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Dr. L. (Lana) Askari PhD

Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences
Programme group: Moving Matters: People, Goods, Power and Ideas

Visiting address
  • Nieuwe Achtergracht 166
Postal address
  • Postbus 15509
    1001 NA Amsterdam
Contact details
  • Profile

    I am an anthropologist and filmmaker interested in future planning, uncertainty, crisis, migration, policy, Sufism and visual anthropology. My fieldwork focuses on the Kurdistan region in the MENA/SWANA.

    I hold a PhD in Social Anthropology with Visual Media from the University of Manchester (2018). After studying international relations and political science at University College Utrecht (BA) and anthropology at Cambridge University (MPhil), I was trained in documentary filmmaking at the Granada Centre for Visual Anthropology (MA). As part of my research I have produced the (short) documentary films "Bury me Here" (2021),  “Bridge to Kobane” (2019), “Future Factory” (2018) and "Haraka Baraka: Movement is a Blessing" (2014).

    I currently teach the regional course "Anthropology of the Middle East" and supervise master students in (visual) anthropology. Next to my part time appointment at the University of Amsterdam, I work full time as a research fellow at the Netherlands Scientific Council for Policy (WRR) on the research project Media & Democracy. Previously, I worked at the Dutch Ministery of Foreign Affairs on the human rights and safety situation in the MENA/SWANA region and as a consultant for Andersson Elffers Felix (AEF).

  • Publications

    Articles and book chapters

    (Expected 2023) “A call from Raqqa: reconfiguring future imaginaries in forced displacement”, Special Issue on Displaced Conflict Syria, Conflict and Society Journal Volume 9, 2023.

    Askari, L. (2021). “Making Heaven in a Shithole: Changing Political Engagement in the Aftermath of IS”, in Youth Identity, Politics and Change in Contemporary Kurdistan, edited by Bahar Baser and Shivan Fazil, Lexington Publishers, London.

    Askari, L. (2019). “The Haqqa Movement: From Heterodox Sufism, to Socio-Political Struggle and Back”, in. Beyond ISIS: History and Future of Religious Minorities in Iraq, edited by Bayar Mustafa Sevdeeen and Thomas Schmidinger. Transnational Press London.

    Askari, L. (2018). “Beyond The Insider-Outsider Dichotomy: Conducting Ethnographic Fieldwork As A Kurdish Returnee In Iraqi Kurdistan” in Research Reflections from the Field: Insider/outsider dilemma, positionally and reflexivity in Kurdish Studies, edited by Bahar Baser, Mari Toivanen, Begum Zorlu and Yasin Duman. Lexington Publishers, London.

    Askari, L. (2015) “Filming Family and Negotiating Return in Haraka Baraka: Movement is a Blessing” Kurdish Studies Journal Volume 3 (2): 191 – 208.

    Essays

    “Shared Worlds”, From the Series: In Whose Name?, Visual and New Media Review, Society for Cultural Anthropology. September 14, 2021

    “Bury me Here”, Memento, Issue no.3, Otherwise Magazine. September 8, 2021

    Lana Askari interviewed by Sander Hölsgens (2020). Bridge to Kobane; Future imaginaries and visual approaches to Kurdish migration in New Cinema and the City: Migrations, edited by Ektoras Arkomanis. London Metropolitan University: Cours de Poetique

    “Filming Future Imaginaries in Kurdistan”, Thematic Thread, Allegra Lab, April 20, 2017

  • Publications

    2023

    2021

    • Askari, L. (2021). Making Heaven in a Shithole: Changing Political Engagement in the Aftermath of the Islamic State. In B. Baser, & S. Fazil (Eds.), Youth Identity, Politics and Change in Contemporary Kurdistan (Peace, Conflict and Violence Series: 1). Transnational Press London.

    2018

    • Askari, L. (2018). Beyond The Insider-Outsider Dichotomy: Conducting Ethnographic Fieldwork As A Kurdish Returnee In Iraqi Kurdistan. In B. Baser, M. Toivanen, B. Zorlu, & Y. Duman (Eds.), Research Reflections from the Field: Insider/outsider dilemma, positionally and reflexivity in Kurdish Studies Lexington Books.

    2015

    2021

    • Askari, L. (2021). Bury me Here. Web publication or website, Otherwise Magazine. https://www.otherwisemag.com/burymehere
    • Askari, L. (2021). Diasporic Imaginations and Creative Engagements in times of Crisis-Film, Art Exhibition, Interactive Installation, Experimental Game, and Drawing. Web publication or website, Chonnam National University.
    • Askari, L. (2021). Shared Worlds. Web publication or website, Society for Cultural Anthropology. https://culanth.org/fieldsights/shared-worlds
    • Askari, L., & Yanez, P. (2021). Worker's precarity: audio-visual representations of resistance . In RAI Visual Anthropology Conference 2021 Creative engagement with crisis

    2020

    • Askari, L. (2020). Bridge to Kobane; Future imaginaries and visual approaches to Kurdish migration. In E. Arkomanis (Ed.), Migrations in New Cinema Cours de Poetique.

    2019

    • Askari, L. (2019). The Haqqa Movement: From Heterodox Sufism, to Socio-Political Struggle and Back. In B. M. Sevdeen, & T. Schmidinger (Eds.), Beyond ISIS: History and Future of Religious Minorities in Iraq Transnational Press.

    2017

    • Askari, L. (2017). Filming Future Imaginaries in Kurdistan. Web publication or website, Allegra Lab.
    • Askari, L. (2017). In Cr(ISIS): Kobani and Future Imaginaries in Iraqi Kurdistan. In Anthropology Matters! American Anthropological Association.

    2020

    • Askari, L. (2020). A call from Raqqa: reconfigurations of future imaginaries in exile.

    2017

    • Askari, L. (2017). Crisis, critique, and creativity: Re-imagining Iraqi Kurdistan. Paper presented at Kurdish Futures in and outside of Iraq, Turkey and Iran: Fresh Hopes or New Tragedies?.

    2016

    • Askari, L. (2016). Imagining Future, Planning and the State in Iraqi Kurdistan. Paper presented at Footprints and Futures: the time of Anthropology ASA .
    • Askari, L. (2016). Imagining Future: A Visual Ethnography. Paper presented at From Subordination to Transnational Mobilization .
    • Askari, L. (2016). Lost in Transition: A Visual Ethnography. Paper presented at Kurdistan in Western and Eastern Research Tradition .
    • Askari, L. (2016). Lost in Transition: A Visual Ethnography. Paper presented at visual anthropology and the city.

    2015

    • Askari, L. (2015). Renegotiating the State and Future amongst Returnees in Iraqi. Paper presented at Migration to and from Iraqi Kurdistan .

    2014

    • Askari, L. (2014). A Man and a Map: Disaster photography and Kurdish Nationalism. Paper presented at Anthropology and Photography .

    Prize / grant

    • Askari, L. (2018). RAI Sutasoma Award for Potentially Outstanding PhD Merit.
    • Askari, L. (2015). Fieldwork grant British Institute for Study in Iraq (BISI).
    • Askari, L. (2014). Research Impact Scholarship.

    Others

    • Askari, L. (other) (2021). Bury me Here (other).
    • Askari, L. (other) (2019). Bridge to Kobani (other).
    • Askari, L. (other) (2018). Future Factory (other).
    • Askari, L. (other) (2014). Haraka Baraka: Movement is a Blessing (other).

    2019

    • Askari, L. (2019). Navigating Uncertain Futures in Iraqi Kurdistan. [Thesis, fully external, University of Manchester].
    This list of publications is extracted from the UvA-Current Research Information System. Questions? Ask the library or the Pure staff of your faculty / institute. Log in to Pure to edit your publications. Log in to Personal Page Publication Selection tool to manage the visibility of your publications on this list.
  • Ancillary activities
    No ancillary activities