The longest Ethnography

In 1962 Djiguiba Camara asked his son Daouda to finish his manuscript of the region' history. Daouda dedicated his life to complete this politically highly sensitive manuscript, which included a forced exile from Guinée to Côte d’Ivoire. In this blog, Jan Jansen tells the story behind its creation and its publication.

Jan Jansen • February 16, 2024

Zine-making in Leiden: workshops on experimental print publications

Can academia still be fun and experimental? Maybe it can with the printing, folding, and collage techniques of zines. In two hands-on workshops, Sander Hölsgens and James McGrail aimed to find out. In this blog they discuss what they learned, and how zines can become a useful part of an anthropologist’s toolkit.

Sander Hölsgens and James McGrail • January 26, 2024 • 1 comment

Studying the Sensible Side of Love in the Netherlands

During last year’s Fieldwork NL course, second-year students conducted ethnographic research on maintenance. Inspired by U.A. Fanthorpe’s poem ‘Atlas’, they explored deathcare workers, millers, and au pairs. Here they reflect on their experiences and the intricate efforts involved in sustaining “structures of living.”

John Boy and Students of Fieldwork NL 2022-2023 • December 05, 2023

Oscar Salemink (1958-2023) – a Personal Tribute

My dear friend Oscar Salemink died in Copenhagen on September 23 after a prolonged struggle with myeloma cancer. He was outstandingly generous, mischievously funny, and an indomitably social anthropologist to the end.

Peter Pels • October 30, 2023

Risks, Raisin Buns and Parenting

What are ‘real’ risks in life? What makes us afraid of the future and how do we perceive uncertainties? These cultural and philosophical questions came to my mind when a father and his three-year-old daughter were having bread and coffee at the bakery.

Erik Bähre • October 17, 2023

Expatriates or immigrants? Navigating in-between categories in the Netherlands

How do migrants navigate different identity categories, like ‘expatriates’ and ‘immigrants’? What power relations do these categories reproduce and challenge? Camila, Daniela, Maria, and Natacha conducted research on migration and belonging in the Netherlands. In this blog, they share some of their main findings.

Camila Cuadrado, Maria Ladommatou, Natacha Pittet, Daniela Tinca and Irene Moretti • September 01, 2023

When all positives are false: the emergence of an academic whodunnit

Many educators accept the idea that we need to systematically assess the performance of our students. Easily accessible writing tools complicate the practice of assessment: how do we gauge whether an assignment is original work? In the age of AI, academic integrity is at stake – or so we’re told.

Sander Hölsgens and John Boy • May 12, 2023

Stop stereotyping ‘girls with a migration background’

In sport policy research and media reports, culture, ethnicity and religion are constantly framed as contradictory to sport participation. Jasmijn Rana and Kathrine van den Bogert argue that only when we take sexism and racism in recreational sports and exercise seriously, we can counter unequal sport participation.

Jasmijn Rana and Kathrine van den Bogert • February 20, 2023

Towards a technical pedagogy

A coalition of educators believes that ChatGPT will kill the essay. But should we really fear the algorithms used in large language models? Anthropology has the generative potential to re-evaluate teaching practices that attend to the use of emergent technologies in the classroom.

Sander Hölsgens • January 10, 2023