Inger Sjørslev

Primære forskningsområder

• Ritualer og performance
• Materialitet og socialitet
• Brasilien, Sydamerika
• Politisk kultur
• Videnskabsteori og filosofi i antropologien

Medlemskab af forskergrupper

• Business and organisation
• Religion and Subjectivity
• Technology and Political Economy

Kort præsentation

Inger Sjørslev fik sin magistergrad (mag.scient.) I 1979 fra Institut for Antropologi, Københavns Universitet. Efter et års feltarbejde I Brasilien forlod hun universitetet for at blive museumsinspektør ved Etnografisk Samling på Nationalmuseet. Her var hun ansvarlig for Sydasiensamlingen og foretog en længere studierejse til Indien og stod for en udstilling om indisk folkekunst. Senere var hun var hovedkurator på en udstilling om Brasilien, som blandt andet blev til på grundlag af hendes feltarbejde. I 1987 var hun igen på feltarbejde i Brasilien, og hendes feltarbejder resulterede i bogen Gudernes rum, som udkom på dansk i 1995 og på tysk i 1999.
Hun forlod museumsverdenen og var i nogle år selvstændig konsulent. Derefter fik hun et 3-årigt seniorstipendiat på Institut for Antropologi. Det var før ph.d. graden var indført, og med ringe udsigter til fastansættelse i den akademiske verden, var det en overlagt beslutning at publicere feltarbejdet på dansk og på et kommercielt forlag. Lige så vigtig var ønsket om at formidle til et bredere publikum. Efter nogle år med menneskerettighedsarbejde i NGOverdenen som direktør i IWGIA, International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs, vendte hun imidlertid tilbage til universitetet som lektor i 1998.
Formidling blev ved at have høj prioritet i hendes arbejde, og hun har for nylig publiceret en bog om den materielle vending i antropologien samt en lærebog i videnskabsteori og filosofi for antropologer, begge på dansk og skrevet i et let tilgængeligt sprog.
Sjørslevs mangesidede baggrund har vist sig både i hendes forskning, undervisning og publikationsvirksomhed. En gennemgående forskningsinteresse har imidlertid været performance og ritualstudier, som var hendes feltarbejdstema i Brasilien. Hendes museumsbaggrund har styrket hendes opmærksomhed over for materialitet og æstetik, og hun har forsket i enfamiliehuse og materiel kultur i Danmark. På baggrund af hendes arbejde med menneskerettigheder i NGOverdenen har hun forfulgt sin interesse for politisk antropologi og været medudgiver på en bog om den politiske kultur i Folketinget samt i de senere år forsket i politik og performance. 

Inger Sjørslev vejleder for tiden følgende ph.d.projekter: 

• Marie Kolling: New homes, new lives? Transformations of a neighbourhood and forced removals in urban Brazil.
• Camilla Ida Ravnbøll: EU laws in the everyday life of Roma migrants in Øresund
• Daniela Lazoroska: Almost nothing changed: Pacification, trafficking and social mobility in a Carioca favela (Brazil).

CV

Personal born 1948 in Denmark 

Academic Degree Mag.Scient, Copenhagen University 1979

Employment Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) since 1998

Main research areas and teaching expertise
Ritual and religion in Brazil; material culture and sociality; the anthropology of performance; politics and activism; museums studies; theory of science in anthropology; anthropological analysis and fieldwork methods. 

Work experiences
Thirty-five years of experience in lecturing, supervising, examination and evaluation in social anthropology at Copenhagen University and other research institutions.                     

Ten years experience in research management at Copenhagen University.

Four years experience in development and human rights work as executive director of IWGIA, International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs (1994-1998).

Five years of experience in museology as curator and keeper at the Department of Ethnography, The National Museum of Denmark (1981-87).

Two years of experience as independent consultant on museum issues (1987-89).

Three years of experience as Head of the Study Council, Dept. of Anthropology, University of Copenhagen (1999-2002).

Two years as Head of the Ph.D. research school at the Department of Anthropology (2004-2006).

Fifteen years of editorial experience. Reviewer at several international and national journals.

Languages: Danish (mother tongue); English (fluent); Portuguese (very well); Spanish, German and French (fair).

Special assignments
2015 Co-organiser of the conference Brazil, Land of the Future in cooperation with Anne Line Dalsgaard, Aarhus University, Lecturer Vinicius de Moraes, Kings College, London, Ph.D. student Marie Kolling, Copenhagen, and Ph.D, student Maria Nielsen, Aarhus University.

2010 to present, member of the Danish Unesco National Commission, spokesperson on culture.

2011-2014 Member of assessment committee for the Norwegian Research Council and The Nordic Research Council.

2002 Chief coordinator of the 7th biennial conference (European Associacion of Social Anthropologists).

1995-1998 Vice-chairperson of the Council for International Development Co-operation, Danish Foreign Ministry.

1995-1998 Member of the Board of the Danish Centre for Human Rights.

1992 to present Censor, external evaluator at the Universities of Aarhus. Evaluator on positions as associate lecturer, assistant lecturer and senior researcher at various universities and research institution.

1994-1998 Chairperson of the corps of external evaluators (censors) at Aarhus University.

1989-1992 Senior Research Fellow, Department of Anthropology, Copenhagen University

1980es Head curator on the exhibition Brasil 86; member of project group on museum innovation at The National Museum. Freelance consultant; Visiting fellow at The Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC.

Awards
2015 Shortlisted for “Etnografisk Forenings Formidlingspris” (The prize of the Danish Ethnographic Association for communication to the public).

2015 Einar Hansens Forskningsfonds Hæderspris.

2013 Lærebogsprisen, Forlaget Samfundslitteratur (the prize for best text book idea).

1987 Karen Liebers Eriksons Scholarship for Danes, stipend at The Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC.

Research grants and fieldwork
2015 Research grant from The Carlsberg Foundation, two months, project: The Dynamics of Ritual. Fieldwork in Brazil.  

2008-2011 Research project: The spectacular disorder. Performance and materiality in global space, supported by The Danish Research Council (FKK).

2005-2010 Research grants, Centre for Housing and Welfare - Realdania Research. Projects: Inheritance and property in Danish single family housing. Housing in time and space.

2003 The Danish Research Council for the Humanities (SHF). Project: Things as actors. An anthropological investigation of knowledge and sociality surrounding ritual objects in a globalisation perspective. Fieldwork in Benin, West Africa and in Brazil.               

1999-2002 Research management on project concerning power and political culture at the Danish Parliament, supported by The Danish Democracy and Power Study.

1992 Research Grant, The Danish Research Council for the Humanities (SHF). Project: Sociality and ritual in the Brazilian Candomblé.

1979-1981 Research Grant (SHF) Fieldwork in Bahia, Brazil, project: The social and psychological consequences of participation in a religious cult in a plural ethnic society.

Ph.D. courses, supervision and assessments
Courses: From Analysis to Text, 2014, 2015; From Fieldwork to Analysis 2014; Theory of Science, 2009; Performance and materiality, 2009; Writing anthropology, 2001, 2003, 2004; Policy, rights and politics & culture, 2001

Member of Assessment Committees for Ph.D. dissertations at Copenhagen University, Aarhus University, Göteborg University, Lund University, Oslo University. 

Ph.D. supervisions  at University of Copenhagen: Six Ph.D. dissertations since 2002, three of these on South America. Co-supervision at Aarhus University, Copenhagen Business School, Aalborg University.

Recent Teachings    Theory of Science for Anthropologists; Tricksters and Marketing (with Karen Lisa Salamon; Anthropological Analysis; Human Rights and Legal Anthropology (with Camilla Ida Ravnbøl); Ritual, performance and materiality; Politics and culture.