Dr Safet HadžiMuhamedović
I am an anthropologist of landscape and religion, but my work is more closely framed through interests in time and temporality, home, 'syncretic' cosmologies, agency and affect. Over the past seven years, I have conducted most of my long-term fieldwork in Bosnia, with stints of research in the Basque Country and Palestine/Israel. At the moment, I am preparing for publication a book titled Waiting for Elijah: Time and Encounter in a Bosnian Landscape, which delves into the postwar echoes of inter-communal proximities and syncretic seasonal celebrations in the southeastern Bosnian highlands. I have also written on various other aspects of sacral landscapes, as well as the historicity and political agency of 'nonhuman' beings.
Before attaining a doctoral degree in social anthropology from Goldsmiths, University of London and an MPhil degree in social anthropology from the University of Cambridge, I have received BA degrees in history of art and sociology from the University of Sarajevo and Kenyon College. After some initial resistance, I have settled into social anthropology as the most exciting area of social inquiry and now like to think that there is not a single topic, spatial or temporal dimension that could not be a 'legitimate' concern of our discipline.
I currently teach social anthropology at the University of Bristol, where I co-ordinate three courses: Kinship, Anthropology of Islam and Social Theories, but also contribute to an introductory course Peoples, Culture and Language. Before coming to Bristol, I taught various courses on anthropological approaches to methods, qualitative research, religion, gender, politics, economics and social change at Goldsmiths, SOAS (both University of London) and Goethe University Frankfurt. My approach to teaching is guided by the idea that we still, or perhaps, now more than ever, need to chip away at the stable, dominating ideas of the world by facing them with epistemological and ontological obstacles, particularly those built into fine-grained anthropological analyses that speak to the plurality and intricacy of the human condition.
Before teaching, I worked on the ERC-funded project Bosnian Bones, Spanish Ghosts: ‘Transitional Justice’ and the Legal Shaping of Memory after Two Modern Conflicts, led by Dr Sari Wastell. Working with Aida Bucalović, I co-founded the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research of Visual Culture in Sarajevo, which, amongst other activities, produced a very successful facsimile exhibition of manuscripts dispersed from mediaeval Bosnia.
I am an anthropologist of landscape and religion, but my work is more closely framed through interests in time and temporality, home, 'syncretic' cosmologies, agency and affect. Over the past seven years, I have conducted most of my long-term fieldwork in Bosnia, with stints of research in the Basque Country and Palestine/Israel. At the moment, I am preparing for publication a book titled Waiting for Elijah: Time and Encounter in a Bosnian Landscape, which delves into the postwar echoes of inter-communal proximities and syncretic seasonal celebrations in the southeastern Bosnian highlands. I have also written on various other aspects of sacral landscapes, as well as the historicity and political agency of 'nonhuman' beings.
Before attaining a doctoral degree in social anthropology from Goldsmiths, University of London and an MPhil degree in social anthropology from the University of Cambridge, I have received BA degrees in history of art and sociology from the University of Sarajevo and Kenyon College. After some initial resistance, I have settled into social anthropology as the most exciting area of social inquiry and now like to think that there is not a single topic, spatial or temporal dimension that could not be a 'legitimate' concern of our discipline.
I currently teach social anthropology at the University of Bristol, where I co-ordinate three courses: Kinship, Anthropology of Islam and Social Theories, but also contribute to an introductory course Peoples, Culture and Language. Before coming to Bristol, I taught various courses on anthropological approaches to methods, qualitative research, religion, gender, politics, economics and social change at Goldsmiths, SOAS (both University of London) and Goethe University Frankfurt. My approach to teaching is guided by the idea that we still, or perhaps, now more than ever, need to chip away at the stable, dominating ideas of the world by facing them with epistemological and ontological obstacles, particularly those built into fine-grained anthropological analyses that speak to the plurality and intricacy of the human condition.
Before teaching, I worked on the ERC-funded project Bosnian Bones, Spanish Ghosts: ‘Transitional Justice’ and the Legal Shaping of Memory after Two Modern Conflicts, led by Dr Sari Wastell. Working with Aida Bucalović, I co-founded the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research of Visual Culture in Sarajevo, which, amongst other activities, produced a very successful facsimile exhibition of manuscripts dispersed from mediaeval Bosnia.
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RESEARCH & TEACHING INTERESTS
RECENT WORK QUALIFICATIONS AWARDS PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS |
Anthropology of syncretism; proximity and mixture; anthropological and phenomenological approaches to time; ritual and festivity; anthropology of space, place and landscape; affect and subjectivity; loneliness and waiting; materiality; nonhuman agency; home and belonging; extended kinship; gender, nationalism and ethnicity; conflict resolution and post-conflict reconstruction; post-war environments; borders and migration; memory; etymology; visual anthropology, research ethics; anthropology of Bosnia, former Yugoslavia, post-Ottoman and post-socialist geographies, nomadic Roma trajectories in the Balkans, Palestine, Israel, the Basque Country
2016 - ongoing Teaching Fellow in Social Anthropology Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Bristol Co-ordinate and teach: Kinship; Anthropology of Islam; Social Theories Teach: People; Culture and Language; Human Challenges; Dissertations Contribute to: Anthropological Methods, Gender, Sexuality and the Body 2014-2015 Visiting Scholar Faculty of Social Sciences, Goethe University Frankfurt Co-organised and taught with Marija Grujić: Encountering Gender and Religion: Theoretical and Methodological Implications (MA seminar) 2014-2015 Associate Lecturer in Social Anthropology Department of Anthropology, Goldsmiths, University of London Anthropology of Religion 2013-2014 Lecturer in Social Anthropology Department of Anthropology, Goldsmiths, University of London Politics, Economics and Social Change With contribution to: Anthropology and Gender Theory 2014 Teaching Fellow Faculty of Law and Social Sciences, SOAS Qualitative and Case Study Research 2013 Visiting Tutor in Social Anthropology Department of Anthropology, Goldsmiths, University of London Anthropological Methods 2010-2013 Research Assistant Department of Anthropology, Goldsmiths, University of London Bosnian Bones, Spanish Ghosts - 'Transitional Justice' and the Legal Shaping of Memory after Two Modern Conflicts, ERC-funded project led by Dr Sari Wastell 2008-2014 Founder and Coordinator of Research Programmes Centre for Interdisciplinary Research of Visual Culture, International Forum Bosnia 2015 PhD in Social Anthropology Goldsmiths, University of London, UK 2010 MPhil in Social Anthropology University of Cambridge, UK 2008 BA Hons in History of Art University of Sarajevo, Bosnia 2008 BA Hons in Sociology University of Sarajevo, Bosnia 2006 Academic Programme Certificate in Sociology and History of Art Kenyon College, USA 2014-2015 Civil Society Scholar Award - Open Society Foundations - funding for the research project Corporeal Narratives: Gender, Politics and Religion in the Western Balkans 2010-2013 PhD scholarship - European Research Council - under the auspices of the Dr Sari Wastell's project Bosnian Bones, Spanish Ghosts, 'Transitional Justice' and the Legal Shaping of Memory after Two Modern Conflicts 2010-2013 PhD fee waiver - Department of Anthropology, Goldsmiths, University of London 2011-2012 Research grant - Open Society Foundation – Global Supplementary Grant Programme 2012-2013 Research grant - Open Society Foundation – Global Supplementary Grant Programme 2013-2014 Research grant - Open Society Foundation – Global Supplementary Grant Programme 2009-2010 MPhil scholarship - Cambridge Overseas Trust & Open Society Foundation & UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office 2007-2008 Annual Academic Excellence Award - Federal Ministry of Education and Science, Bosnia 2006 Recognition for Contribution to Intercultural Dialogue - Kenyon College, USA 2005-2006 BA Exchange Programme Scholarship - US Department of State - 'Partnership for Learning' Association of Social Anthropologists of the UK and Commonwealth (ASA), European Association of Social Anthropologists (EASA), International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences (IUAES), Association for Critical Heritage Studies (ACHS), Centre for Interdisciplinary Research of Visual Culture (CIVK), International Forum Bosnia (IFB), Cambridge Heritage Research Group (HRG), Association for the Renewal of Civil Trust in the Municipality of Stolac, Open Anthropology Cooperative (OAC), SOAS Centre for Ottoman Studies (SCOS) |
