Jun.-Prof. Dr. Laila Prager
Jun.-Professor
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Please send enquiries by e-mail to Laila.Prager"AT"uni-hamburg.de
Documents for Laila Prager can be handed in to the secretary’s office at any time.
Contact
Curriculum Vitae
Since 04/2013 Assistant Professor (W1), Institute of Social & Cultural Anthropology, University of Hamburg
04/2011-03/2013 Senior Lecturer (Akademische Rätin), Institute of Ethnology at Münster University
04/2010-02/2011 Language and Culture Consultant at InterCultural Elements (E-Commerce; Leipzig)
01/2010 Doctorate in Social and Cultural Anthropology at the Westfälische Wilhelms-University of Münster; Title of the thesis „Die ‚Gemeinschaft des Hauses‘: Religion, Heiratsstrategien und transnationale Identität türkischer Alawi/Nusairi-Migranten in Deutschland“ (‘The People oft he House‘ - Religion, Marriage Choices, and Transnational Identity of the Alawi / Nusairy migrants in Germany)
02/2009-06/2010 Research Fellow at the University of Leipzig (project A3, SFB 586); financed by the German Research Foundation
02/2007-07/2008 Research Fellow at Münster University (project: "Socio-religious identity and inter-religious relations among the Alawi of Turkey); financed by the German Research Foundation
02/2005-04/2005 Internship at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo
02/2005 Magister degree in Social and Cultural Anthropology, Modern History, and Pre-History at the Westfälische Wilhelms-University of Münster; Title of the Magister thesis: „Das Verwandtschaftssystem der Alawiten (Türkei): eine empirisch-ethnologische Untersuchung“ (Kinship System of the Alawi (Turkey): an empirical anthropological analysis
1998 - 2005 Magister studies in Social and Cultural Anthropology, Modern History, and Pre-History at the Westfälische Wilhelms-University of Münster;
01/2002-06/2006 Erasmus: Social and Cultural Anthropology at the École des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) in Paris
1978 Born in Emsdetten, Germany
Research Interests
- Kinship and Gender
- Medical Anthropology
- Migration and Transnationalism
- Heritage construction (museums, festivals, media, etc.)
- Islam and "heterodox" religious groups
- Anthropology of the Middle East (Turkey, Syria, Jordan, UAE, Palestinian diaspora, and Muslim Migrants in Germany and Europe
Publications
Prager, L.. “The Miracle of Rebirth: Stigmata, Transmigration, and the Remembrance of Former Lives in Alawi Religion”. (2016): S. 281-310.(PDF)
Prof. Prager, L., M. Prager, G. Sprenger. “Parts and Wholes: Essays on Social Morphology, Cosmology, and Exchange in Honour of J.D.M. Platenkamp”. (2016) (zum PDF)
Prager, L.. “The Mnemonic Body: Cycles of rebirth and the remembrance of former lives in Alawi religion”. Körper, Sexualität und Medizin in muslimischen Gesellschaften. Hg. Patrick Franke, Susanne Kurz & Claudia Preckel . Bamberg: Univ. of Bamber Press, 2015 Forthcoming, S. ..
Prager, L.. ““Dangerous liaisons”: Modern bio-medical discourses and changing practices of cousin marriage in Southeastern Turkey”. Cousin Marriages and the Medicalisation of Spouse Selection. Hg. Alison Shaw and Aviad Raz. New York / Oxford: Berghan Books, 2015 Forthcoming, S. ..
Prager, L.. “Bedouinity on Stage. The Rise of The Bedouin Soup Opera (Musalsal Badawi) in Arab Television”. Reshaping Tribal Identities in the contemporary Arab World, Special Issue Nomadic Peoples 18(2). (2014): S. 53-77.
Book reviews
2013 Book review Gokalp, Altan: Têtes rouges et bouches noires et autres écrits. Paris: CNRS Editions, 2011. 566 pp. Anthropos 108,1: 318-319.
Projects
Current research projects
Heritage discourses in the Middle East: Auto-Orientalism, Tribalism and Bedouinity as markers of modern national and transnational identities
Matrifocality in the Arab World
Alawi / Alawites: Religious and Ritual Change
Completed research projects
2009-2010 Project A3: The tribal confederation of the Anezeh-Bedouins: history and memory of a Bedouin group in Syria, from 1800 to 1950. Collaborative research group 586 (Halle-Leipzig); financed by the German Research Foundation.
2007-2008 Socio-religious identity and inter-religious relations among the Alawi of Turkey; Münster University; financed by the German Research Foundation
Conference Papers and panel/workshop organizations
Juni 2014 "Was ist Ethnologie?" im Rahmen der Ringvorlesung "Was sind Geisteswissenschaften? Theorie und Praxis der Geisteswissenschaften" an der Universität Hamburg, 26.06.2014.
Juni 2014 "Displaying Tribalism: From Static Representation to the Living Museum" Museums in Arabia Conference, Doha, Qatar. Financed by UCL Qatar, 13.-16.06.2014.
April 2014 Beduinische Soap Operas im Nahen und Mittleren Osten: Cultural Heritage zwischen Partikularismus, Nationalismus und Transnationalismus im Rahmen des Institutskolloquiums des Instituts für Ethnologie der Universität Hamburg, 15.04.2014.
Februar 2014 "Reshaping Tribal Identities in the Contemporary Arab World", Sociology Department der Universität in al-Ain, Abu Dhabi, Vereinigte Arabische Emirate, 18.02.2014
Dezember 2013 "Alawitische Pilgerorte und interreligiöse Konflikte in der Südosttürkei (Hatay)". Vortrag im Rahmen des Institutskolloquiums des Instituts für Ethnologie der Ludwigs-Maximilians-Universität München, 16.12.2013
Dezember 2013 "Female centered households and emerging forms of women's political agency", Workshop: Regime Change and the Participation of Women in Decision-Making and New Avenues for Political Influence for Women in the Arab Region." in Tunis (Tunesien); finanziert vom Centre of Arab Women for Training & Research, 7.-8.12.2013
Oktober 2013 "Struggling for masculinity in the modern world: The case of urban middle class Palestinians in Amman." Panel: The Anthropology of Men, Family and Parenting in the Contemporary Middle East auf der Middle East American Association (MESA)-Konferenz, New Orleans, 10.-13.10.2013
November 2012 "'Klageweiber' - Trauerrituale im Islam." Im Zusammenhang der Ethnologie in Schulde und Erwachsenenbildung e.V., Trauerhalle Münster, 18.11.2012
November 2012 "Umstrittene 'heilige' Orte: Alawitische ziyāra-Tradition und interreligiöse Konflikte (Christen, Sunniten, Alawiten) in der kontemporären Hatay-Region (Türkei), Gastvortrag am Orientalischen Institut, Universität Leipzig, 14.11.12
Oktober 2012 "Villages of Women Left Behind Uni-sex Migration and the Redefinition of Gender Among the Alawi (Nusairy) of Southeast Turkey": Panel: Genderkonzepte in der Türkei. DAVO-Kongress, Erlangen, 4.10.2012
Juli 2012 "Transnationale Beziehungen: Das Beispiel des neuen Zuwanderungsgesetzes von 2008", Kolloqium der Ethnologie in Schule und Erwachsenenbildung e.V., Universität Münster, 2.7.2012
Juni 2012 "Nach dem Orientalismus: Herausforderungen einer zeitgenössischen ethnologie des Nahen und Mittleren Ostens." Universität Hamburg, 22.06.2012
Dezember 2011 Organisation des Workshops (mit Patrick Franke): Beyond the 'patriarchal family': Forms of uxori-/matrilocality and matrifocality in Islamic Societies. Past and Present, Universität Bamberg, 9.-10.12.2011
Dezember 2011 "Women on their own: Recasting Gender and Family in the Middle East"; Workshop: Beyond the 'patriarchal family': Forms of uxori-/matrilocality and matrifocality in Islamic Societies. Past and Present, Universität Bamberg, 10.12.2011
November 2011 "From Shared 'Blood' to 'Religious Genes': Modern Bio-medical Discourses and Changing Practices of Cousin Marriage in Southeastern Turkey." Seminarreihe: Fertility and Reproduction Studies Group ("Cousin Marriages and the Mediaclisation of Spouse Selection") Universität Oxford, 07.11.2011
September 2011 "Transnational Connections and the Paradoxes of Immigration policy: The case of the Turkish Alawi Migrants in Germany"; Panel: The "Integration Debate" and Modes of Incorporation - Looking at Diasporas from Turkey; DGV Konferenz, Wien, 16.09.2011
November 2010 Organisation des Panels: Contextualizing Bedouin History in the 21st Century: Anthropological and Historical Perspectives; MESA (Middle East Studies Association), San Diego, 19.11.2010
November 2010 "Performing Tribal Histories in Bedouin TV-series (musalsal bedawi). Diverging Aims, Addressees and Self-Perceptions of Tribal Film Making in Syria and Jordan"; MESA San Diego, 19.11.2010
September 2010 "Die Zeichen der Wiedergeburt: Körper, Stigmata und Religion bei den Alawiten/Nusairier"; Panel: Körper, Sexualität und Medizin in islamisch geprägten Kulturen, Orientalistentage (DAVO) Marburg, 23.09.2010
Juli 2010 "Alawi ziyara Tradition and its Inter-religious Dimensions: Sacred Places and Their Contested Meanings in Contemporary Hatay (Turkey)"; Panel: Late Ottoman/Post-Ottoman Heterodox Communities auf dem Weltkongres für Middle Eastern Studies, Barcelona, 23.07.2010
November 2009 Organisation des Workshops (mit Nadine Quenouille): "Repräsentation" des SFB 586: Differenz und Integration; Halle, 6.11.2009
November 2009 "Das Kamelrennen in Tadmur/Palmyra (Syrien). Repräsentation der beduinischen Identität in der Moderne"; Workshop: "Repräsentation" des SFB 586: Differenz und Integration; Halle, 6.11.2009
September 2009 "'Depression' and the Unspeakable: Migration, Conflict, and Gendered Healing Among the Alawi/Nusairy of Southeast Turkey"; Panel "Troubled Lives - Healed Bodies: Perspectives on Conflict, Suffering and Compassion in the Middle East and Western Asia"; Konferenz: "Medical Anthropology at the Intersections", Universität Yale, 26.09.2009
November 2008 "A Society of "Wives without Husbands", Panel: (NP07) Contemporary Ethnographie from the Middle East bei der MESA-Konferenz, Washington D.C., 23.11.2008
Mai 2007 Des âmes sexuées et des gènes religieux: procréation, substance et mjétempsychose chez les Alawites/Nosairis (Turquie)", Panel: "Pour une Anthropologie du Souffle"; im Centre Louis Gernet, Institut National d'Histoire de l'Art, organisiert von Manrique & Barra, Paris 02.05.2007
Awards
Oktober 2010 Forschungsförderungspreis der Frobenius Gesellschaft, Frankfurt (Academic distinction for anthropological research and publication: "Die Gemeinschaft des Hauses")