Prof. Dr. Martin Sökefeld
Chair
Social and Cultural Anthropology
Politics, migration, flight, deportation, “natural” disasters; Pakistan and Germany
Office address:
Oettingenstr. 67
Room C 011
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Personal information
The anthropology of politics lies at the heart of my work in both research and teaching. My interest in this field began with ethnographic fieldwork for my dissertation on ethnicity and conflict in the city of Gilgit, located in the high mountains of northern Pakistan. I have worked intermittently in Pakistan ever since, examining topics such as the political status of the Gilgit-Baltistan region in the context of the Kashmir dispute and the politics of 'natural' disasters, including the politics of reconstruction after the 2005 earthquake in Azad Kashmir and the political mobilisation following the Attabad landslide in Gojal in 2010.
Migration was already an important topic for me in Gilgit. It became central to my work on Alevis in Germany and beyond, which focused on the mobilisation of an Alevi diaspora and transnational politics of recognition, while also reflecting on migration and 'integration' politics in Germany. I have also worked with British Kashmiris on various aspects of transnational politics.
I began researching deportations to Pakistan and Afghanistan, triggered by the growth of anti-immigration politics that view deportations as a kind of panacea for solving the 'migration problem'. I am currently focusing primarily on Afghans who worked for human rights and democracy before the Taliban regained power in Afghanistan in 2021. These individuals were promised humanitarian admission to Germany by the previous German government in order to protect them from imminent persecution by the Taliban regime. Some of these individuals and their families have now been waiting in Pakistan for years to continue their journey to Germany. However, the current federal government has reneged on many of these commitments, denying those affected the protection they were promised. I analyse this as an example of the decline of governmental humanitarianism, a trend that can also be observed in many other contexts.
Further information
- Since September 2021: Chairman of the German Anthropological Association
- October 2019 - present: Chairman of the Ethics Committe for Social and Cultural Anthropology, European Ethnology and Intercultural Communication of the Faculty for the Study of Culture, LMU Munich
- October 2015 - September 2017: Vice-Dean of the Faculty for the Study of Culture, LMU Munich
- October 2013 - September 2015: Dean of the Faculty for the Study of Culture, LMU Munich
- since October 2008: Chair of Social and Cultural Anthropology, LMU Munich
- 2005 - 2008 Assistant Professor, Institute of Social Anthropology, University of Bern, Switzerland
- May 2005 Habilitation, Hamburg University
- 1999-2005 Assistant Professor, Institut of Social Anthropology, Hamburg University
- 1997-1999 Assistant Lecturer, Institute of Social Anthropology, Hamburg University
- 1996 PhD, Faculty for the Study of Culture, Tübingen University
- 1991 - 1994 Research fellow, Institute of Social Anthropology, Tübingen University (as part of the research project "Culture Area Karakorum")
- 1990 Master, University of Cologne
- 1983 - 1990 Studies of Social Anthropology, Philosophy and Roman languages, University of Cologne
- Processes of subjectivation and self-formation of young women addressed as ‘refugees‘, funded by DFG (SO 435/15-1)
- Return to Pakistan: The political economy of emotions in remigration. Funded by DFG (SO 435/14-1; SO 435/14-2)
- Spatial production and identity negotiations along Xinjiang’s roads. Project within the research network Crossroads Asia. Funded by the Federal Ministry for Education and Research, 2015-2016.
- Welfare as contact zone between Christians and the State: Experiences of state and citizenship in Pakistan. Funded by DFG, 2014-2017.
- The appropriation of mobile phones by women in the context of gender relations in Gilgit-Baltistan. Funded by the DFG 2013-16.
- The Attabad landslide. Funded by DFG.
- Coping with change in Gilgit-Baltistan. Research cooperation between the Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology, LMU, the National Institute of Pakistan Studies, Quaid-I-Azam University, Islamabad, and Karakorum International University, Gilgit. Funded by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), 2011-13.
- Water and social mobility. Part-project of the research network Crossroads Asia. Funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, 2011 - 2014.
- Politics of reconstruction after the earthquake in Pakistan and Kashmir, 2005. Funded by the Swiss National Research Foundation (SNF), 2009-2010, and by the DFG since July 2010.
- State and Civil Society iin Pakistan, students research group. Research funded by the DAAD.
- Kashmiri Diaspora and the Kashmir Dispute, funded by the Wenner-Gren Foundation, New York, 2006-2009. Funding expired by research continues.
- Workshop Follow the Agency: Handlungsmacht als gemeinsames Thema ethnologischer Forschung und Sozialer Arbeit? 16.-17. Februar 2023, Institut für Ethnologie, LMU München.
- Workshop Islam, Deportation and Return: Removal Experiences of Muslim Irregularised Migrants, 14. und 15. Oktober 2022, Institut für Ethnologie, LMU München.
- Roundtable Un/commoning Asylum: Genealogies of Exclusion and the Restoration of the Right to Refuge, jointly organised with Sabine Strasser (University of Bern), Roundtable RT 02 at the 17th EASA Biennial Conference in Belfast, 26-29 July, 2022.
- Grenzen der Zugehörigkeiten: Das Ende der Aushandlungen im Kontext globaler Mobilität. Roundtable, organisiert with Prof. Dr. Heike Drotbohm (Universität Mainz) at the conference of the German Anthropological Association, Konstanz, 29.9.-2.10.2019.
- Workshop Post-disaster situations and the appropriation of disaster governance from below, organised together with Pascale Schild, University of Bern, at the 15th EASA Conference, Stockholm, 14-17th August 2018.
- Willkommenskultur in der Migrationsgesellschaft: Flucht, Asyl und Regulierungspraxis (Welcome culture in migration society): Workshop, LMU Munich, February 2 - 3, 2018.
- The politics of lists: Contestations of inclusion and exclusion at the state/non-state interface. Workshop, co-organized with Sabine Strasser (University of Bern) at the conference of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Völkerkunde (German Anthropological Association), Berlin, October 4 - 7, 2017. Call for papers.
- Spaces of Conflict in Everyday Life: Figurations and Methodology. Conference of the Research Network Crossroads Asia, LMU Munich, October 11, 2014.
- "Under suspicious eyes: surveillance states, security zones and ethnographic fieldwork:" Workshop, jointly organised with Sabine Strasser (University of Berne) at the 13th EASA-Conference, Tallinn, 31 July - 3 August 2014. Call for papers.
- Summer School Anthropological Fieldwork Methods. In cooperation with Karakorum International University, Gilgit, and Quaid-I-Azam University, Islamabad. Gilgit, Pakistan, August / September 2013.
- Research School Anthropology of Disasters. Gilgit, Pakistan, March 19 - 30, 2012. More information here.
- "Politics of Disasters:" Workshop, jointly organised with Edward Simpson (SOAS), at the 12th EASA conference, Paris, July 10-13, 2012. Call for papers
- "Jammu and Kashmir: Boundaries and Movements". International Symposium, funded by the DFG, Frauenwörth, July 16-19, 2011. More informationen here.
- "Ethnologie und Naturkatastrophen": Workshop, jointly organised with Ute Luig, conference of the DGV, Vienna, September 14-17, 2011. Call for papers.
- "At the margins of Islam in Europe": Workshop, jointly organised with Marzia Balzani,11th EASA conference, Maynooth, August 24-27, 2010. Call for papers.