Sinah Theres Kloß
I'm a social anthropologist, working at the Morphomata Center for Advanced Studies at the University of Cologne. My main research areas are the anthropology of religion; material culture studies; body politics and embodiment; tattoo, clothing and dress; transnational migration; and Southern theory. My regional focus is on the Caribbean, especially Guyana and Suriname (and the diaspora), but I also specialize in the transcultural flows between India and the Caribbean.
News
Talk @ DGSKA-Conference Das Ende der Aushandlungen?, Konstanz, Germany
"Multisensorische Tattoos: Embodiment, Klang und Ästhetik in hinduistischen Tätowier-Praktiken”
September 30, 2019
Research Article
"Giving to Mother Ganga: Gift Exchange, Social Hierarchy and the Notion of Pollution in Transnational Guyanese Hindu Communities."
In: Re-Imagining the Guyanas (eds. Lawrence Aje, Thomas Lacroix, Judith Mizrahi-Barak), Montpellier: Presses universitaires de la Méditerranée, pp. 215-228.
Talk @ Workshop "Gender, Intersectionality and Dependency", Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies, University of Bonn, Germany
"Marking Bodies, Making Wives: Ritual Tattoos and Gender Relations in Caribbean Hindu Communities"
July 18-19, 2019
Call for Papers (Young Researchers) @ Herrenhausen Symposium, Hannover, Germany
North and South: Forms of Inequality within International Politics of Scientific Production
organized by Barbara Potthast, Claudio Pinheiro and Sinah Kloß
June 29-July 1, 2020
Deadline for CfP: July 15, 2019
Talk @ University of Cologne, Germany
"'Just another mark he gave me': Tattoo Narratives and Body Politics in Caribbean Hindu Communities"
Contrast and Complementary Figures for Portraiture and Biography
July 2, 2019; 3:30pm
Panel @ Conference Contrast and Complementary Figures for Portraiture and Biography, University of Cologne (with Antonia Villinger)
"Embodied Life Writing: Bodies, Contrasts, and Complementarity"
July 2, 2019
Talk @ University of Virginia, USA
"Sensory Histories of Tattoo: A Transcultural Perspective from the Guyanese-Surinamese Border Region"
March 29-30, 2019
Latest Book
Forthcoming
Tattoo Histories: Transcultural Perspectives on the Narratives, Practices, and Representations of Tattooing.
Edited Volume
New York: Routledge (Routledge Studies in Cultural History).
Tattoo Histories is an edited volume in which the relevance of tattooing in the socio-cultural construction of bodies, boundaries, and identities, among both individuals and groups, is analysed and discussed. Its interdisciplinary approach facilitates historical as well as contemporary perspectives. Rather than presenting a universal, essentialized history of tattooing, the volume’s objective is to focus on the entangled and transcultural histories, narratives, and practices related to tattoos. Contributions stem from various fields, including Archaeology, Art History, Classics, History, Linguistics, Media and Literary Studies, Social and Cultural Anthropology, and Sociology.
Upcoming Events
Conference @ Schloss Herrenhausen, Hannover, Germany
North and South: Forms of Inequality within International Politics of Scientific Production
organized by Barbara Potthast, Claudio Pinheiro and Sinah Kloß
June 29-July 1, 2020
Conference @ Morphomata Center for Advanced Studies, University of Cologne
Kontextwechsel
organized by Dietrich Boschung, Thierry Greub, Sinah Kloß and Thoralf Schröder
February 5-7, 2020
Past Events
Tätowierungen: Zwischen Mode und Tradition (Tattoos: Between Fashion and Tradition)
November 30, 2018
VHS Forum, Cologne
Talks and roundtable discussion organized by Moritz Berg and Sinah Kloß