Invited Talks

"Marks of Devotion: Tattoos as Means of Subordination and Emancipation among Caribbean Hindu Women", Institutskolloquium ifeas (Institut für Ethnologie und Afrikastudien), University of Mainz, (January 14, 2025)

 

"Tattoos and Sonic Imitation: Mantras, Purification and Body Tuning in Caribbean Hindu Communities", Centre for Modern Indian Studies (CeMIS), University of Göttingen (November 22, 2023)

 

"Wenn der Glaube unter die Haut geht: Religiöse Symbolik in Tattoos", Ev. Erwachsenenbildungswerk e.V., Vlotho (November 2022).

 

"Fieldwork as Embodied Practice: Sexualized Harassment, Gender and Power Dynamics in the Field", Institutskolloquium, Institute of Anthropology, Heidelberg Univeristy, Germany (May 25, 2021)

 

"Un-Mapping the 'Global South': Reflections on a Heuristic Concept", Lecture Series "Rethinking Area Studies, Producing Space from the ›Global South‹? Post/Colonial Perspectives and (G)local Challenges", University of Regensburg, Germany (April 15, 2021)

 

"Staying in Touch: Touch, Material Likeness and Gifts of Touched Clothing", Bard College, New York, USA (March 29, 2021)

 

"Vulnerability and Dependency in the Field: Sexualized Harassment and Ethnography", Workshop "Gender, Sexuality and Fieldwork", Conférence universitaire de Suisse occidentale (CUSO), Geneva, Switzerland (December 9-10, 2019).

 

"Rituelle Tätowierungen als Repräsentationen und Praktiken von Transformation und Transfer in indo-karibischen Gemeinschaften", Ringvorlesung des  Zentrums Lateinamerika (CLAC), University of Cologne, Germany (October 24, 2019).

 

"Sensory Histories of Tattoo: A Transcultural Perspective from the Guyanese-Surinamese Border Region", Global South Symposium, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, USA (March 29-30, 2019).

 

"Der Sari: Globale Perspektiven auf ein Kleidungsstück", Rautenstrauch-Joest-Muesum, Köln (February 24, 2019).

 

"Fairer Handel in Deutschland: Ein Überblick", Schmittmann-Kolleg Cologne, Germany (October 25, 2018).

 

"Troubled Fieldwork: Deconstructing Othered Ethnography", University of Amsterdam, Department of Anthropology, The Netherlands (April 23, 2018).

 

"(Re-)Writing the Caribbean: Transculturality and Transnationalism in the Caribbean and Its Diasporas", University of Bern, Switzerland (November 3, 2017).

 

"Des Städters neue Kleider: Kleidungsstile im Spannungsfeld von Uniformität und Individualität", Photographische Sammlung, SK Stiftung Kultur, Exhibition 'Hans Eijkelboom', Cologne, Germany (January 19, 2017).

 

"Garments in Exchange: Translocal Gift Practices and the Creation of Guyanese Indianness", II. Forschungstag Karibik, Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, Ibero-Amerikanisches Institut, Berlin, Germany (June 17-18, 2016).

 

"Kleidung, die verbindet: Kleidertausch, Materialität und Nähe in transnationalen guyanischen Hindu-Gemeinschaften", Ringvorlesung des  Zentrums Lateinamerika (CLAC), University of Cologne, Germany (June 2, 2016).

 

"Remapping the Global South: Negotiating a Research Paradigm in a 'Northern' Institution", University College Dublin, Ireland (March 2016).

Round Table Discussions

"'Picture a Scientist' - Frauen der Wissenschaft", Round table discussion and streaming event, Equal Opportunity Office, University of Bonn (July 20, 2021)

 

"Societies and Social Practices: Between Theory and Responsibility", University of Cologne, a.r.t.e.s. forum 2018, Cologne, Germany (July 6, 2018).

 

"Handel neu denken", Cologne Fair Trade Night, (September 28, 2017).

 

"Perspektivenkonkurrenz in digitalen Medien", Conference Competing Perspectives: Figures of Image Control, Morphomata Center for Advanced Studies, University of Cologne (July 4, 2017).

 

(Un-)Fair Fashion - Wer trägt die Verantwortung?, University of Cologne, AStA (May 4, 2017).

 

Talk and Participation in the round table "Religion and Development: Conflict or Cooperation?", Center for Religion, Economy and Politics (ZRWP), University of Basel, Switzerland (October 2015).

Professional Presentations

Sensitive and Permeable Bodies: Hair, Ritual Shaving and Birth in Hindu Suriname, Conference "Embodied Histories: Cultural History of, in, and through the Human Body", 16th Annual Conference of the International Society for Cultural History, University of Potsdam (September 2024).

 

Durchlässige Körper: Ethnologische Annäherungen an körperliche Grenzen und Materialisierungsprozesse während Schwangerschaft und Geburt, Workshop "Gendered Bodies", Vernetzungstreffen Medical Humanities, University of Siegen (July 2024).

 

Godnas, Gurus and Gurmukh: Beyond Tattoos as Marks of Servitude and Resistance in Hindu Suriname and Guyana, Conference "Legacy of Slavery and Indentured Labour", Anton de Kom Universiteit, Paramaribo, Suriname (June 2023).

 

Marks of Dependency: Religious Tattooing among Caribbean Hindu Women, Public Lecture Series Control, Coercion, and Constraint, Centre for Religion and Society (ZERG), University of Bonn, Germany (June 2022).

 

Tattooed Dependency: Embodied Narratives of Suffering and Endurance, Conference Narratives of Dependency, University of Bonn, Germany (July 2021).

 

The Gatekeeper’s Touch: Sexualized Harassment and Power Dynamics during Ethnographic Fieldwork, Gender & Sexualities / Queer Anthropology, working group of the DGSKA (GAA) (July 2021).

 

Sartorial Contestations of Indianness: Guyanese ‘Indian Wear’ and the Creation of the Indian Other, Department of Asian and Islamic Art History, University of Bonn, Germany (June 2021)

 

Having to Educate: The Notion of ‘Holistic Development’ and Post-Development Discourse in Guyana, Socare Annual Conference "Between Mobilities and Demarcations of Boundaries: Education and the Politics of Education in the Caribbean", Erlangen, Germany (March 22, 2020;

due to COVID-19 postponed to: March 2021).

 

'Being Proper Punish': Narratives of Suffering, Service and (Religious) Work among Hindu Women in Guyana and Suriname, International Latin America Workshop, University of Bonn, Germany (January 2021).

 

Touching Deities: Offerings, Energies, and the Notion of Touch in Guyanese Hinduism, Annual Meetings of the American Academy of Religion (AAR) (December 2020).

 

Ritualtransfer und Transnationalisierung: Kontextwechsel durch Migration, Conference Kontextwechsel und Bedeutung, University of Cologne, Germany (February 2020).

 

Back to the Vedas: Sound Knowledge, Ritual Efficacy and the Recreation of Hindu Orthopraxy in the Guianas, International Workshop

"Knowledge? Wisdom? India and the East in the Idea of a Different Modernity in Latin America (1900s-1930s)", Institute for Latin American Studies, Freie Universität Berlin (January 2020).

 

Multisensorische Tattoos: Embodiment, Klang und Ästhetik in hinduistischen Tätowier-Praktiken, DGSKA-Tagung "Das Ende der Aushandlungen?", University of Konstanz, Germany (September 2019).

 

Marking Bodies, Making Wives: Ritual Tattoos and Gender Relations in Caribbean Hindu Communities, Workshop "Gender, Intersectionality and Dependency", Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies, University of Bonn, Germany (July 2019).

 

‘Just another mark he gave me’: Tattoo Narratives and Body Politics in Caribbean Hindu CommunitiesContrast and Complementary Figures for Portraiture and Biography, University of Cologne, Germany (July 2019).

 

Dressing Deities, Making Gurus: Material Portraits and the Creation of Likeness, Conference Revisionen des Porträts: Jenseits der Repräsentation, Morphomata Center for Advanced Studies, University of Cologne, Germany (June 2018).

 

Constructions of the ‘Rich-Man-Bridge’: The Berbice Bridge and its Influence on a Hindu Community in Guyana, Conference BRIDGE: The Heritage of Connecting Places and Cultures, Ironbridge Gorge World Heritage Site, University of Birmingham, UK (July 2017).

 

Sartorial Contestations of 'Home': Performances of Belonging in the Hindu-Guyanese Diaspora, Conference The Global South on the Move: Transforming Capitalism, Knowledge and Ecologies, University of Cologne, Germany (June 2017).

 

Inventing Uniformity? The Color and Practice of 'Dye' in a Guyanese Community, Workshop Dress Matters: Transcultural Perspectives on Belonging and Distinction, University of Cologne, Germany (June 2017).

 

'Putting it on paper': Hindu-Guyanese Negotiations of Legality and Respectability in the Context of Transnational Migration, Conference Migration and the Global South, Fundação Casa de Rui Barbosa, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (March 2017).

 

Performing ‘Religiousness’: Negotiations of Religion, Spirituality and Respectability in Guyanese Development Organizations, Conference Does Religion Make a Difference? Discourses and Activities of Religious Development NGOs, University of Basel, Switzerland (November 2016).

 

Giving to Mother Ganga: Practices of Recycling Clothing in Transnational Guyanese Hindu Communities, Conference Imagining the Guyanas: Ecologies of Memory and Movement, University of London & School of Advanced Study, UK (October 2016).

 

When Clothes ‘Move On’: The Notion of Touch and the Exchange of Clothing in Transnational Guyanese Hindu Communities, Royal Geographical Society-IBG Annual International Conference, London, UK (June 2016).

 

What is the 'Global South'?, Center for Religion, Economy and Politics (ZRWP), Collegium Helveticum, University of Zurich, Switzerland (May 2016).

 

Staying in Touch, Sending Used Clothes: The Role of Materiality and Translocality in Transnational Guyanese Gift Exchange Practices, Conference Reshaping (g)local Dynamics of the Caribbean, Hannover, Germany (October 2015).

 

Dressing 'Authentically' Indian: Sartorial Contestations of Guyanese Indianness and the Creation of the Indian 'Other', Conference Fashion Tales 2015, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan, Italy (June 2015).

 

Contesting 'Gifts from Jesus': Conversion, Charity, and the Distribution of Used Clothing in Guyana, Conference Colonial Christian Missions and their Legacies, University of Copenhagen, Denmark (April 2015).

 

Staying in Touch, Dwelling in Clothes: Gifts of Used Clothing in Transnational Guyanese Hindu Communities, Conference Atlantic Connections - Comparative Perspectives, Museu Nacional, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (November 2014).

 

Ethnopoliticization in Guyana, Transcultural Studies, Heidelberg University (January 2014).

 

Transnational Migration and Its Impact on Guyanese Cultural Productions, Workshop Transnational Entanglements? The Locations of Guyanese Literature, Heidelberg University (December 2013).

 

Performing a 'real and beautiful' Puja: The Influence of Transnational Migration and Remittances on Guyanese Hindu Traditions,  Transcultural Studies, Heidelberg University (October 2011).

 

Religious Transformation and Emotion in Caribbean Hinduism, Post-Graduate Conference Cultural Productions of the Caribbean in the 20th and 21st Century, Society of Caribbean Research, Berlin (June 2011).