dr. Younes Saramifar, Dr

I am an interdisciplinary scholar researching narratives of domination and political storytelling of religious populism. I play interdisciplinarity by practicing ethnography and yoyoing between humanities and social sciences to rediscover the familiar in unfamiliar ways. I approach my research through objects and bodies configured through history and collective memory. I follow these questions through approaches of Material Religion, Visual Studies, Intersectional Feminism, Critical Race Theory, and Speculative Realism. I begin with the mundane affairs of everyday life and end up in the weirdest and lesser-explored corners of existence. Please be aware of the madness before coming closer!

I have been educated and worked internationally. Undergraduates in Iran, postgraduate, and my first PhD (2016, passed without revision) in India. I was trained by the prominent subaltern feminist sociologist Sharmila Rege, as well as critical thinkers such as Professor Deepak Mehta. Then, I pursued a second PhD (2020, Cum Laude) in Cultural Anthropology in the Netherlands to demonstrate my worth to the "white academia." 

You can watch a short introduction to my work on violence here 

1. I take part in the editorial team of American Ethnologist & the Journal of Politics, Religion, and Ideology 

 I teach

•  MA and ReMa Specialised Tutorial 
• History & Ethnography
• Personal is Political 
• The Middle East in the Contemporary History
• Current Debates in the Global History 
• Global Migration History 

I am currently supervising these PhD candidates:

• Nebil Kusmallah on Unbearable Lightness of Agency: Exploring the Lives and Aspirations of Unaccompanied Eritrean Refugee Minors in NL
• Natalia Guzevataya on Decolonization and Politics of Time among Ukrainian Diaspora
• Behzad Kedri, Kurdish Feminism and Women Life Freedom
• Ola Plonska: Masculinities and Sexual Citizenship among Dutch Youth (NWO Grant)
• Ziyuan Yang: Neglected areas? Untold Stories of Abstract Motifs: A Study of the Visuality and Materiality of Delftware Patterns (CSC-funded)
   

• Nomination for Teacher Talent Prize 2016-2017, FSW, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
• Nomination for Teacher Talent Prize 2017-2018, FSW, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
• Peter Baehr Prize for Best Research proposal 2017
• Vrije Universiteit Research Fellowship 
•  Humboldt University fellowship
• Vrije Universiteit, FSW, Best doctoral dissertation award
• Niels Stensen University Fellowship @ Aarhus University 

No ancillary activities

Ancillary activities are updated daily

• Einstein Foundation Berlin, Reserach Grant 
• Gerda Henkel Foundation, Research Grant