Curriculum Vitae
Education
2010 - 2015
Martin-Luther Universität Halle- Wittenberg (Germany)
PhD in Social Anthropology (Summa cum Laude)
2007 – 2008
University of Oxford, St Cross College (United-Kingdom)
MSc African Studies
2005 – 2007
Sciences Po Paris (France)
Master ‘International Affairs’/ Option: Development
2004 – 2005
Erasmus year at the Centre of West African Studies, University of Birmingham (United-Kingdom)
Options: Political science, development
2002 – 2004
Sciences Po Paris (France)
Bachelor’s degree in political science
2001 – 2002
Baccalauréat obtained with high honours (France)
Research and fieldwork
2017 - 2020
in association with France, Belgium and the Netherlands
- Fieldwork within Sierra Leone
2010 – 2014
Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology (Germany)
- PhD thesis: ‘Beyond Autochthony: Sherbro Identity and the (Re-) Construction of Social and National Cohesion in Sierra Leone’ (submitted November 2014)
- PhD candidate in the research group ‘Integration and Conflict along the Upper Guinea Coast’
- Fieldwork: 16 months, Sierra Leone (March 2011-July 2012). Field sites in Sierra Leone: Western Area and Bonthe District.
March-July 2008
University of Oxford (United-Kingdom)
- MSc Dissertation: ‘Voicing Grievances: The Continuous Political Exclusion of Youth in Sierra Leone’ (July 2008)
- Fieldwork: six weeks (March-April 2008). Field sites in Sierra Leone: Eastern and Southern Provinces (Bo, Kenema, Kailahun)
March 2005
University of Birmingham (United-Kingdom)
- Research on the social impacts of local radio broadcasting
- Fieldwork: four weeks (March 2008) in Mongu, Zambia
Work experience
2022 - present
Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology (Germany), Head of Research Group
Research programme (Otto-Hahn funding): “Gender, Migration and Social Mobility among West African Women in Europe” (including head of research group and PhD student)
2021
UCLouvain (Belgium), Postdoctoral fellow Louvain4Migration
- Research project: “Love, Ageing and Migration at the Intersection of Sociological, Anthropological and Health Perspectives”
2018 - 2021
hosted by UCLouvain (Belgium), Otto-Hahn postdoctoral fellow of the Max Planck Society
- Research project: “Diaspora, migration trajectories and eclectic belonging: individual and collective ways of ‘becoming’ a Sierra Leonean abroad“
2018 - 2020
UCLouvain (Belgium), Guest Lecturer
2018
Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropolgy (Germany), Research fellow
2016 - 2017
EHESS (Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales) / CESOR (Centre de Recherche en Sciences Sociales du Religieux) (France), Postdoctoral researcher
- Research project: “African Traditional Religions in Contexts of Migration: Understanding Integration through Reciprocity”
2015 - 2016
Sciences Po/Reims (France), Guest Lecturer
2009 – 2010
Aide et Action (France), Research consultant
- Conduct of a research project on the impacts of the global financial crisis on education worldwide (design of surveys, data processing, writing-up)
- Contribution to the definition of Aide et Action’s strategic roadmap
2008 – 2009
Afrique et Nouvelles Interdépendances (France), Project manager
- Organisation of the event “La Quinzaine de l’Enfant Africain”: two weeks of cultural and artistic activities and conferences to support education in Africa
- Coordination of NGOs taking part in “La Quinzaine de l’Enfant Africain”
Feb-March 2008
Department of International Migration, University of Oxford (United-Kingdom), Research assistant
- Data processing with SPSS software, Polish-English translation.
Sept-Dec 2006
Ministry of Defence (France), Intern at the World division, sub-Saharan African section
- Strategic surveillance, prospective studies for African States, contact with military attachés, following-up of RECAMP project (Renforcement des Capacités Africaines de Maintien de la Paix: Enhancing African Capacities in Peacekeeping)
Organisation of conference panels
Inaugural Workshop of the Otto-Hahn Research Group “Gender, Migration and Social Mobility among West African Women living in Europe”, 26th-28th October, MPIETH, Halle/Saale, Germany, 2022
‘Activism, hope and future horizons on the African continent‘, with Marie Deridder, 17th EASA Biannual Conference, European Association of Social Anthropologists, Belfast, 2022
‘Activism, hope, and future horizons‘, with Marie Deridder, Swedish Anthropological Association Annual Conference (SANT2022), Gothenburg, 2022
‘Subjectivités politiques et pluralité d’agir politique en contexte postcolonial et d’extraversion‘, with Marie Deridder, 7èmes Rencontres des Études africaines en France (REAF), Toulouse, France, 2022
‘Subjectivités politiques et pluralité d’agir politique en contexte postcolonial et d’extraversion‘, with Marie Deridder, Conference of the Mande Studies Association (MANSA), University of Uppsala, Sweden, 2021
‘Reinventing circulations at times of ‘crisis’ in West Africa‘, with Marie Deridder, Colloque international de l’Association pour l’anthropologie du changement social et du développement (APAD), Lomé, Togo, 2021
‘Intimicay in the Time of Globalization: Anthropology Exploring the Intersection of Love, Sexuality and Mobility’, panel co-organized with Dumitrita Lunca, 16th EASA Biannual Conference, European Association of Social Anthropologists (EASA-16), Lisbon (online), 2020
‘A desire for the authentic: urban and rural lives as categories of social distinction’, panel co-organized with Maarten Bedert, Seventh European Conference on African Studies (ECAS-7), Basel, 2017
‘Secret Societies and Resistance in West Africa’, co-organized with Maarten Bedert, at Collective Mobilisations in Africa: Contestation, Resistance, Revolt, Sixth European Conference on African Studies (ECAS-6), Paris, July 2015
‘Rethinking Conflict in the Upper Guinea Coast Region: Ethnographies of the Post-war Moment’, co-organized with Maarten Bedert at Rethinking Violence, Reconstruction and Reconciliation, African Studies Association 57th Annual Meeting, Indianapolis, November 2014.
Conference presentations (latest)
- Book launch : Marie Deridder, 2021, Elites, Elections et Transformation du Politique au Mali, 7èmes Rencontres des Études africaines en France (REAF), Toulouse, France, 2022.
- Presentation of the research programme “Gender, Migration and Social Mobility among West African Women in Europe”, Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, annual assembly, 2022.
- ‘Reinventing circulations at times of ‘crisis’ in West Africa‘(online) in preparation of the panel at Colloque international de l’APAD (see organization of panels), Lomé, Togo, organizer, 2021.
- ‘Patronage and the State as ‘politics – in – conjunction‘” (online) organized by David Kananizadeh and Jamal Ali Bashir, University of Halle-Wittenberg, 2020
- ‘Aspiring in Later Life‘ (online) organized by the Max Planck Research Group “Ageing in a Time of Mobility”, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity, 2020.
- -------
- ‘Dynamics of inclusion and exclusion related to a creole language: “Krio” as an ambivalent semiotic register in present-day Sierra Leone’. Presented at Creole Languages and Postcolonial Diversity in Comparative Perspective, 5th Conference of the Research Group ‘Integration and Conflict along the Upper Guinea Coast’, Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Halle/Saale, October 2014.
- ‘Expériences passées et présentes de la frontière dans la Péninsule de Freetown, Sierra Leone’. Presented at JCEA, Deuxièmes Rencontres Nationales des Jeunes Chercheur.e.s en Etudes Africaines, Paris, October 2014.
- ‘Land disputes as social spaces for redefining inter- and intra-community rules in the aftermath of the Sierra Leonean war’. Presented at Collaboration, Intimacy & Revolution – innovation and continuity in an interconnected world, 13th EASA Biennial Conference, Tallinn, July 2014.
- ‘Performances and discourses related to secret societies in the Freetown Peninsula’. Presented at Future Publics, Current Engagements, American Anthropological Association 112th Annual Meeting, Chicago, November 2013.
- ‘The “ethnicization” of land struggle: A case study of the Western Area of Sierra Leone’. Presented at Research Frontiers in the Study of Africa, African Studies Association 55th Annual Meeting, Philadelphia, November 2012.
- ‘New dynamics in the use of cultural resources: Poro society and ethnicity in Sierra Leone, Freetown Peninsula’. Presented at Transcending Traditional Tropes: Conceptualizing Politics and Policies in 21st century Upper Guinea Coast, 4th Conference of the Research Group ‘Integration and Conflict along the Upper Guinea Coast’, Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Halle/Saale, September 2012.
Membership in academic organisations
European Association of Social Anthropologists (EASA)
Research in Sierra Leone Studies (RISLS): Weave
Mande Studies Association (MANSA)
Association pour l’anthropologie du changement social et du développement (APAD)
International Migration Research Network (IMISCOE) and Migration Research Hub