Current Position

Senior Research Fellow, Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology

Education

1992 PhD in Anthropology, University of Adelaide, South Australia.

Dissertation title: ‘Social Constructions of the Past and Their Significance in the Bulgarian Socialist State’.

1984 Honours in Anthropology, University of Adelaide, South Australia.

Dissertation title: An analysis of the media campaign for UN designated ‘International Year of Disabled Persons 1981’

1981-83

Bachelor of Arts, University of Adelaide, South Australia

Professional Positions

2003-2006 Lead researcher (with Frances Pine), on project funded by Volkswagen Foundation, titled: Political, Economic and Social Inclusion and Exclusion in Poland and Bulgaria.

1999 - Senior research fellow, Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Halle, Germany

1992-1999 Post-doctoral Research Associate, Dept. of Social Anthropology, University of Cambridge, UK

1992-1994 Visiting Research Fellow, King's College, Cambridge, UK

Consultancies:

2005 Founding partner and senior consultant of Anthropological Consultancy. See www.anthropologyconsultants.com and www.anthropologyconsultants.co.uk

1999-2001 For CEI Countries in Transition Project, Supported by Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, European Community & Municipality of Bologna, Co-ordinators: University of Bologna, Italy. The work involved giving presentations and offering advice to those carrying out the main research.

1997-1999 For Refugee Legal Centre (UN funded organisation), London, as well as a variety of private legal firms throughout the UK working with asylum seekers. Work included written reports for Judicial Reviews concerning asylum cases and/or verbal advice.

Teaching Experience

2003-6 PhD Supervisor at Max Planck Institute

1993-1999 Casual lecturing for postsocialist course and for first year anthropology undergraduates, University of Cambridge, UK.

Supervision of MPhil students. University of Cambridge, UK.

• Tutor for first year anthropology students, University of Adelaide, South Australia.

Reasearch Awards:

2003-2006 Volkswagen Foundation Grant for project on ‘Political, Economic and Social Inclusion and Exclusion in Bulgaria and Poland’.

1995 Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, Richard Carley Hunt Postdoctoral Fellowship, U.S.A.

1994 Nuffield Small Grant in the Social Sciences, U.K.

1992-93 George Murray Scholarship for Post-doctoral Research,

University of Adelaide.

1990-91 Australian Academy of the Humanities travel grant,

Canberra.

1985-89 Commonwealth Postgraduate Research Award.

Fieldwork:

Field Research in Bulgaria

I have lived both in urban and rural areas of the country amounting to a period of almost 4 years since 1986, including: 1986-1988, 1992-1993 and almost every year since 1993. My most recent trip was April-July 2005.

Topics researched: local politics and the past, post socialist reforms - especially rural land and market reforms, property relations, emerging ethnic conflicts, newly emerging political elite, urban-rural migration, political and economic exclusion of disadvantaged groups (including minority groups), urban poverty and unemployment.

Field Research in Ukraine

I have lived over one year in both rural and urban contexts in southern Ukraine ( Odessa province) since 2000, returning to the country on a yearly basis. The most recent trip was: November 2003-February 2004.

Topics researched: post socialist reforms, role of western development projects, cultural property.

Field Research in Georgia

I spent a short period (two weeks in 2002) in Georgia in order to explore the possibility of conducting further fieldwork in the country. Topic researched: land reforms

Languages:

• fluent in English and Bulgarian
• good comprehension of Macedonian
• working knowledge of Russian
• intermediate German

Professional Associations and Activities

• founding member, International Association for Southeast European Anthropology (InASEA)
• member, European Association of Social Anthropologists (EASA)
• member, Australian Anthropological Association
• member, Europe and the Balkans International Network (co-ordinated by the University of Bologna, Italy)
• member of Editorial Board, Ethnologia Balkanica, Journal for Southeast European Anthropology

Recent Conferences

I have participated in a large number of conferences across Europe and the USA since the early 1990s. In more recent years I have convened panels at conferences. I have also organised several conferences that included scholars from around the world.

2005 Conference Organiser (jointly with Monica Heintz) of conference titled: Emerging Citizenship and Contested Identities between the Dniester, Prut and Danube Rivers. I also presented the opening paper at the event.

2005 Invited participant at British Council project titled ‘Conversations with Russia’, Moscow. Meeting theme: the economy.

2005 Paper presenter at InEASA conference on: Urban Life and Culture in Southeast Europe, Belgrade. Paper title: Properties for Sale: British Migration to Bulgaria and EU Integration.

2004 Poster presentation at 8 th Biennial EASA conference on: Face to Face: Connecting Distance and Proximity, Vienna. Poster title: The life and death of a western funded project in rural Ukraine.

2003 Paper presentation at 5 th Decennial Conference of the Association of Social Anthropologists of the UK and Commonwealth, conference on ‘Anthropology and Science’, Manchester. Paper title: The Science of Governance and Local Bulgarian Responses.

2002 Paper presentation at the AAA, New Orleans. Title of paper: (with B. Cellarius) The ‘unfairness’ of reform: property and inequality in postsocialist Bulgaria and Ukraine.

2002 Convener of panel at 7th Biennial EASA conference on ‘Engaging the World: Theoretical, Methodological and Political Challenges for a 21st Century Anthropology’, Copenhagen. Panel titled: Engaging with/in the Postsocialist World: Property and Anthropology.

2002 Conference Organiser (jointly with E. Kasten) of conference titled: A World of Cultures: Culture as Property in Anthropological Perspective. Halle, MPI. Also paper presentation: Culture for Sale:Rural Ukraine Identity and the Production of Cultural Objects.

2000 Conference Organiser of the inaugral InASEA conference. Sofia. Also, paper presentation: Researching property relations in post-socialist states.