Roos DORSMAN

roosdorsman@gmail.com

Présentation des recherches
 

I am a cultural anthropologist from the Netherlands. After obtaining my BA in Cultural Anthropology and Development Studies at the Radboud University in Nijmegen (Netherlands), I decided to deepen my training as an anthropologist by following additional courses on migration, violence and representation in art, at the University of Utrecht (NL) and Universidad de Granada (Spain). I came back to Nijmegen to follow the MA program on Anthropology of Mobility. My BA thesis ‘Stilte of erkenning [silence or acknowledgement]’ was a literature study on the relationship between the Netherlands and Suriname concerning the history of slavery. In my MA thesis ‘Thuiskomen in Switi Stranan [coming home in Sweet Suriname]’, I looked at the phenomenon of roots tourism from Dutch Surinamese people to Suriname from the angle of the concepts of home and belonging, diaspora and identity. 

I defended my PhD thesis '“The New Orleans Voodooscape: Ethnography of Contemporary Voodoo Traditions of New Orleans, Louisiana” on September 23, 2021 at the Université libre de Bruxelles (Belgium). This research was part of the joint research project Currents of Faith, Place of History: religious diasporas, connections, moral circumscriptions and world-making in the Atlantic space, funded by HERA (Humanities in European Area). In this work, I engaged with the debates surrounding the concepts of authenticity, (traumatic) memory, heritage and commodification. 

My research topics of interest include: memory, migration, transnationalism, commodification of culture, gender, cultural heritage, construction of identity, violence, Suriname, the Caribbean and New Orleans, Louisiana, USA.
 

Travaux sélectionnés

PUBLICATIONS

2020. Chapter “The Spirit(s) of New Orleans: Community Healing through Commemoration.”  In Balkenhol, M., R. Llera Blanes, and R. Sarró (eds). Atlantic Perspectives: Places, Spirits and Heritage. New York/Oxford: Berghahn Books. 

2017. Abstract “Feeling the Spirits; Enchantment in Music and Dance in New Orleans Voodoo Cultures” in EthnoArts: Ethnograpic Explorations of the Arts and Education/Book of Abstracts. Ed. Líglia Ferro & others. 

2016. Entry “Lieve Hugo” in Dictionary of Caribbean and Afro-Latin American Biography: Oxford University Press.

2016. Entry “Clark Accord” in Dictionary of Caribbean and Afro-Latin American Biography: Oxford University Press.

2014. Review “Witchcraft, Intimacy and Trust: Africa in Comparison” by Geschiere, Peter. In Social Anthropology 22(3) pp. 375-376.

CONFERENCES

01/2022    International conference "Religion in Latin America and the Caribbean: Past, Present and Possible Futures"
Organized by: University of London (CLACS) and University of Groningen (CRCG)
Chair: panel "Transnationalisation of Religion".

11/2021    International conference “Religion and Heritage: Futures for Religious Pasts”
Organized by: Nederlands Genootschap voor Godsdienstwetenschap.
Location: University of Amsterdam/Meertens Institute, Amsterdam.
Paper title: “The New Orleans Voodooscape: Ethnography of Contemporary Voodoo Traditions of New Orleans, Louisiana”

06/2017    Interdisciplinary Conference “EthnoArts”
Location: University of Porto, Portugal. 
Paper title: “Feeling the Spirits; Enchantment in Music and Dance in New Orleans Voodoo Cultures”

12/2016    Research seminar Anthropology Brussels.
Location: Laboratoire d'Anthropologie des Mondes Contemporains, Université libre de Bruxelles, Belgium. 
Paper title: “Heritage, Tourism and Commodification in New Orleans’ Voodoo Cultures”

06/2016    International doctoral workshop “PhD Workshop Currents of Faith, Places of History”.
Location: Laboratoire d'Anthropologie des Mondes Contemporains, Université libre de Bruxelles, Belgium. 
Paper title: “Feeling the Spirits. Contemporary Voodoo Cultures in New Orleans”

03/2016    International workshop “Carnival and the Carnivalesque: A Worldwide Perspective”. 
Location: Research Centre for Material Culture of the Tropenmuseum, Afrikamuseum and Museum Volkenkunde in Leiden, The Netherlands. 
Paper title: “Mardi Gras Masking Cultures in New Orleans”

01/2016    International workshop “Workshop Atlantic Heritages Memories, Spirits, and Places”. 
Location: Pitt-Rivers Museum, University of Oxford, United Kingdom. 
Paper title: “Congo Square Spirituality and Activism in New Orleans”

11/2015    International workshop “Rituals, Markets and Redemption”. 
Organized by UCSIA (Universitair Centrum Sint-Ignatius Antwerpen). 
Location: University of Antwerp, Belgium. 
Paper title: “Voodoism and Afrocentric Spirituality used in Current Political Action in New Orleans”

09/2014    Internal meeting Utrecht University, The Netherlands. 
Paper title: “Theoretical framework and fieldwork preparations”

06/2014    Research meeting “Currents team Utrecht” & guests. 
Location: Utrecht University. 
Paper title: “Preliminal fieldwork observations from New Orleans”

04/2014    International workshop “Connections in the Religious Atlantic – Faiths, Encounters, Circulations”. 
Location: Instituto de Ciências Sociais Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal
Paper title: “Voodoo in New Orleans – The Social Arena of Contemporary Voodoo Practices in New Orleans” 

07/2011    International conference “Ethnographies of Gender and Conflicts” 
Organized by: LOVA ( Netherlands Association for Gender Studies and Feminist Anthropology). 
Location: University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Responsabilities: to help with organization and logistics 

09/2008    International conference “African Children in Focus: A Paradigm Shift in Methodology and Theory?”. 
Organized by: NVAS (Netherlands Organisation of African Studies) 
Location: University of Leiden, The Netherlands
Responsabilities: to help with organization and logistics 

07/2008    International conference “Ethnographies of Gender and Globalisation” 
Organized by: LOVA and NVAS. 
Location: University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Paper title: “Clothing and Music in Migrant Evangelical Churches in Amsterdam” About clothing and music of Ghanaian women in a Pentecostal Church in the neighbourhood Bijlmermeer in Amsterdam