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melina.kalfelis [at] uni-bayreuth.de
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I am a Junior Professor of social and cultural anthropology at the University of Bayreuth. My research and teaching are situated at the intersection of political, philosophical, and visual anthropology. Through combining critical phenomenology with multi-sited ethnography, I explore how people navigate their social and moral lives in contexts marked by conflict, uncertainty, and global inequality. I am particularly interested in the link between intimacy, violence, and politics, as well as in questions on gender, ethics, crime and criminalisation, punishment, and media more broadly. I investigate what international discourses and policies 'do' and how people make sense of them as they navigate multiple political regimes. My regional focus is West Africa (mainly Burkina Faso) and Western Europe (Switzerland, Sweden, and France). I am also trained in ethnographic filmmaking and experiment with photography in my research and teaching.
Academic Biography
Academic Biography
since 2023
Juniorprofessor for Social and Cultural Anthropology with a Focus on Social Belonging – University of Bayreuth (parental leave: 02/2024–02/2025)
2022–2023
Postdoc in the research initiative „ConTrust: Trust in Conflict“ – Goethe-University Frankfurt
2021–2022
Research Associate (postdoc) of Prof. Dr Andrea Behrends at the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology – University of Bayreuth
2020
Visiting Fellow at the „Maria Sibylla Merian Institute for Advanced Studies in Africa“ – University of Legon (5 months)
2020
Visiting Fellow at the Cluster of Excellence „Africa Multiple” – University of Bayreuth (6 months)
2019
VolkswagenStiftung Visiting Fellow at the Institute for African Affairs – German Institute of Global and Area Studies Hamburg (7 months)
2015–2018
Collaborative Research Center 1095 “Discourses of Weakness and Resource Regimes” – Goethe-University Frankfurt
2014–2015
Doctoral Scholarship at the „International Graduate Center for the Study of Cultures“ (GCSC) – Justus-Liebig-University Gießen
Education
Education
2019
PhD in Social and Cultural Anthropology
Book: NGO als Lebenswelt. Transnationale Verflechtungen im Arbeitsalltag von Entwicklungsakteuren" (Campus, 2020) – Goethe-University Frankfurt / Justus-Liebig-University Gießen
2013
Magister Artium in Historical Anthropology, Political Science and Psychoanalysis – Goethe-University Frankfurt
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