"The very first words of a language made one reexamine who one was... nor did you speak the truth when you learned a new language; You said whatever you could with the words you had, and you spent a long while in kindergarten simplicity, in the sunshine of perpetual present tense."
- Kiran Desai

Job Opportunity!

University of Zurich
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences

Professorship for Africa (open rank)

Focus: Sub-Saharan African societies and their complex relations with Europe and the world, late 19th-early 21st century.

networks.h-net.org/jobs/69543/u...

"The Commonwealth Requires the Education of the People as the Safeguard of Order and Liberty" - Reflecting in the @bostonlib.bsky.social Public Library, post- #aarsbl25 and pre-flight, on the meaning and layers of #freedom & #liberty...

Such a treat to attend #aarsbl25 and introduce my new book, 'Palestinian Evangelicals and Global Evangelicalism' (global.oup.com/academic/pro...)! Discount code for all pre-orders still active!

Thoroughly inspired by all the conversations & talks!

@aarweb.bsky.social @oxfordacademic.bsky.social

Book proof time!

**Palestinian Evangelicals and Global Evangelicalism. An Ethnography of Unequal Encounter**

Released later this year by Oxford University Press.

My 1st monograph, & I'm proud. Yet mostly, my heart is so heavy as I think of #Gaza.

I wish there was no need for this book at all😞

"Aber wer hat das Recht, zu bestimmen, was mehr und was weniger ist, wenn es um #Freiheit geht? Der Mann? Die Zeit? Die geographische Lage? Der Grad der Bildung? Oder sind es unsere Vorfahren, die die Ungerechtigkeit jahrhundertelang hingenommen haben?"
- Haneen Al-Sayegh, Das Unsichtbare Band

Just finished #teaching a 3 day master-level #anthropology workshop on "Refugee Rights" at @uni-konstanz.de with guest students from @uniheidelberg.bsky.social and @uni-freiburg.de. Included a 'student conference' with impressive presentations and a policy consultation simulation. My key win?🏅

🎶 "In the wake of violence ... we ask what we might need, how we might weather this time, how we might care for each other, how we might cultivate the space which encourages honesty, which encourages surrender. How we might build a small world, where we might feel beautiful, might feel free."

Here is a longer blog post in which I explain why humanitarian aid cannot go to the "state" of Myanmar - and to whom to donate instead:

judithbeyer.com/2025/03/29/h...

#whatshappeninginMyanmar

I recently had the pleasure of talking with Kari Anne Drangsland at @unibergen.bsky.social about the role of religious expertise in asylum hearings based on conversion in Germany, resulting in this #podcast:

m.soundcloud.com/refugeelives...

@fluchtforschung.bsky.social @refugeestudies.bsky.social

The German #election happened in the middle of the #carneval season: a classic example of Victor Turner's "anti-structure" I have often discussed with my students in my "Introduction to Anthropology" course. The images of people in costume 🤡 heading to the polls fit so well with the results -

Suggested changes: The far-right AfD, backed by JD Vance and Elon Musk, was rejected by 80 percent of voters, exit polls suggest. Mainstream parties plan to form a coalition without them because voters don't want them to govern.

„[J]ust remember that your real job is that if you are free, you need to free somebody else. If you have some power, then your job is to empower somebody else. This is not just a grab-bag candy game.“

Toni Morrison

Here to build the good community, networks, pool of information, and sounding board that I enjoyed on the *other* platform. Posting as anthropologist of law, religion, migration - and general human living in this ☄️moment. Just trying to stay sane, empathetic, courageous, and not give up imagining ⛅️

"What's the point of staying?"

"The point? ... The point is that we're here. The point is that we deserve better. The point is that you're not noble for slinking off and pretending like it's nothing." ...

He was beginning to see that for his family keeping quiet meant a ground stable enough to...

As the world goes crazier by the hour, I seek solace in books, novels. Somehow they keep open a space to breathe, think, dream, resist. One of the most poignant (prophetic?) this year has been Celeste Ng's @pronounced-ing.bsky.social "Our Missing Hearts", where libraries are literally a life line.

"I long to put the final period, so we might begin again – even if the beginning is painful. But there is no period. No closure. No end."

Beautifully crafted (if heartbreaking) report from a journalist returning to Gaza's North:
www.aljazeera.com/features/202...

English translation included