Sinah Theres Kloß

I'm a social anthropologist and research group leader at the Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies (BCDSS), University of Bonn, Germany. My main research areas are the anthropology of religion; body politics and embodiment; material culture studies; tattooing, clothing and dress; transnational migration; and Postcolonial and Southern theory. My regional focus is on the Caribbean, especially Guyana and Suriname, but I also specialize in the transcultural flows between India and the Caribbean.

News

Talk @ Workshop "Gendered Bodies"

"Durchlässige Körper: Ethnologische Annäherungen an körperliche Grenzen und Materialisierungsprozesse während Schwangerschaft und Geburt"

Vernetzungstreffen Medical Humanities

University of Siegen

July 5, 2024; 11:00-12:00

Book Chapter

“Tattooed Dependencies: Sensory Memory, Structural Violence and Narratives of Suffering among Caribbean Hindu Women,” In: Narratives of Dependency (eds. E. Brüggen and M. Gymnich), Berlin: De Gruyter, 347-365. DOI: 10.1515/9783111381824-016 (open access)

Journal Article

"Serving toward Release: Tattoos, Religious Work, and Coercion in Post-Indenture Communities."

Journal of Global Slavery 9 (2024): 17-42. DOI: 10.1163/2405836X-00901007

Book Chapter

“Talking History: Ethnographic Interviews, Intersectional Identities, and Power Negotiations in Research Encounters,” In: Un-Mapping the Global South (eds. G. Bauer, N. Hirschfelder and F. Resende), New York: Routledge, 37-54. DOI: 10.4324/9781003422853-4

Podcast Episode @ Exzellent erklärt - Spitzenforschung für alle

"Tätowierungen: Tattoos als Instrumente der Macht"

Feb. 1, 2024

Voted Equal Opportunity Representative of the Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies (BCDSS) for the period 12/2023-12/2025

December 15, 2023

Magazine Article @ Dependent

"All Money Spent: Celebrating '150 Years of Indian Immigration' in Suriname."

In: Dependent: The Magazine of the Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies, 2023 (2), pp. 36-39.

Talk @ CeMIS Kolloquium

"Tattoos and Sonic Imitation: Mantras, Purification and Body Tuning in Caribbean Hindu Communities"

Centre for Modern Indian Studies, University of Göttingen

November 22, 2023; 4-6pm

Talk @ Conference "Legacy of Slavery and Indentured Labour"

Anton de Kom Universiteit, Paramaribo, Suriname

"Godnas, Gurus and Gurmukh: Beyond Tattoos as Marks of Servitude and Resistance in Hindu Suriname and Guyana"

June 7, 2023; 10:30 am

Book Chapter

"‘We knew it!’: Caribbean Hindu Responses to Restrictions of Touch during COVID-19. 2023." In: CoronAsur: Asian Religions in the Covidian Age (eds. N. Lang, E. Larson, C. Lorea and E. Hertzman), University of Hawai‘i Press, pp. 129-133.

Head of Committee @ Socare e.V. (Society for Caribbean Research)

Elected as Head of Committee in the Socare Executive Board for the period March 2023 - March 2025