In 2017 I started a most wonderful journey into the spectacular realm of anthropology. Only a few months earlier I was living in a worn-down barn on the lower east side of Austin Texas in the United States. My roommates were Simone, an independent and impetuous house cat, and her owner - my good friend and colleague – Danny, a pale Irish singer songwriter originally from Dallas. Back then I was working as a traveling musician and somehow, through a series of unconnected events, my travels had brought me to the magic barn in Jack’s backyard, as Danny used to say. Here you would find me (when the band wasn’t on tour) playing and writing music on my trusted old sunburst coloured Fender Jazz Bass from 1969. Those days seem to belong to a different life, to an alter me, someone who is still trying to figure out the right ending to Limbo by Danny Malone. Since then I have had the privilege of studying my bachelor’s degree in anthropology and philosophy, as well as my master’s degree in visual anthropology, at Aarhus University.

In 2021 I became a PhD Fellow in Multimodal Anthropology at Aarhus University. The title of my PhD project is “Ildsjæl: Towards an Anthropology of Recognition”, which began as an exploration of the relationships and collaborative intentions among representatives from two different religious institutions in Gellerupparken, on the western outskirts of Aarhus in Denmark, as well as their exchanges and relationship with the Danish state. Since 2010, Gellerupparken has officially been labelled by the government as, and I quote, “among the hardest ghettos in Denmark” end quote. In 2021, the terminology shifted from “ghettos” to “parallel societies.” This designation has prompted the area to undergo the largest urban transformation in the country, as part of a nationwide policy, and I quote, “to turn disadvantaged areas into attractive city districts,” end quote. The local mosque and church became places of permanence, information, and community for those whose future in the area grew steadily more uncertain. Initially, my research aimed to comprehend the mechanics of urban planning at the scale I observed in Gellerupparken. However, over the course of 24 months of fieldwork and as an anthropologist, my attention – unsurprisingly – shifted to the everyday experiences of those directly affected by these transformations. Thereby leading me onto a path of exploration concerned with experiences of care, love, rights, and mutable notions of self in relation to an encompassing society.

I employ an interdisciplinary methodology, integrating micro-phenomenological interviews (MPi) and analysis with other multimodal approaches such as ethnographic film, alongside traditional anthropological methods. Through this framework, I explore and engage with personal experiences of Recognition through a critical anthropological lens. The focus of my research has evolved to emphasize recognition as an intersubjective condition and a pivotal determinant that can either neglect or foster various aspects of care, rights, and community- building dynamics, e.g., solidarity and love. By integrating subjective experiences, I critically explore how personal engagements shape, challenge, and impact relationships between different faiths and lifeworlds, such as Islam and Christianity as observed in Gellerupparken. My research explores the outcomes of these personal initiatives and examines how close analytical attention to lived experience can serve as avenues for cultural critique and an embodied understanding hereof. 

Imagine for a moment that anthropology as a collaborative discipline presupposes the principles of an invitation. In the intersubjective world of things, as Merleau-Ponty called it, an invitation can be accepted, rejected, or negotiated. In other words, as an academic discipline and as a social practice, anthropology demands a mode of recognition and collaboration which is inherently normative, put differently, it entails respectfully requesting something of another, and at the same time responding to equivalent requests from that other. As an anthropologist, I understand the idea of being together with as a prerequisite for exploring the conditions and possibilities of the life worlds we are invited into. While this may seem axiomatic, it simply underscores that anthropology as an academic discipline and as a social practice, requires a mode of attunement which is inherently normative. In other words, it entails respectfully demanding something of another, and at the same time responding to equivalent demands from that other. This can be aptly described as an ethical situation in which we hold each other’s lives in our hands. The MPi embodies this demand by insistingly relying on the principles of an invitation. In the intersubjective world of things, as Merleau-Ponty called it, an invitation can be accepted, rejected, or negotiated. During a MPi, the interviewee is invited to explore the architecture of how a particular lived experience appeared to her through a sequence of attuned questions, which she can chose to refuse, explore, or correct. Traditionally, anthropology has focused on descriptions of whatis experienced by interpreting the subjective experiences of anthropologists in light of what they are shown, told, and have learned in the field, often overlooking the embodied process of howexperiences appear in the first place. The ways in which phenomena appear to us, or rather, what they appear to us as, is influenced by our subjective experiences. Thus, by studying the “how” of subjective experience, we may gain new insights to the “what” – that is, understanding how we experience something may lead us to a novel understanding of what we experience. In that sense, MP may offer anthropology valuable new insights by providing a structured framework for examining subjective experiences. By focusing on the intricacies of how experiences appear to us, it may contribute to a more nuanced analyses of cultural practices, beliefs, and social dynamics such as experiences of intersubjective recognition. Ultimately, the old Fender Jazz Bass from 1969 has been replaced by a well-worn notebook crammed with handwritten sketches, a digital camera, and an anthropological inquiry into the world we live in.

The adventure continues.

My PhD project contributes to a large ERC research project titled Heart Openings which includes several projects employing a similar interdisciplinary methodology in studies on Love in Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam in different locations: and in research and educational settings in different locations: Denmark, United Kingdom, Nepal, Papua New Guinea, Tanzania, Egypt, and the USA.The overall aim is to understand the differences and commonalities of the experiences and cultivation of love across religious and cultural contexts and to investigate whether a comparative analysis of the experience of love can lead to new forms of interreligious and intercultural dialogue and understanding. In addition to this, my project also focusses on questions on methodology, research practice and research design.

My PhD project is independent, i.e., it is PhD scholarship from Aarhus University, funded by Aarhus University, Aarhus Municipality, Aarhus Diocese. The Heart Openings project is funded by the European Research Council (ERC-STG-950386). None of the funders have any influence on the design, analysis, and dissemination of my project or any other project associated with the Heart Openings group.