Social Anthropology and ERC funding:
A webinar with SH3 panel coordinator Lionel Thelen and successful ERC StG grantees and EASA members Maddalena Gretel Cammelli, Tessa Diphoorn, and Elżbieta Drążkiewicz
The European Research Council (ERC) has been at the forefront of funding ground-breaking scientific research for the past 15 years.
What do the ERC schemes have to offer to scholars in Social Anthropology? How to get started with an application? How to increase your chances to get funding? What are the main hitches to avoid? These are all relevant questions that will be raised during this workshop. Do not hesitate to bring yours!
This webinar informed anthropologists about the changes brought to the 2024 programme, in particular those regarding anthropology, and to offer valuable information and tips and tricks from anthropologists who have recently been successful with their ERC Starting Grant applications.
The webinar was open to all anthropologists aiming to design and lead to their good end ground-breaking research projects.
Speakers:
Dr. Lionel Thelen, coordinator of panel SH3 - The Social World and Its Interactions
Dr. Maddalena Gretel Cammelli, University of Torino, ERC StG grantee for the project F-WORD (2022)
Dr. Tessa Diphoorn, Utrecht University, ERC StG grantee for the project ARMIES (2023)
Dr. Elżbieta Drążkiewicz, Lund University, ERC StG grantee for the project CONSPIRATIONS (2022)
The discussions will be chaired by Hayal Akarsu, Utrecht University and co-opted member of the EASA Executive Committee.
Dr. Lionel Thelen is Psycho-Anthropologist by background and has performed various fieldworks in Brazil and Europe about the comprehension – through ethnographic methods - of the various ways by which our own habitat impacts one’ social skills and delineates one’s (Self-) Consciousness. Since 2009, he has been working as Scientific Officer in the European Research Council (ERC). The ERC is – with regard to individual research teams – the most important funding body of the European Union for ALL Sciences and, concerning social sciences, one of the most generous worldwide. Lionel is especially in charge of core social sciences, id est Sociology, Criminology, Social Psychology, Education studies, Media & Communication studies, STS and, last but not least, Social Anthropology: on a yearly basis, he coordinates various evaluations of research proposals and scientifically monitors a portfolio of circa 50 funded projects.
Dr. Maddalena Gretel Cammelli (PhD Anthropology) is Associate professor in cultural anthropology at the Department Cultures, Politics and Society of the University of Turin, where she is also Principal Investigator of the ERC Starting Grant project The world behind a word. An anthropological exploration of fascist practices and meanings among European youth (F-WORD), started in May 2023. Her research interests range from political anthropology and social movements to the anthropology of fascism, the ethnography of neo-fascism and racism, and the local impact of immigration management in a logic of ’emergency response’.
Dr. Tessa Diphoornis an Associate Professor at the Department of Cultural Anthropology at Utrecht University. Her research focuses on policing, security,violence, and power and her research is primarily based in South Africa and Kenya. She is the author Twilight Policing. Private Security and Violence in Urban South Africa (University of California Press, 2016) and also conducted research on the various ways in which police (mis)conduct is documented and regulated in Nairobi, Kenya. In addition, Tessa Diphoorn is the co-host and co-founder of the podcast series Travelling Concepts on Air. Together with Brianne McGonigle Leyh, they explore the notion of travelling concepts in academia. In 2023, she was awarded the ERC Starting Grant on the project, ‘Making Sense of Communities of Armies’ (ARMIES). In this project, she will analyse the various ways firearms produce divergent communities in Brazil, Germany, and South Africa.
Dr. Elżbieta Drążkiewicz received her PhD in Social Anthropology from the University of Cambridge. She is a researcher at Lund University, where she is leading the ERC project CONSPIRATIONS, examining conflicts over conspiracy theories in Europe. She is also involved in the CHASE project REDACT analysing how digitalisation shapes the form, content, and consequences of conspiracy theories. Between 2014-2016 she held a Maria Skłodowska-Curie Fellowship at Maynooth University, where she also held the position of assistant professor. In addition to researching conflicts over truth, Dr Drążkiewicz is also researching democratic participation and the world of NGOs. She is the author of Institutionalised Dreams: the art of managing foreign aid (Berghahn, 2020).
