Marie Curie SocAnth

My PhD research project investigates the interplay between international and local Non Governmental Civil Organizations dealing with disability in post-conflict Sierra Leone . I am examining the micro context of the interactions between three categories: aid workers of local and international organisations and their beneficiaries. I am observing how, and along which dividing lines “us” and “them” categories are created and how ideals about what modern Sierra Leone should look like are negotiated in these encounters. One important object of these negoitiations is the construction and domestication of the category of „disability” by different stake holders. I am also looking at how these negoitations affect people living with disability.

In 2008 I spent four months in the Max Planck Institute in Halle as a research fellow thanks to the Marie Curie Socanth programme. I started field work immediately after this experience. Since 2008 I spent 7 months in Sierra Leone. This year I obtained a Wenner Gren grant for 12 months, which will allow me to return to the field in September 2010. I am currently at my third year of doctoral studies at the Department of Anthropology and Ethnography at the University of Pécs and I am also affiliated to CEU through my external supervisor and through my membership at the Global South Research Group.