us!” Really?: The Unequal Value of Lives in Harm Reduction NGOs by Catherine Larocque
Canada, like most capitalist societies of the global North, faces “an unprecedented and devastating wave of overdoses” and overdose deaths (Wells, 2017), intensified by the COVID-19 pandemic (Governm…
Coronavirus: Less Humanitarianism, More Politics!
This essay was written seated on my couch, trying to make sense of the contemporary ‘state of emergency’ as the world around me has gradually come to a…
On being voices of prudence in times of a pandemic – #Corona
Many academic disciplines have a lot to say these days about COVID-19. There are the medical experts, of course, epidemiologists, virologists, microbiologists, weighing in on the validity of…
Out of Sight, Out of Mind: The No-Map and the Fear of Being in the No Go World
The NGO personnel in Gaziantep’s office (Turkey) was in shock. Little groups were talking loudly in Arabic, or keeping their lips firmly closed. “It was an air-strike”, my…
Brokered Subjects: Sex, Trafficking, and the Politics of Freedom #Interview
The topic of sex trafficking captured the imagination of the public for already a few decades. Despite the definition of trafficking being rather blurry, fighting against trafficking is frequently…
#Review: Out of “love” and “solidarity”
Out of “love” and “solidarity”, an ethnography written in Greek, is Katerina Rozakou’s insightful study of two volunteer organizations that helped refugees in Athens in the early 200…
Muslim Humanitarianism: An Afterword #MUHUM
What kind of practices, forms of moral reasoning and ethical orientation does Muslim humanitarianism entail? In what contexts and in response to what social problems does it arise?…
Islam, Humanitarianism and everyday religion #MUHUM
In this intervention I argue that charitable or humanitarian practices among contemporary Muslims— and everyday religiosity more generally—are constituted and experienced not only through differences …