The Alumni Interview: 10 Questions for Laura Lambert

At irregular intervals we publish interviews with alumni of the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology. We find out where they are living and working now, what they are conducting research on, and how their time at the MPI shaped their subsequent careers. In closing they share their advice for young anthropologists and name a book that has impressed them recently.

Laura Lambert was awarded the Klaus J. Bade Young Talent Award for Migration and Integration Research in November 2024. In their statements, the jury members praised the excellence of Lambert’s contributions to her research field and in particular the resonance of her work among both policymakers and the wider public.

We warmly congratulate Laura Lambert on her accomplishments and this outstanding honour.

1. When were you at the MPI and what did you work on while you were here?
I was a doctoral student in the Research Group “The Technicisation of Exclusionary Practices in the Context of Migration” from late 2017 to early 2022; this was the last cohort of the International Max Planck Research School on Retaliation, Mediation and Punishment (REMEP), headed first by Günther Schlee and then after his retirement by Marie-Claire Foblets.
My dissertation looked at the EU’s outsourcing of the management of asylum seekers and refugee protection by externalizing it to locations beyond its borders. I investigated how the EU-funded reinforcement of asylum processing and refugee protection in Niger functions as a “humanitarian border” that is intended to keep African migrants in one of the poorest countries in the world by promising them protection and aid. Of particular interest was the question of agency “from below”. Through participant observation in the local asylum office and countless conversations with officials, migrants, and employees of the UNHCR and the EU, I was able to document countless instances of resistance, adaptation, and avoidance of EU policies.

2. Where do you work now?
After a postdoc position at the Arnold Bergstraesser Institute in Freiburg, I am now a postdoc in the ERC-funded project “Doing Digital Identities” (DigID) at Leuphana University Lüneburg. We are conducting ethnographic research about how digital identification practices are changing the relationship between the state and citizens in five different countries. My focus is on the introduction of biometric ID cards in Sierra Leone.

3. How did the time you spent at the MPI shape your current career?
The MPI shaped the very core of my thinking. I came to the MPI as a social scientist with only cursory experience with qualitative field research. I left – at least, I hope I can claim this – as an anthropologist with a sociologically and politically informed critical perspective on structural relations. I acquired insights into Euro-African borders and developed an awareness of the complexity and sensitivity of this research topic. Günther Schlee described the year of field research undertaken during one’s doctorate as a “rite of passage” in becoming a true anthropologist. In retrospect, I have to admit (though somewhat reluctantly) that he was correct. Looking back, my fieldwork stay in Niger was incredibly important for my research practices today. And the borders between Europe and Africa continue to be relevant in my work.

4. When you think back on your time at the MPI, what stands out most strongly?
The productive team meetings of the research group coordinated by Timm Sureau and later by Tabea Scharrer. I am incredibly grateful to them and to my fellow doctoral students Stefan Millar and Margarita Lipatova for the shared discussions on border spaces and technologies and political anthropology and for the experience of what it means to work and write anthropologically.

5. Do you still have connections with the MPI, and if so, what kind of contact and with whom?
I am still an Associate in Marie-Claire Foblets’s Department ‘Law & Anthropology’ and whenever my schedule allows I try to attend their activities and Olaf Zenker’s colloquium. I keep in touch with other researchers on shared topics of interest. Ursula Rao is a central contact for my current research on digital identification. My former research group and a number of other MPI alumni are currently preparing a joint special issue of the journal Comparative Migration Studies on future-making and containment. Jacqueline Knörr, Luisa Schneider, Anais Ménard, David Kananizadeh, and David O’Kane helped me a lot while preparing my fieldwork in Sierra Leone. The MPI is a central node in these networks.

6. What is your current research topic?
Currently I am investigating the effects of the introduction of biometric ID cards in Sierra Leone, which are meant to link each person unambiguously to a single identity. While the state promises that this will accomplish great things – economic development and enabling access to government benefits – it also comes with major risks, such as lack of data protection, discrimination, and stricter control of migration. During my fieldwork last year, I studied how the agency in charge of this process handles the registration of people without papers and turns them into “paper citizens”. I worked together with “Justices of the Peace” who notarize the sworn identity declarations of paperless individuals. These Justices are laypeople without legal training who have been appointed by the president on the basis of their reputations. Acting as “brokers of citizenship” (as I argue), they carry out their work on the streets and occupy a key position that bridges the formal and informal. So you see, I have remained faithful to the fields of political and legal anthropology. At the beginning of February I will depart for Sierra Leone again for three months – I am excited to see what insights this will bring.

7. What are your plans for the future?
I am planning to apply for funding to lead a research project or junior research group of my own. It will continue my exploration of migration, borders, and citizenship in Euro-African border zones.

8. What are the strengths of anthropology in comparison with other social sciences?
Understanding human action in context and engaging with complex narratives. Taking conversation partners seriously, coping with tension and discord, reflecting on oneself as researcher.

9. What advice would you give to students studying social anthropology today?
Not to fall prey to doubts about the choice to study anthropology. I and my fellow students were regularly subjected to dire prognostications that we would end up as taxi drivers. Today there are hardly any taxis left. But all of us have found excellent jobs. And the deep knowledge that our discipline provides will continue to be needed to grapple with a complex and challenging world.

10. What text – whether a book or article – have you read recently that particularly impressed you?
A classic: Gloria Anzaldúa (1987) – Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza. Beautifully written and her perspective on violence as a wound but simultaneously also an opening for possible transformation continues to be greatly relevant today. It speaks to my students much as it did to me.