Bjørn Enge Bertelsen

Homepage: http://uib.academia.edu/BjornEngeBertelsen

Title: Post doctor

Cellphone: +47 411 03 883 SMS

E-mail: Bjorn.Bertelsen@sosantr.uib.no

Visiting address: Fosswinckelsgt. 6

Room number: 824

I am a social anthropologist and work mainly on Southern Africa and Mozambique. My research interests include the issues of violence, state, memory and tradition within political anthropology. 16.08.10 I started my postdoctoral research project entitled "Social imaginaries of death, suffering and accumulation. Urban spaces of insecurity and poverty in Mozambique and Zimbabwe".

During the spring of 2010 I completed my PhD project on colonial and postcolonial politics, state formation and the traditional field in Mozambique initiated in Sept. 2004. 17 April 2010 I defended my PhD thesis entitled Violent becomings.State formation and the traditional field in colonial and postcolonial Mozambique.

Recently I published an anthology together with Bruce Kapferer entitled "Crisis of the state. War and social upheaval" (Berghahn Books, 2009) -- which is available from most online bookstores like Amazon.com and Bookdepository.co.uk .

Prior to my PhD project, I wrote a Master’s thesis (Cand. Polit.) in Social anthropology at UiB entitled "'Till the soil but do not touch the bones'. Memories of violence in Mozambican re-constructive practices" (2002). The thesis sought to explore the social impact and contemporary importance of violence related to Mozambique’s civil war from 1976/77 to 1992 as well as to identify post-conflict processes of dealing with such violence.

 

Regional focus: Southern Africa, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Africa.

Thematic focus: State formation, sovereignty, memory, history, violence, war, tradition and traditional authorities, poverty, legal anthropology, political anthropology

 

Publications in Cristin

Theses
2010 Violent becomings.State formation and the traditional field in colonial and postcolonial Mozambique. PhD thesis. Dept. of social anthropology, University of Bergen, p. 362.

2002 Till the soil but do not touch the bones. Memories of violence in Mozambican re- constructive practices. Master thesis in social anthropology. Bergen: University of Bergen, p. 239.

 

Edited book
2009 [edited with Bruce Kapferer] Crisis of the state. War and social upheaval. New York: Berghahn Books.

 

Articles in peer-reviewed journals and book chapters
[Forthcoming 2012] The gift of justice or the gender of law? Mozambican shifts of legality. In Rachel Sieder and John-Andrew McNeish (eds) Gender, Justice and Legal Pluralities. Latin American and African Perspectives. In the series "Law, Development and Globalization". London and New York: Routledge.

2012 Moving at the margins to re-centre anthropology. Interview with Bruce Kapferer. Norsk Antropologisk Tidsskrift,  23(2): 182-197.

2011 'Entering the red sands'. The corporality of punishment and imprisonment in Chimoio, Mozambique. Journal of Southern African Studies, 37(3): 611-626.

2010 Securitisation of the social and state transformation from Iraq to Mozambique. In John-Andrew McNeish and Jon Harald Sande Lie (eds.), Security and development. Critical interventions series. Oxford and New York: Berghahn Books, pp. 84-98.

2010 [with Sindre Bangstad] 'Heart of darkness re-invented? A tale of Norwegian ex-soldiers in the Democratic Republic of Congo.' Anthropology Today, 26(1): 8-12.

2009 ‘Multiple sovereignties and summary justice in Mozambique. A critique of some legal anthropological terms.' Social analysis, 53(3): 123-147. [This article won the "NFU Development Research Award 2009" as best article published in 2009 by a researcher below 40.]

2009 Kolonialisme på portugisisk og norsk. Plantasjen Madal i Mosambik' ['Colonialism - Portuguese and Norwegian. The Madal plantation in Mozambique'], in Kirsten Alsaker Kjerland and Knut Rio (eds.) Kolonitid. Nordmenn på eventyr og big business i Afrika og Stillehavet. Oslo: Scandinavian Academic Press, pp. 251-276. [in Norwegian]

2009 Review article/compte rendu. "The security-development nexus. Expressions of sovereignty in Southern Africa" by Lars Buur, Steffen Jensen and Finn Stepputat. Lusotopie, 16(2):198-201.

2009 Sorcery and death squads. Transformations of state, sovereignty, and violence in postcolonial Mozambique, in Bruce Kapferer and Bjørn Enge Bertelsen (eds.) Crisis of the state. War and social upheaval. New York: Berghahn Books, pp. 210-240.

2009 [with Bruce Kapferer] The crisis of power and reformations of the state in globalizing realities, in Bruce Kapferer and Bjørn Enge Bertelsen (eds.) Crisis of the state. War and social upheaval. New York: Berghahn Books, pp. 1-26.

2007 "Å dø her koster ikke noe". Vold, rettsantropologi og suverenitet i det postkoloniale Mosambik ['To die here does not cost much'. Violence, legal anthropology and sovereignty in postcolonial Mozambique]. Norsk Antropologisk Tidsskrift, 18(3-4):280-295. [in Norwegian]

2007 Violence, sovereignty and tradition. Understanding death squads and sorcery in Chimoio, Mozambique, in Armando Marques Guedes and Maria José Lopes (eds.) State and traditional law in Angola and Mozambique. Coimbra: Edições Almedina, pp. 201-261.

2006 [with Kjetil Fosshagen, Anette Fagertun and Inger Lise Teig] Antropologien og staten. En innledning. [Anthropology and the state. An introduction] Norsk Antropologisk Tidsskrift, 17(3-4):186-200. [in Norwegian]

2004 'It will rain until we are in power'. Floods, elections and memory in Mozambique, in Harri Englund and Francis B. Nyamnjoh (eds.) Rights and the Politics of Recognition in Africa. Postcolonial Encounters Series. London and New York: Zed Books, pp. 169-191.

2004 'The traditional lion is dead'. The ambivalent presence of tradition and the relation between politics and violence in Mozambique, in Camille Goirand (ed.) Lusotopie 2003. Violence et politique dans les espaces lusophones. Paris: Éditions Karthala and Centre d'Étude d'Afrique Noire (CEAN), pp. 263-281.

 

Book reviews, dictionary entries and other shorter texts
2012 "Tilbake til Durkheim. Staten og antropologien" by Iver B. Neumann (book review). Norsk Antropologisk Tidsskrift,  23(2): 198-200.

2012 "Eusébio (Eusébio da Silva Ferreira)" in Dictionary of African Biography, vol. 2. Edited by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Emmanuel Akyeampong. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 316-317.

2012 "Ngungunyane" in Dictionary of African Biography, vol. 4. Edited by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Emmanuel Akyeampong. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 465-466.

2011 [with Eyolf Jul-Larsen] Social security, poverty dynamics and economic growth in Angola’s smallholder agriculture. A case study of two communities in Huambo province. CMI Report R 2011:5. Bergen: Chr. Michelsen Institute, p. 33.

2011 Arjun Appadurai. "Fear of Small Numbers. An Essay on the Geography of Anger" (book review). PoLAR - Political and Legal Anthropological Review, 34(1):177-179.

2010 [with Sindre Bangstad] Der kannibaler truer? op. ed. Klassekampen [newspaper], 11.02.2010, p. 22-23.

2009 Book review. "Langtvekkistan. Grunnlagsproblemer for studiet av asiatiske og afrikanske samfunn" by Arild Engelsen Ruud. Forum for Development Studies, 36(2):213-216.

2008 Book review. "På Barheidas tid. Familjekrönika från savannen" by Stig Holmquist and Aud Talle. Norsk Antropologisk Tidsskrift,  19(2-3):199-200.

2007 [with Bård Kårtveit] Antropologer i krigens frontlinje [op. ed.]. Dagbladet [newspaper], 23.10.07.

2006 [with Sindre Bangstad] Sør-Afrika og "motsatt apartheid" [op. ed.]. Bergens Tidende [newspaper], 15.12.06.

2005 War, peace and development in Mozambique: A critical assessment. Commissioned study for Chr. Michelsen Institute in June 2005 being an assessment of the applicability of Paul Collier et al.'s "Breaking the conflict trap" to the case of Mozambique. Bergen: Chr. Michelsen Institute, p. 83.

 

For a list of all publikations, papers, interviews and public debates, see the overview in UiB's publications database CRISTIN here.

For an alternative presentation, see http://uib.academia.edu/BjornEngeBertelsen where some unpublished papers are also available.

Spring 00: Organizer/tutor, bachelor level seminar on anthropological literature.

Spring 01: Organizer/tutor, bachelor level seminar on anthropological literature.

Spring 02: Organizer/tutor, bachelor level seminar on essay writing in anthropology.

Autumn 03: Organizer/tutor, bachelor level seminar on essay writing in anthropology.

Autumn 04: Organizer/tutor, M. Phil course "Anthropology and development".

Spring 05: Examination M. Phil course SANT 308.

Autumn 05: Organizer/tutor, M. Phil course "Anthropology and development".

Spring 06: Organizer/lecturer bachelor level course (SANT 250) in essay-writing in anthropology including teaching, supervision and examination.

Spring 06: Supervision of 16 bachelor level students in anthropology.

Autumn 06: Organizer/lecturer bachelor level course (SANT 250) in essay-writing in anthropology including teaching, supervision and examination.

Autumn 06: Supervision of 2 bachelor-level students (SANT 250) in anthropology.

Spring 07: Organizer/lecturer bachelor level course (SANT 112) on the regional ethnography of Southern Africa, including examination.

Spring 08: Supervision of 20 bachelor-level students in anthropology (SANT 250), including also examination.

Autumn 08: Organizer/lecturer bachelor level course (SANT 250) in essay-writing in anthropology including teaching, supervision and examination.

Autumn 08: Supervision of 11 bachelor-level students in anthropology (SANT 250), including also examination.

01.01.09-28.02.09: Assistant professor [universitetslektor].

Spring 10: Examiner bachelor level course "Anthropology, intervention and development" (SANT 220)

Autumn 10: Course leader SANT 307, including lectures and examination

Autumn 10: 3 lectures SANT 304

2004-2010: Examiner for a total of 14 Master degree and M. Phil dissertations at the Dept. of Social Anthropology.

2004-2009: Evaluator of a total of 5 pre-fieldwork project descriptions for Master degree and M.Phil students.

2010-2014: Social imaginaries of death, suffering and accumulation. Urban spaces of insecurity and poverty in Mozambique and Zimbabwe (postdoctoral project). Dept. of social anthropology, University of Bergen.

2004-2010: An ambivalent heritage: Violent transformations of tradition in local and national contexts in Mozambique (PhD project). Dept. of social anthropology, University of Bergen and Uni Global.

2005-2010: Madal in between the colonial and the postcolonial era. Project under In the wake of colonialism, Uni Global and UiB. 

2009-2011: Participant in the project Poverty reduction and gender justice in contexts of legal pluralism, CMI.

2004-2010: Affiliated with the Challenging the state project at the Dept. of social anthropology, University of Bergen.