Emma Barrett Fiedler

After completing her Master's studies in Germany (Institute of Ethnology and Philosophy in Halle), Emma Barrett Fiedler obtained a doctoral contract at the University of Aix-Marseille to carry out her doctorate in anthropology at IDEAS (Institute of Ethnology and Social Anthropology, Maison Méditerranéenne des Sciences de l'Homme). Her thesis, defended in June 2023, was entitled "Retour à la nostalgie. Administration des étrangers réguliers et subjectivations en exil'. Her work falls within the field of the anthropology of migration, focusing on its psycho-affective consequences, or what might be termed 'migratory' nostalgia and the subjective experience of exile, which are largely exacerbated today by the face of the administration of foreigners in Europe and yet relatively little studied in the field of contemporary migration studies.

Her research focuses on a general anthropology of nostalgia, going beyond the psycho-affective consequences of migration: she is also interested in its 'stationary' forms, which do not require spatial displacement, by refocusing on the relationship that subjects have with the passage of time. Her research programme for the coming years will focus on three collapses and experiences of disappearance: Germanic Jewish memory, the memory of socialist Germany in the GDR, and environmental nostalgia for Nature.

The project

Title: In the footsteps of ancestors. Returning, memory and nostalgia of Israelis of Germanic descendants: Berlin and Vienna in perspective

Emma Barrett Fiedler has been an associate postdoctoral researcher at the Centre Marc Bloch (Division 2 "Migration, Mobility and Social Change".) since September 2024. She has obtained several international grants (CIERA, FMSH & IFRA-SHS, IC Migrations) in order to carry out her current research project, based in the German-speaking world. Entitled "In the footsteps of ancestors. Returning, memory and nostalgia of Israelis of Germanic descendants: Berlin and Vienna in perspective", this project is financed until November 2025 by a research grant from the CNRS, as part of the SALTO programme "strategic French-German exchange and partnership for scientific excellence" with the Max-Planck Gesellschaft. While carrying out her fieldwork in Berlin, she is also attached to the Max-Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity in Göttingen, which specialises in the study of migration.

Affiliating institution: Centre Marc Bloch (Division 2 "Migration, Mobility and Social Change".)

Selected publications

• « Etrangers, encore un effort si vous voulez être européens ! Ethnographie d’une entreprise étatique de production d’autochtonie nationale en Europe de l’Ouest », Ethnologie française, dossier 2020 – 3, « Europe 27 : ethnographies de la citoyenneté européenne », octobre 2020, volume 50, pp. 485-500.
• “Foreigners, you have to make more of an effort to become Europeans ! : Ethnographies of the State-sponsored Fabrication of National Indigenousness in Western Europe”, traduction par John Angell pour le CAIRN International, Ethnologie française, 2020, Issue 3, « Europe 27 : ethnographies of european citizenship », october 2020, vol. 50, pp. 485-500.
• « Enquêter dans deux ordres nationaux des choses, ou comment préférer l’analyse comparative à l’ethnographie multi-sites : réflexions sur l’obsolescence d’un cas d’école franco-allemand », Terrains & Théories, dossier « Les terrains de la comparaison », 2021, numéro 14 (en ligne).
• « La nationalisation des étrangers : généalogie, anatomie et effets subjectifs des cours d’intégration pour migrants non européens en Europe », Revue Européenne des Migrations Internationales, Varia, 2022/3-4, volume 38, pp. 185-204.
• “The nationalization of strangers : genealogy, anatomy and subjective effects of integration courses for non European migrants in Europe”, traduction par l’auteur pour le CAIRN International, Revue Européenne des Migrations Internationales, Varia, 2022/3-4, volume 38, pp. 185-204