The mission of our Lab is to establish a forum for the free exchange of ideas pertaining to the study of Europe from the perspectives of social and cultural anthropology, and for the discussion of research and results. We also aim to help and support our graduate students develop and think critically about their research projects, write competitive grant proposals, and produce scholarship of a high standard.
All lab members have active research agendas, with varied and complementary projects that range from migration, energy, heritage, and policy to education, nationalism, war, and studies of the European Union. For more information about each member’s research, see below.
Jaume Franquesa holds a Ph.D. in Social Anthropology from the University of Barcelona, and is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University at Buffalo, SUNY. He is Program Chair-Elect of the Society for the Anthropology of Europe and currently holds a Hunt Fellowship from the Wenner-Gren Foundation (2014-15). Jaume Franquesa has conducted research on gentrification, urban renewal and the politics of cultural tourism and heritage. His current project analyzes the process of energy transition through an ethnographic research analyzing the conflicts and struggles around the installation of wind farms and nuclear facilities in Southern Catalonia (Spain). In 2013 he released a book in Spanish entitled Urbanismo Neoliberal, Negosio Inmobiliario y Vida Vecinal. El caso de Palma; he has also contributed chapters to several edited books and published in journals such as Current Anthropology, Antipode, and the Journal of Mediterranean Studies. His current book project, Dignity and Power: Conflicts around Energy, Nature in Rural Spain will be published in 2016. Jaume Franquesa is also a Visiting Researcher at the University of Barcelona.
Vasiliki Neofotistos holds a Ph.D. in Anthropology from Harvard University, and is Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University at Buffalo, SUNY. She is the author of The Risk of War: Everyday Sociality in the Republic of Macedonia (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2012) and numerous articles on ethnicity, nationalism, and multiculturalism in the Balkans. Her field research has been funded by the American Council of Learned Societies, the International Research and Exchanges Board, the National Council for East European and Eurasian Research, the American Philosophical Society as well as by grants from the University at Buffalo. Her current research interests include the commemoration of armed conflict and the production of official history in Macedonia.
Deborah Reed-Danahay is Professor of Anthropology at the University at Buffalo, SUNY, and Jean Monnet Chair (2015-8). She was founding Director of the Center for European Studies (CEUS at UB). Her interests include migration/immigration, citizenship, and emplacement; articulations between local regions, nation-states, and the European Union; social theory; and the ethnography of personal narrative/memoir. She also works on the theories of Pierre Bourdieu and is completing a book manuscript on “Bourdieu and Social Space.” Her newest project is on French migrants in London. She has conducted previous research in rural France and among former Vietnamese refugees in the United States. Her books include Education and Identity in Rural France: The Politics of Schooling (Cambridge, 1996); Auto/Ethnography: Rewriting the Self and the Social (Berg, 1997); Locating Bourdieu (Indiana, 2005); Citizenship, Political Engagement, and Belonging: Immigrants in Europe and the United States (coedited w/Caroline B. Brettell, Rutgers, 2008); and Civic Engagements: The Citizenship Practices of Vietnamese and Indian Immigrants (w/Caroline B. Brettell, Stanford, 2012). Prof. Reed-Danahay is a recent past president of the Society for the Anthropology of Europe (2010-12) and currently (2014-18) sits on the Executive Board of the Council for European Studies. She is a Fellow of the Royal Anthropological Institute; a former Yip Fellow (2012) of Magdalene College (Cambridge, UK), with ongoing ties to Magdalene; and is currently an Associate Member of the Sophiapol Lab at Paris Ouest/Nanterre La Defense.