Alexander Koensler, Ph.D.
School of Philosophy, Human and Social Sciences, University of Perugia,
Piazza Morlacchi 30, 06126 Perugia (Italy), www.unipg.it
Email: alexander.koensler(at)unipg.it
Alexander (PhD University of Siena 2009) is Associate Professor of Social Anthropology at University of Perugia, Italy, hired with a program that aims to reverse “brain drain”. He has served in different faculty positions at Queen’s University Belfast, University of Münster (Germany) and the Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (Israel). He is a co-founder of the network “Anthropology and Social Movements” of the European Association of Social Anthropology (EASA) and has been a member of the Center for Documentary Research at Queen’s University Belfast.
His work appeared in American Anthropologist, Ethnic and Racial Studies, Contemporary Ethnography, Mobilization, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Anthropology Today, and many other publications in German, French and English. He also produced three ethnographic documentaries that had been screened in events around the world. He is author of four monographs, including Israeli-Palestinian Activism: Shifting Paradigms (2015).
His work appeared in American Anthropologist, Ethnic and Racial Studies, Contemporary Ethnography, Mobilization, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Anthropology Today, and many other international publications in German, French and English. He also produced three ethnographic documentaries and has published four monographs, including Israeli-Palestinian Activism: Shifting Paradigms (2015).
Areas of Expertise
As a political and visual anthropologist, Alexander’s work focuses on how grassroot activism extends the horizon of what seems possible and thinkable. Over the course of the past decade, he has carried out extensive ethnographic fieldwork across the Arab-Jewish and Israeli-Palestinian divide, as well as more recently with food sovereignty activists in Italy.
His research areas comprise:
- Interstitial spaces across the Arab-Jewish and Israeli-Palestinian divide
- The social production of claims in human rights and ethnic minority activism
- Activism for food sovereignty in Italy and Europe
- The social productions of claims in conflicts
- The opaque side of the politics of transparency
- Visual ethnography and the politics of representation