Tanja Hendriks

Tanja Hendriks is an assistant professor at the Institute of Security and Global Affairs at Leiden University, also affiliated with the African Studies Centre Leiden and the Centre for Social Research at the University of Malawi. Trained as an anthropologist, she is broadly interested in the anthropology of the state, bureaucracy, development, disasters and humanitarianism. Her current project is funded by the Dutch Research Council (NWO) and focuses on the moral grounding of future-oriented disaster governance practices. It is entitled ‘Taking a Risk on Disasters: speculative humanitarianism amidst a changing climate in Malawi’.

Before returning to Leiden, Tanja completed a postdoctoral research project at KU Leuven, funded by the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO). Entitled ‘Duty and Diligence in Disaster: civil servants and the climate crisis in Malawi’ the project explored the aspirations, motivations and obligations of Malawian civil servants and how they understand and perform their duties in times of disaster. This postdoc project built on Tanja’s PhD research, which was part of the EU-funded ANTHUSIA project, during which she was based at both the Centre of African Studies at the University of Edinburgh and the Department of Social Anthropology at the University of Oslo. Her PhD thesis, ‘‘The Malawi State in Relief: An ethnography of civil servants navigating duties, dependencies and disasters in a rural district’, focused on the role of Malawian civil servants in disaster relief interventions in the country and highlighted their sense of duty. Tanja obtained her PhD in September 2022, after passing her VIVA with no corrections.

Tanja Hendriks holds a bachelor’s degree in Cultural Anthropology from the University of Amsterdam (2012) a master’s degree in International Development Studies (MSc) from the University of Amsterdam (2015) and a research master’s degree in African Studies (MA) from Leiden University (2016). With her thesis for the latter she won the Africa Thesis Award 2016: "Home is always home". (Former) Street Youth in Blantyre, Malawi, and the Fluidity of Constructing Home. Tanja is currently the chair of the Africa Thesis Award jury.