Inger Sjørslev

Primary fields of research

• Ritual and performance
• Materiality and sociality
• Brazil, South America
• Political culture
• Theory of science and philosophy in anthropology

Membership of researcher groups

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

Short presentation

Inger Sjørslev gained her Masters Degree (Mag. Scient.) in 1979 from the Department of Anthropology, University of Copenhagen. After a year of fieldwork in Brazil she left the university to become Curator at the Department of Ethnography at The National Museum of Denmark. As a curator she was responsible for the South Asia collection and she travelled extensively in India and made an exhibition on Indian popular culture. She was also the chief curator of a major exhibition on Brazil, which incorporated some results from her fieldwork. In 1987 she returned to Brazil for a fieldwork update, which resulted in a book, published in Danish in 1995 and in German in 1999.
She had then left the museum world and for some years been an independent consultant, followed by a stipend (Senior Stipendiat) at the Department of Anthropology at the University of Copenhagen. This was before the Ph.D. degree has been implemented at the Department. Without prospects of a career in the academic world, and with communication to a wider public as a steady interest throughout her work, the choice of publishing a book with a commercial publisher, and in Danish, was a deliberate one.After some years in the NGO world as the Director of IWGIA, The International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs, she returned to the Department of Anthropology in 1998 as an associate professor.
Communication to the public has continued to be of high priority in her work, and she has recently published a book on the material turn in anthropology, as well as a textbook for students on theory of science and philosophy in anthropology.  
Sjørslev’s multifaceted background has revealed itself both in her research, teaching and publications. A steady interest has, however, been performance and ritual, which was her fieldwork topic in Brazil. The museum background has strengthened her attention to materiality and aesthetics, and she has done a study on housing and material culture in Denmark. Setting out from her NGO and human rights work, she has also pursued her interest in political anthropology, co-editing a book on political culture in Denmark, and recently through a research project on performance and politics.

Inger Sjørslev is currently supervising the following PhD projects: 

• 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.