By Mohammad Amer It was not the first time I was asked about my ‘actual’ surname or, achternaam, as they say in Dutch. This time was during my introductory meeting with the FSW staff at the VU. I have been dealing with this question now for over a decade. Years ago my Dutch language teacher called me ‘Mohammad’ following the order of my full name ‘Mohammad Amer’. I told her that ‘I am called ‘Amer’, and if you call me ‘Mohammad’ I might not respond to you’. She said ‘that means Amer is your, roepnaam’ (meaning, in Dutch, literally the name people call you)? ‘Kind of’, I told her. Thus she noted my name as ‘Amer, Mohammad Amer’ on the attendance list. I accepted that as it sounded quite lyrical whenever she spoke it.
Entries tagged as ‘fieldwork’
Migration and the politics of names
27/05/2010 · Geef een reactie
Categorieën: Identiteit & Religie · Multicultureel & Migratie
getagged: caste system, Dutch culture, fieldwork, migration, names, Pakistan
Fieldwork 2010: Staging the field
04/05/2010 · 1 reactie
Photo by Clarence Sinclair Bull
By Rachel Visscher The colour of the hat was brown, the kind of brown a nice piece of chocolate has.
Every Sunday during the church sermons the chocolate-brown hat encapsulated my head. Its shape reminded me of the hats that are often seen in old twenties’ movies. Classical, yet slightly funny on the sides, a hat worn by the heroine of a film, an intriguing woman with a pale skin and smoky eyes.
The smoky eyes I did not have. They would not have been allowed in the orthodox Dutch Reformed church around which my anthropological fieldwork revolved. The pale skin, however, I did have, as an inevitable consequence of three months of fieldwork during wintertime. (meer…)
Categorieën: Antropologie & Wetenschap · De Lage Landen · English posts · Identiteit & Religie
getagged: christenen, Christians, church, fieldwork, Fieldwork 2010, hats, kerk, Rachel Visscher, religion in the Netherlands
Fieldwork 2010: Moscow (2): a bloody romance
09/03/2010 · 4 reacties
Laura van Deventer. Foto Mirjam Dorgelo.
In part 5 of the fieldwork 2010 series, Laura van Deventer posts an update on her research in Moscow.
A few weeks ago I told you about my arrival, getting settled and first contacts with the ‘N’. Some of you have inquired about this mysterious group – who are they, what am I doing here? Although I can answer the second question, and will try to do so in this post, I will not disclose what group it is I am doing research among. This is for security reasons. The ‘N’ have received some harsh treatment in the past and me mixing with them and gathering data about that, well, I’m just not quite sure if the authorities applaud that. Once I’m back in April, I’ll make it public, promised! (meer…)
Categorieën: Discriminatie & Man/vrouw · English posts · Identiteit & Religie · Multicultureel & Migratie · Regio Europa
getagged: Field, fieldwork, Fieldwork 2010, Moskou, Rusland, veldwerk, Veldwerk 2010
Fieldwork 2010: “I felt like a brugklasser (freshman) all over again!”
02/03/2010 · Geef een reactie
Francien Barske
In part 4 of the fieldwork 2010 series, Francien Barske tells us how it is to go back to highschool…
Over the past seven weeks, I have been researching Hyves misuse and online identity forming among young adolescents in two Dutch high schools, one in Amsterdam and one in Limburg. How does the social network site Hyves influence identity forming of young adolescents in the Netherlands and how do adolescents use Hyves-pages for creating new (online) relationships or misuse it as a tool for e-bullying? Not the most common research topic when thinking of Social & Cultural Anthropology, however, very ‘hot’ at the moment and not boring at all!
The first days of my research were, of course, terrifying, even though I am staying in the Netherlands, I felt like a stranger. (meer…)
Categorieën: Antropologie & Wetenschap · De Lage Landen · English posts · Muziek/Kunst & Media
getagged: e-bullying, fieldwork, Fieldwork 2010, Francien Barske, Hyves, network sites, participant observation in schools
Fieldwork 2010: Right around the corner…
22/02/2010 · 1 reactie
In part 3 of the Fieldwork 2010 series Master’s student Katie Rabar tells us about her first impressions as a researcher of asylum seekers in Holland.
One of the biggest challenges I’ve found in finding a research site is that I only speak one language fluently. For me that’s English, and I chose to conduct my research here in the Netherlands, in Noord Holland, looking at how asylum seekers experience and construct ‘home’. I speak only a tiny bit of Dutch and I’ve sat through hours of classes at my fieldsite where every language was being spoken but English. This means putting into practice all the language skills I have acquired growing up, and I am able to understand a variety of languages with some proficiency but responding… well, not so easy. (meer…)
Categorieën: De Lage Landen · English posts · Multicultureel & Migratie
getagged: anthropology, asylum seekers, fieldwork, Fieldwork 2010, Katie Rabar, master
The anthropology of athletes
29/01/2010 · Geef een reactie
Doing anthropological fieldwork is not always easy. That’s what Kamiel Arents found out last year when he did his Master’s in social and cultural anthropology at the VU. He made a short film about his fieldwork, giving an informative and funny impression of what it can be like to do anthropology. Kamiel had decided to go to London to study athletes training for the Olympic Games in 2012. He soon realized that there were quite a few hurdles he had to face himself to make his project work.
(meer…)
Categorieën: Antropologie & Wetenschap · English posts · Regio Europa
getagged: anthropology, athletes, fieldwork, Kamiel Arents, olympic games 2012, video
Master Conference & Golden Moose
24/12/2009 · 1 reactie
Master's conference 2009 at the VU
Last Thursday our department organized a “Master’s Conference”, a study-day in which our master’s students presented their research plans. After having worked incredibly hard to finish these plans in time, the students will all go off “in the field” in January for their individual 3-months research projects. The end of this conference entailed a little suprise for the editors of this weblog, who were awarded the Golden Gooze 2009…! (meer…)
Categorieën: Antropologie & Wetenschap · De Lage Landen · English posts
getagged: anthropology, fieldwork, golden moose, malinowski, master's program
