Author Archives: Elisa Sandri
Calais: Eighteen Months On
by Elisa Sandri Calais has frequently made the headlines in the last two decades. The history of this border as a focal point for migration dates back to the 1990s, when hundreds of refugees from Kosovo, Kurdistan and Afghanistan camped here, waiting to cross the Channel. In 2015, the town witnessed fast-growing numbers in the […]
Our tribute to Kim Wall
Kim Wall was a Swedish journalist who was killed this summer while reporting. Although she was not an anthropologist by education, her work explored subcultures and what she called “the undercurrents of rebellion” with insight and grace. We’ve collected here some of her best pieces to remember and honour her life and work. The Weekly […]
Shadow over Burma: the Rohingya crisis in context
By Elisa Sandri In late August, alarming reports and harrowing images started to surface from Myanmar. It soon became clear that Rohingya people—a Muslim minority living in a remote region of Rakhine State, bordering Bangladesh—were being killed, tortured, and their villages burnt down. Official Myanmar state outlets reported that Rohingyas had attacked local communities and […]
‘Volunteer Humanitarianism’ in the Jungle of Calais
by Elisa Sandri This article is dedicated to the memory of Giulio Regeni, PhD researcher, and to his family, whom I never met but I hope they’ll find peace and justice. Calais, a quiet town in the North West of France overlooking the Strait of Dover, caught international public attention last year for the fast […]
Remembering Genocide in the Cambodian Diaspora
by Elisa Sandri ‘As the body moves where then does memory live?’ – Katharya Um For many Cambodians, the wounds of the genocide are still open and hurting. Virtually everyone in the country was affected, to varying degrees, by the brutality of the Khmer Rouge in the 1970s. Still to this day, reconciliation remains an […]
