Dr. Simone Pfeifer
Project "Critical Anthropology"
E-Mail: s.pfeifer (at) em.uni-frankfurt.de
Personal Website:
Room: IG (basement) 0.552
Office Hours: by individual appointment via e-mail only
Research and Teaching Interests
- (post)digital, multimodal, and visual anthropology
- mobility, (post)migration, transnationalism
- securitisation of Islam and Antimuslim racism
- critical and decolonial perspectives, practice theory
- Regional focus on German-speaking contexts and Senegal
Short biography
I'm a social and cultural anthropologist with a focus on the intersection of visual, digital, and media anthropology, migration studies and religious-political contexts. At the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology at the 看片软件, I'm part of the project 鈥淐ritical Anthropology."
In my postdoctoral research project (Habilitation) on Muslim everyday life and digital media practices in post-migrant contexts, I'm interested in understanding practices of connecting and excluding within different parts of post-migrant society from a critical and reflexive perspective. New spheres of Muslim activism and participation as well as Anti-Muslim racism and the Securitisation of Islam in Germany, are important issues in this research. (Post)digital ethnography and (digital) curatorial strategies for the co-production of knowledge have been central in this project.
My book on social media in transnational everyday life (Social Media im transnationalen Alltag, 2020, transcript Publisher) is based on my PhD research, a multi-sited media ethnography in Berlin, Dakar and 'online'. The book analyses media practices and transnational social relationships like siblings, couples and friends across multiple media like videos, photography, mobile phones, Skype, or Facebook, and starts out with a focus on transnational religious and life-cycle celebrations like weddings or the 鈥淢agal de Touba".
In my other previous research, I have focused on political violence, art, collaborative and multimodal methods and ethical challenges in ethnographic research.
ORCID:
Publications
Books, Edited Volumes, Special Sections
| 2023 |
(with Christoph G眉nther and Robert D枚rre). Disentangling Jihad, Political Violence, and Media. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. (OA) |
| 2021 |
(with Lene Faust). Special Section: Dark Ethnographies. ZfE |JSCA 146: 2. (OA) |
| 2020 | Social Media im transnationalen Alltag. Zur medialen Ausgestaltung sozialer Beziehungen zwischen Deutschland und Senegal. Bielefeld: transcript Verlag. |
| 2020 | (mit Christoph G眉nther). Jihadi Audiovisuality and its Entanglements: Aesthetics, Meanings, Appropriations. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. (OA) |
| 2017 | (with Dang-Anh, Mark; Reisner, Clemens; Villioth, Lisa). Medienpraktiken: situieren, erforschen, reflektieren. In: Navigationen 鈥� Zeitschrift f眉r Medien- und Kulturwissenschaften 17 (1). (OA) |
Journal Articles (*peer-reviewed)
| 2025* |
(accepted, in publication) Feminist Muslim Activists in Postdigital Spaces: beyond binary constructions of female Muslimness in postmigrant contexts. Journal for Global Diaspora and Media. |
| 2025* |
(accepted, in publication, with Julia Willms). Common Violence. Memetische Aneignung von Gewalt- und T盲terinszenierungen. Zeitschrift f眉r Medienwissenschaft (ZfM). |
| 2024 | (with Anja Dreschke and Anna Lisa Ramella). Multimodal Digital Curating as (anthropological) research, collaboration, and engagement. AllegraLab. /. |
| 2023 | (with Suzana Jovicic). . Working Paper Series Collaborative Research Center 1187 Media of Cooperation. 34, November 2023. |
| 2022* | . Entangled Religions 12 (3). |
| 2021* | (with Ulf Neumann). . In Visual Anthropology 34 (4). |
| 2021 | (with Lene Faust) . Zeitschrift f眉r Ethnologie|JSCA: 146, 81鈥�90. |
| 2020* | (with Larissa-Diana Fuhrmann). . In: Journal of Muslims in Europe. Vol. 9 (2): 175鈥�195. |
| 2017 | . In: Navigationen 鈥� Zeitschrift f眉r Medien- und Kulturwissenschaften 17 (1), 55鈥�75. |
| 2017 | (with Mark Dang-Anh, Clemens Reisner and Lisa Villioth). Medienpraktiken. Situieren, erforschen, reflektieren. Zur Einleitung. In: Navigationen 鈥� Zeitschrift f眉r Medien- und Kulturwissenschaften 17 (1), 7鈥�36. |
Contributions in edited volumes and handbooks (selection)
| 2024 |
(P)Reenactments der Gewalt: Aneignung und widerst盲ndige Praxis? In: Elisa Linseisen and Alena Strohmaier (eds.). Deine Kamera ist eine App. 脺ber Medienverflechtungen des Applizierens und Appropriierens. L眉neburg: Meson Press. 99-115. (OA) |
| 2023* |
(with Christoph G眉nther and Robert D枚rre). Introduction: Disentangling Jihad, Political Violence and Media. In: Simone Pfeifer, Christoph G眉nther and Robert D枚rre (eds.). Disentangling Jihad, Political Violence and Media. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. 1-27. (OA) |
| 2023 | . In Kathrin Englert, Clemens Eisenmann, Cornelius Schubert, Ehler Voss (eds.), Varieties of Cooperation. Mutually Making the Conditions of Mutual Making. Wiesbaden, Springer Verlag. 79-94. |
| 2023 | (with Muna Ahmad, Larissa-Diana Fuhrmann and Maike Wiechert). . In: Laura Niebling, Felix Rackzkowski, Sven Stollfu脽 (eds.) Handbuch Digitale Medien und Methoden. Springer VS. 1-24. |
| 2023 | . In: Marcel Berlinghoff, Birgit Glorius, J. Olaf Kleist, Tabea Scharrer (eds.). Handbuch der Flucht- und Flu虉chtlingsforschung. Baden-Baden: Nomos. 165-170. |
| 2022* | (reprint: mit Ulf Neumann). In/Visible Images of Mobility: Sociality and Analog-Digital Materiality in Personal Archives of Transnational Migration. In Cathrine Bublatzky und Fiona Siegenthaler (eds.). (U)sighted Archives of Migration: Spaces of Encounter and Resistance. New York: Routledge. |
| 2022 | Heilige, das Meer und ethnologische Tourist*innen. In: Ethnographic Encounters: Essays in Honour of Martin R枚ssler. In Michaela Haug and Rosalie Stolz (eds.). K枚ln: R眉diger K枚ppe Verlag, 193-196. |
| 2021 | Expanding the Family Frame: Social Specialists, Mediated Experiences, and Gendered Images of Mobility in Transnational Wedding Videos. In: Alex Vailati and Gabriela Zamorano (eds.). Ethnographies of 'On Demand' Films: Anthropological Explorations of Commissioned Audiovisual Productions. London & New York: Palgrave. |
| 2021 | (with Robert D枚rre and Christoph G眉nther) Journalism and Images of Violence: Ethical Perspectives. In: Sebastian Baden, Larissa-Diana Fuhrmann and Johann Holten (eds.) Mindbombs! Visual Cultures of Political Violence/Visuelle Kulturen politischer Gewalt. Bielefeld, Berlin: Kerber Art, 127-136. |
| 2020 | Circulating Family Images: Doing Fieldwork and Artwork with/about Family. In: Fabienne Braukmann, Michaela Haug, Katja Metzmacher and Rosalie Stolz (eds.). Being a Parent in the Field. Implications and Challenges of Accompanied Fieldwork. Bielefeld: trancript Verlag, 79鈥�98. |
| 2020* | (with Larissa-Diana Fuhrmann and Patricia Wevers) Re-enacting Violence: Contesting Public Spheres with Appropriations of IS Execution Videos. In: Christoph G眉nther und Simone Pfeifer (Hg.). Jihadi Audiovisuality and its Entanglements: Aesthetics, Meanings, Appropriations. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. 161鈥�180. |
| 2020* | (with Christoph G眉nther). Jihadi Audiovisuality and its Entanglements: A conceptual framework. In: Christoph G眉nther and Simone Pfeifer (eds.). Jihadi Audiovisuality and its Entanglements: Aesthetics, Meanings, Appropriations. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. 1鈥�19. |
| 2020 | (with Yorck Beese, Alexandra Dick, Larissa-Diana Fuhrmann, Christoph G眉nther and Bernd Zywietz). Inside the Islamic State's Media 鈥� Eine kollaborative Videoanalyse. In Bernd Zywietz (ed.) Die Propaganda des Islamischen Staates: Formen und Formate. Wiesbaden: Springer Verlag. 365鈥�414. |
Curation, Films, Multimodal (selection)
| 2024 鈥� 2025 |
Exhibition in the Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum K枚ln: 鈥炩�� with Dr. Arjang Omrani und Tahereh Aboofazeli. 27 September 2024 鈥� 6 January 2025. |
| 2023 |
Exhibition: (9 June - 20 July) as part of the curatorial project 鈥炩�� of the RTG 鈥瀋onnecting-excluding" in collaboration with the Academy of Arts of the World, Cologne. |
| since 2021 | curated research profile on Instagram (digital team ethnography): Hashtag Islam: https:// |
| 2023 | Archival Screens: Collecting, Saving, and Ordering Obscure Material, Desktop Video Essay, 7 min. (with Yorck Beese, Robert D枚rre and Maike Wiechert). |
| 2022 | Sounding out DAESH. Videoessay. 8 min. (with Alexandra Dick and Christoph G眉nther). |
| 2021 | Digital Exhibition Platform: reClaim: Art as Resistance Against Political Violence (Co-Kuration with Larissa-Diana Fuhrmann). |
| 2019 | . Audio Guide as part of the Somatics Toolkit 鈥� Extended Practice (mit Lene Faust). http://somaticstoolkit.coventry.ac.uk/extended-practice-dealing-with-challenging-research-situations/ |
Blogs and other publications (selection)
| 2025 |
(forthcoming) boasblog 鈥淐o-Producing Knowledge," guest edited together with Ute Dieckman, Gerda Kuiper, Hauke-Peter Vehrs for the thematic area co-producing knowledge of the Global South Studies Centre of the University of Cologne. |
| 2023 |
(with Suzana Jovicic). Cards Against Digital Anthropology. Digital Ethnography Initiative Blog. |
| 2021 | How Can You Approach the Field Digitally? Reflections on Using Social Media Profiles in Ethnographic Research (DEI Blog). |