Lena Rose

They killed 180 children and their teachers in a double-tap strike on a school. The girls were 7 to 12 years old.

A wonderful "co-supervisor moment": to welcome @olavfossdal.bsky.social for his research stay at @uni-konstanz.de this week! His work on asylum & religion is 🌟. So looking forward to honing both our research & writing on this over the next months!

www.soziologie.uni-konstanz.de/beyer/team/a...

Such a joy to celebrate with you all - thank you for the lovely surprise and of course all support!! 🥂💐📕

Congrats Lena! written with chalk on a board, Lena posing with flowers and her book, laughing!

Today we celebrated @lena-rose22.bsky.social |s first monograph “Palestinian Evangelicals and Global Evangelicalism” (@oxfordunipress.bsky.social) in our #anthropology research colloquium @uni-konstanz.de!
Congratulations, Lena! So very well done - I am really proud of you! 💫💐📕🎉💫

Huge congratulations to former DPhil student @lena-rose22.bsky.social on the publication of her first book, Palestinian Evangelicals and Global Evangelicalism, based on her doctoral work at COMPAS.

📖🔗 academic.oup.com/book/61650

First encounter with my new book, "Palestinian Evangelicals and Global Evangelicalism"!

A moment to celebrate 🥳

Get your copy here: academic.oup.com/book/61650

@oxford-anthro.bsky.social @uni-konstanz.de @aarweb.bsky.social @oxfordcsls.bsky.social @ox.ac.uk

The book is HERE! Watch me unbox it - full of suspense and relief. Such a big moment to finally hold my first monograph in my hands 🎉

*Palestinian Evangelicals and Global Evangelicalism* by @oxfordunipress.bsky.social, series by @aarweb.bsky.social

"The very first words of a language made one reexamine who one was... nor did you speak the truth when you learned a new language; You said whatever you could with the words you had, and you spent a long while in kindergarten simplicity, in the sunshine of perpetual present tense."
- Kiran Desai

Job Opportunity!

University of Zurich
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences

Professorship for Africa (open rank)

Focus: Sub-Saharan African societies and their complex relations with Europe and the world, late 19th-early 21st century.

networks.h-net.org/jobs/69543/u...

So thankful for such (and many more!) wonderful, inspiring people to think with in this crazy world, as we all disperse back to our local contexts 🙏

I followed some fantastic panels discussing the cost /impossibility of religious, theological, political liberty and can't wait to dig anew into the highlighted books by @monaoraby.bsky.social, Beth Hurd, Kirsten Wesselhoefft, Deanna Womack, Valentina Napolitano, @clukasik.bsky.social ...

At Faneuil Hall gift shop, these displays sit next to each other, too. You can buy a "Betsy the colonial girl" sticker book as well as a underground railroad children's playbook, side by side. Which and whose history gets celebrated?

Plaque commemorating slave labour with a statue of a black woman in the background

There is some reckoning on the red "freedom trail" with the slave labor and history that enabled white life in the colonies, but it feels like an afterthought - not central. What does #freedom cost, and who carries that cost? What other freedoms are eclipsed in the pursuit of liberty??

Map of Boston showing two separately coloured trails

On the local level, there are *two* "freedom trails" in @boston.gov, one tracking independence from the British (red), one tracking black heritage and ways in which people assisted others in gaining freedom from slavery (blue). How can they be separate? What does this say about the city/country?

Iron door opening onto marble floor inside the library, with a chandelier reflection in different places

"The Commonwealth Requires the Education of the People as the Safeguard of Order and Liberty" - Reflecting in the @bostonlib.bsky.social Public Library, post- #aarsbl25 and pre-flight, on the meaning and layers of #freedom & #liberty...

Book cover and discount code AUFLY30

Such a treat to attend #aarsbl25 and introduce my new book, 'Palestinian Evangelicals and Global Evangelicalism' (global.oup.com/academic/pro...)! Discount code for all pre-orders still active!

Thoroughly inspired by all the conversations & talks!

@aarweb.bsky.social @oxfordacademic.bsky.social

Book proof time!

**Palestinian Evangelicals and Global Evangelicalism. An Ethnography of Unequal Encounter**

Released later this year by Oxford University Press.

My 1st monograph, & I'm proud. Yet mostly, my heart is so heavy as I think of #Gaza.

I wish there was no need for this book at all😞

"Aber wer hat das Recht, zu bestimmen, was mehr und was weniger ist, wenn es um #Freiheit geht? Der Mann? Die Zeit? Die geographische Lage? Der Grad der Bildung? Oder sind es unsere Vorfahren, die die Ungerechtigkeit jahrhundertelang hingenommen haben?"
- Haneen Al-Sayegh, Das Unsichtbare Band

Student feedback:

💥"It's amazing to see what Anthropology can contribute to complex policy issues"

💥"I'm newly inspired to use my anthropological training in the real world"

💥"I understand how anthropologists can mediate in protracted conflict because they can untangle the perspectives"

Students learnt about how human/refugee rights can be instrumentalized by different actors and the way in which legal frameworks structure refugee experiences in a vast array of contexts - particularly through waiting. We thought about whether refugeehood can end for a person/group, and when?

Just finished #teaching a 3 day master-level #anthropology workshop on "Refugee Rights" at @uni-konstanz.de with guest students from @uniheidelberg.bsky.social and @uni-freiburg.de. Included a 'student conference' with impressive presentations and a policy consultation simulation. My key win?🏅

Quote by Caleb Azumah Nelson, Small Worlds. Highly recommend!

🎶 "In the wake of violence ... we ask what we might need, how we might weather this time, how we might care for each other, how we might cultivate the space which encourages honesty, which encourages surrender. How we might build a small world, where we might feel beautiful, might feel free."

Here is a longer blog post in which I explain why humanitarian aid cannot go to the "state" of Myanmar - and to whom to donate instead:

judithbeyer.com/2025/03/29/h...

#whatshappeninginMyanmar

@oxfordcsls.bsky.social @uni-konstanz.de @compasoxford.bsky.social @migobs.bsky.social

The contested role of religious expertise in asylum adjudications Stream The contested role of religious expertise in asylum adjudications by Refugee law and refugee lives on desktop and mobile. Play over 320 million tracks for free on SoundCloud.

I recently had the pleasure of talking with Kari Anne Drangsland at @unibergen.bsky.social about the role of religious expertise in asylum hearings based on conversion in Germany, resulting in this #podcast:

m.soundcloud.com/refugeelives...

@fluchtforschung.bsky.social @refugeestudies.bsky.social

I also loved this!

- if we interpret the right shift as protest vote, "anti-structure" (there are other interpretations too of course). Here's the full article (paywall hence screenshot above):
www.suedkurier.de/region/kreis...

Screenshot of part of a local newspaper article, headed by a photo by Gerald Jarausch. It shows a queue of people in traditional carneval costumes at the entrance of a classroom in a school which functions as polling Station (which is indicated by a white label in the foreground). The article itself appeared in the local newspaper "Suedkurier" and was written by Anna-Maria Schneider.

The German #election happened in the middle of the #carneval season: a classic example of Victor Turner's "anti-structure" I have often discussed with my students in my "Introduction to Anthropology" course. The images of people in costume 🤡 heading to the polls fit so well with the results -

Suggested changes: The far-right AfD, backed by JD Vance and Elon Musk, was rejected by 80 percent of voters, exit polls suggest. Mainstream parties plan to form a coalition without them because voters don't want them to govern.