Jelena Tosic is Professor / Senior Lecturer for Migration Studies at the University of St.Gallen, where she was Project Leader in the Project "Europe's Un/Deserving: Moralizations of Inequality in Comparative Perspective" (2021-2024, funded by the SNSF).
Her research interests include: (Im)Mobility, (Forced) Migration and Border Studies; Citizenship; Inequality; Deservingness; Transculturality/Trans- nationalism; Education; Tango; Methods (Ethnography, Historical Anthropology/Memory, Comparative Research). Regional Focus: Europe (Central, SEE), Mediterranean.
Her earlier affiliations include: Assistant Professor for Transcultural Studies and the University of St.Gallen, Interim Professor (state and transnationalism) at the University of Bern (2014/2015), Junior Professor for Ethnology at the University of Konstanz (2013/2014), APART AAS-CEE Fellow of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (2011-2017), and guest researcher at various universities and research institutions (MPI for Social Anthropology Halle an der Saale, FMK Belgrade, Center for Balkan Studies / Goldsmiths University, MMG MPI Göttingen etc).
Religion
Post-totalitarian/Post-Conflict Societies/State-Civil Society Relations
Globalization and Human Rights/Transitional Justice
Selection (last 3 years)
Conferences, Panels & Workshops
• Co-Convenor of the Workshop “Deservingness and beyond: Reassessing epistemologies of distribution and inequality“, October 24th and 25th 2024, University of St.Gallen, School for
Humanities and Social Sciences (with with Andreas Streinzer)
• Roundtable “The Politics of Scale: Perspectives from and on Anthropology of History”, January 26th 2024, 16-18h (zoom) (Kick-of event, EASA Network of Anthropology of History/NAoH Lecture Series,
Convenor)
• “"Where have all the workers gone?” Ideological framings of postpandemic labor regimes”, Roundtable at the 2023 AAA/CASCA Annual Meeting, November 15th-19th 2023, Toronto, Canada (Role: Chair, co-organized with Agnieszka Pasieka, Vienna/Dartmouth)
• Round Table “The migrant researcher? Reflections on academic selves, inequalities, and epistemologies in migration studies”, 20th IMISCOE Annual Conference “Migration and inequalities. In search of answers and solutions”/ Reflexivities in Migration Studies Standing Committee (Warsaw, July 3d - 6th 2023, co-convened with Sandra King-Savic)
• Panel, "Strategic alliances in entanglements of commons and noncommons" (convenors: Andreas Streinzer and Jelena Tosic), XIX Biennial IASC Conference 'The Commons We Want: Between
Historical Legacies and Future Collective Actions‘, Nairobi, Kenya June 19-24, 2023
• Panel, „ Modalities of deservingness in current solidarity spaces in Europe“ (Convenors: Violetta Zentai (Central European University), Jelena Tosic (University of St.Gallen), Margit Feischmidt (Center for Social Sciences (Hungarian Academy of Sciences), Andreas Streinzer (University of St.Gallen), SIEF2023 16th Congress „Living Uncertertainty“, Brno, Czech Republic, June 7-10th 2023
• Convenor of the Roundtable „Ethnographies of Deservingness“ (Guests: Susana Narotzky, Sabine Strasser, Erik Bähre, Chair: Insa Koch), October 27th, 18h15-20h (A HSG Ethnography Talks hybrid
Event, with Andreas Streinzer)
• Convenor of the Workshop “Common(ing) Struggles” (May 2nd – 4th 2022, University of St.Gallen, Key-Note: Miriam Ticktin (New School/CUNY), with Andreas Streinzer)
Invited Talks
• Making life in "also-Europe": Care, Contribution and re-entangling perspectives on migration in Europe (December 17th, 2024), Invited Talk at the Cultural and Social Anthropology Kolloquium, University of Lucerne
• Conjunctural Perspectives on Alienation: Tango, Psychotherapy and Urban Activism in contemporary Belgrade, Workshop: Losing one’s Place in the World: Rethinking Alienation as a Diagnostic for our Time, 22 - 24 November 2023, MPI for Social Anthropoology, Halle an der Saale (organized by Annika Lems and Biao Xiang)
• Wie Privilegien funktionieren – kritische Perspektiven auf Privileg und „Deservingness“, 7. St. Galler Diversity and Inclusion Week, September 16th-20th 2023 (with Christa Binswanger)
• Common Sense of Un/deservingness: Ethnographic Approaches towards Legitimizing and Contesting Inequality (with Andreas Streinzer), Workshop “From Common Sense to Common Practices: The Timeliness of an Old Concept”, SHSS/HSG, September 15th-16th
2022, organised by Thomas Thelios
• Invited Input-Commentary at the Round Table “Doing Research in Post / Conflict Societies: Research and Ideological (Dis)Engagement” (Organisation: Sandra King-Savic, SHSS/GCE, University of St.Gallen), July 8th 2022
Conference Talks
• Islands of meaning: Engaged Indifference, Authoritarianism and Class in shifting Europe(s), EASA Conference 2024, online day July 18th, Barcelona, Spain
• Occluded mobilities: urban conjunctures and border effects along the “Balkan Route”, ABS conference, “Borders, Edges and Interfaces: Pluralities and Scales”, 13-18 February, 2023, Ben-Gurion University - Eilat Campus
• Challenging privilege: incorporating the concept of deservingness into critical diversity studies, WU Gender and Diversity Conference, March 24th – 25th 2022 (with Christa Binswanger)
Academic Management
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