Institut für Ethnologie
25.11.2025: Vortrag im Ethnologischen Kolloquium von Valerio Simoni
19. November 2025, von Christina Fastner
Valerio Simoni (Institute of Social Sciences, University of Lisbon) zum Thema:
The Comfort of the Unmarked? Dwelling beyond the Returnee Condition in Cuba
In this presentation, I reflect on the intersection of the anthropology of ethics and morality, economic anthropology, and (return) migration studies. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork with Cuban returnees (mostly men) between 2018 and 2022, I start by briefly reviewing the pressures they face upon returning to the island—particularly the pervasive moral and economic demands to “make a difference,” which affirm their status as (ex)migrants while simultaneously burdening them with expectations they often struggle to fulfil. While my previous work examined how returnees reflexively respond to such demands, I shift the analytical focus here to fleeting, apparently anodyne, and easily overlooked moments in which returnees manage to—while social pressure temporarily recedes— evade or forget their identification as (ex)migrants. These moments include, among others, playing dominoes, fishing, love affairs, partying, or eking out a living through everyday efforts and hustles that do not depend on migrant privilege or exceptionalism. In such instances, they find comfort in blending in and temporarily stepping outside the hyper-reflexive mode that return often imposes. By attending to these spaces of pleasure and dwelling—and to their ambiguous conditions of (im)possibility—I seek to offer a contribution to ongoing debates at the intersection of migration, ethics, and economic life, especially in contexts shaped by enduring concerns with difference and inequality.
Wir freuen uns sehr auf den Vortrag, zu dem wir alle interessierten Personen herzlich einladen.
Das Kolloquium findet immer dienstags im großen Seminarraum des Instituts statt:
Institut für Ethnologie
Seminarraum 222, 2. OG
Edmund-Siemers-Allee 1, Westflügel
20146 Hamburg