Dr. E.W. Bal

 
Tuesday, Thirsday and Friday (changing)

Information in Dutch

Website of the department

Promo Master Anthropology

Specialization

Regional and thematic specialisations:

Anthropology and history of identity formation, ethnicity, migration, transnationalism, Indigenous Peoples, Indian Diaspora, Youth and Human Security

South Asia: (Bangladesh and India)
South America: Surinam

Teaching in 2011/2012

Field Research Design (MSc SCA)
Etniciteit en Identiteit, 2e jr Ba SCA 
Identity and Diversity in a Global City (als gastdocent en coördinator aan Amsterdam University College, voor 1e jaar bachelors in Social Sciences)

Research

Since 2005, Ellen Bal and Kathinka Sinha-Kerkhoff have started a new research project entiteld “Of dreams and nightmares: Youth and human security in Bangladesh and India”. The focus of this study is on the views and experiences of the young people themselves, on what it means to be young, and on their dreams and nightmares, their hopes, desires and future ambitions, as well as their fears, uncertainties and insecurities. The subjects of this study find themselves in places that witness a wide range of human insecurities (cultural, social, economic, political and physical), caused by others, themselves, nature, etc, on (an almost) day-to-day basis.

1) How do young people in Bangladesh and India define ‘youth’ and what it means to be ‘young’?
2) What are their ‘dreams’ and ‘nightmares’ and how are these reflected in their life strategies and choices? and
3) how do their choices impact upon their personal securities and insecurities?

Ellen Bal is senior member of CERES

Between 2001-2005, Ellen Bal was involved in a research project about the so-called Indian diaspora in Surinam and the Netherlands, better known as the Hindustanis, and their relation with India. Central issues were migration, transnationalism, religion, and identity formation. In this project, she worked closely together with Dr. Kathinka Sinha-Kerkhoff, senior research fellow of the International Institute for Social History (IISG) in Amsterdam.

http://www.iisg.nl/
http://www.nationaalarchief.nl/

From 1993 to 2000, Ellen Bal carried out research in Bangladesh and India about processes of group formation and ethnicity. She focused on the Garos of Bangladesh, one of the many ethnic minorities in the subcontinent. Central themes in this study included ethnicity, minority issues, Indigenous Peoples, (de)colonisation, and state formation processes.

www.sdnpbd.org

Publications

Publications (Source: METIS VU)

Selection of publications

Books

2010   A World of Insecurity. Anthropological perspectives on Human Security (with Thomas Hylland Eriksen and Oscar Salemink, eds), London: Pluto Press.

2007   They ask if we eat frogs: Garo ethnicity in Bangladesh, Singapore: ISEAS Publishing, (IIAS/ISEAS Series on Asia).

2005   Autobiography of an Indian Indentured Labourer: Munshi Rahman Khan (1874-1972) (with Kathinka Sinha-Kerkhoff & Alok Deo Singh (transl/eds.), New Delhi: Shipra.

1999   Manderangni Jagring: Images of the Garos of Bangladesh (with Yasuhiro Takami and Johannes Sandgren), Dhaka: University Press Limited.

Articles

2011   with Thomas Benjamin van der Molen, ‘Staging “small, small incidents”: Dissent, gender, and militarization among young people in Kashmir’, Focaal - Journal of Global and Historical Anthropology, 60 (forthcoming).

2010   ‘“Bharat-wasie or Surinamie”: Hindustani notions of belonging in Surinam and the Netherlands’, (with Kathinka Sinha-Kerkhoff). In: Thomas Hylland Eriksen, Ellen Bal and Oscar Salemink (eds): A World of Insecurity. Anthropological perspectives
          on Human Security, London: Pluto Press.

2010   ‘Flexible migrants: Brazilian gold miners and their quest for human security in Surinam’, (with Marjo de Theije). In: Thomas Hylland Eriksen, Ellen Bal and Oscar Salemink (eds), A World of Insecurity. Anthropological perspectives on Human
          Security, London: Pluto Press.

2010   ‘Taking root in Bangladesh: States, minorities and discourses on citizenship’, in Erik de Maaker and Markus Schleiter (eds) IIAS Newsletter. Special Issue on  “Indigenous India”, 24-25.

2009   Bal, Ellen,'De herontdekking van moeder India' . Surinaamse en Nederlandse Hindoestanen en hun roots, Geschiedenis Magazine, nr 8, 2009, 26-29.

2008   ‘Religious Identity, Territory, and Partition: India and its Muslim diaspora in Surinam and the Netherlands’ (with Kathinka Sinha-Kerkhoff), Nationalism and Ethnic Politics.14,2: 155-188.

2007   ‘Becoming the Garos of Bangladesh: Policies of Exclusion and the Ethnicisation of a “Tribal” Minority’, South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies,30,3: 439-455.

2007   ‘When Muslims Leave…: Muslims In British India and their Migration to and Settlement in Mauritius and Surinam’ (with Kathinka Sinha-Kerkhoff), in: Gijsbert Oonk (ed.), Global Indian Diasporas: Exploring Trajectories of Migration and Theory,
           Amsterdam, Amsterdam University Press, 75-97.

2007   ‘De-partitioning Society: Contesting Borders of the Mind in India and Bangladesh (with Kathinka Sinha-Kerkhoff), in: Smita Jasal and Eyal Ben-Ari (eds), The Partition Motif in Contemporary Conflicts, New Delhi, thousand Oaks, London: Sage
           Publications, 75-98.

2006   ‘British Indians in Colonial India and in Surinam. A Tale of Transnational Identification and Estrangement’ (with Kathinka Sinha-Kerkhoff), Focaal. European Journal of Anthropology, 47: 105-119.

2005   ‘Muslims in Surinam and The Netherlands and the Divided Homeland’ (with Kathinka Sinha Kerkhoff), Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, 25 (2): 205-229.

2004   ‘An Untold Story of the Partition: The Garos of northern Mymensingh (Bangladesh), the process of the 1947 Partition, and the articulation of identities’, in: Imtiaz Ahmed (et al) (eds.), State, Society and Displaced People in South Asia, University
           Press Limited, Dhaka: 245-279.

2004   ‘Een Hindostaanse diaspora’: India en de moslim Hindostanen in Nederland en Suriname’ (with Kathinka Sinha-Kerkhoff), OSO. Tijdschrift voor Surinamistiek, 23(2): 236-256.

2003    ‘Hindostaanse Surinamers en India: gedeeld verleden, gedeelde identiteit?’ (with Kathinka Sinha-Kerkhoff), OSO.Tijdschrift voor Surinamistiek, 22(2): 214-235.

2003   ‘“Eternal Call of the Ganga”: Reconnecting with People of Indian Origin in Surinam’ (with Kathinka Sinha-Kerkhoff), Economic and Political Weekly 38 (38): 4008-4021

2002   ‘“De VOC is een geloof”: kanttekeningen bij een populair Nederlands imago’ (with Alex van Stipriaan), in: Manon van der Heijden en Paul van der Laar (red.), Rotterdammers en de VOC: Handelscompagnie, stad en burgers (1600-1800),
          Amsterdam, Bert Bakker, October 2002): 213-245.

2002   ‘Beyond the “Tribal” Mind Set: Studying Non-Bengali Peoples in West Bengal and Bangladesh’ (with Willem van Schendel), in: Georg Pfeffer and Deepak Kumar Behera (eds.), The Concept of Tribal Society. Contemporary Society: Tribal Studies
          Volume V, New Delhi: Concept Publishing Company: 121-139.
2000   Bal, Ellen, ‘They ask if we eat frogs’: Social Boundaries, Ethnic Categorisation, and the Garo People of Bangladesh Delft: Eburon.

http://www.epw.org/