I am an Associate Professor of Anthropology trained at the intersections of social anthropology, clinical psychology and science and technology studies (STS). However, I am continuously experimenting with, and learning from, different genres and disciplines, which makes me feel uncomfortable within disciplinary identities, and sometimes, even within academia itself. That’s why I am always trying to practice academia in a way that makes sense beyond its own (self-referent) boundaries and (self-referent) debates.
I am always exploring how to develop further a clinical thinking concerned with both the environment and human thought. I think there is a continuity between them, and that a ‘relational mind’ is more capable to take care of surrounding ecologies than an individualistic mindset. This is certainly a daily life challenge for someone who works within academic settings deeply affected by logics of growth and productivity. But… I do not give up.
I currently hold an ERC Starting Grant for the project ‘Worlds of Lithium: A multi-sited and transnational study of transitions towards post-fossil fuel societies’. The project is an anthropological study of the replacement of fossil fuel transport, with a new fleet of electric vehicles powered by lithium-ion batteries.
A lot of public attention goes to the promise of electric vehicles, meaning less oil will be needed for road transport. What remains hidden, however, are the disruptive transformations of the landscapes and societies through which lithium travels. It is these transformations that the project brings into public view. For I am convinced that through empirical assessment of the side effects of this planetary strategy to respond to global warming, we can avoid implementing climate solutions that end up worsening our current social and environmental problems.
Current teaching:
Masters level:
The Politics of Sustainability: Environments, Cultures, Materials
https://studiegids.uva.nl/xmlpages/page/2020-2021/zoek-vak/vak/83969
Bachelors level:
Environments, Alterities and the Anthropological Imagination (third year)
https://studiegids.uva.nl/xmlpages/page/2022-2023-en/search-course/course/100684
Practicing Etnography
Ethnographies and academic writing
I am also Supervisor at the Master on Cultural and Social Anthropology and Medical Anthropology