PhD
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Mali | | Telephone: | | +31 (0)71 527 3369 | | Fax: | | +31 (0)71 527 3344 | | E-mail: | | | Lotte Pelckmans conducts anthropological PhD research on the dynamics of social hierarchical relations in transnational Fulbe society. The study is about modern translations of hierarchy in different contexts through the practice of remembering in rural and urban Mali (Douentza/Bamako) and in urban Europe (Paris). The central research question is whether, why and how typical Sahelian social hierarchies are maintained and transformed in a globalising world, since the formal abolition of slavery.
Lotte Pelckmans started her PhD research in May 2005 and is connected to the department of anthropology of the University of Leiden and the African Studies Centre. Webcast of Toronto conference, May 2009, Tales of slavery.
PhD thesis defense on 22 September 2011
On Thursday 22 September 2011, Lotte Pelckmans defended her PhD entitled "Travelling hierarchies: Moving in and out of slave status in a Central Malian FulBe network". Her promotors
were Prof. dr. M.E. de Bruijn and Prof. Dr. P.J. Pels (both Leiden
University).
Thesis summary
Based on rich and wide-ranging data, the thesis describes the sensitive issue of the contemporary emancipation trajectories of agro-pastoralist Fulbe in Central Mali. It explores how people are currently dealing with hierarchies they inherited from past master-slave relations and focuses on the relational dynamics between members of a network of migrants. The importance of mobility to identity is explored by analyzing the tensions that exist among migrants to reproduce or change hierarchical relations in post-slavery societies.
Download Lotte Pelckmans' bio (PDF, 62kb) and extensive summary (in Dutch)(PDF, 105kb).
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