The project foregrounds intimacy and affect in the relationships of mothers and daughters with mobile biographies in Europe, whose voices are seldom heard in the public sphere of countries that have witnessed important immigration flows since the 1960s. The investigation of their shared memories and experiences across faith and non-faith backgrounds, generations, and sexual orientations aims to counter this erasure. The focus lies on (queer) becoming and belonging against persisting and intersecting xenophobia, homophobia, and anti-Muslim hatred in late-capitalist societies. The encounter with dyads of mothers and daughters, broadly interpreted beyond the boundaries of biological filiation, will result from multi-sited fieldwork in ‘postmigrant’ settings, such as cities in Belgium, Germany and Switzerland. By exploring partial connections and overlaps, the ethnographic study aims to show the rich texture of lives lived between diaspora communities and new forms of kinship. The research design and methodology emphasise sensory and embodied relations to data as well as an engaged, gentle, and participatory approach.

Supervisor: Prof. Dr. George Paul Meiu
Co-Supervisor:Prof. Dr. Monika Salzbrunn

Nadia Bellardi is a PhD candidate and Assistant at the Institute of Social Anthropology, University of Basel, Switzerland. She is part of the SNF-funded research project “Inherited Futures? Objects, Time, Knowledge” led by PD Dr. Lorena Rizzo and Prof. Dr. George-Paul Meiu. Nadia pursued Political Science and International Relations at Università Cattolica, Milan, with an MA thesis on the legacy of women’s emancipation movements in Turkey (1995, summa cum laude). She also obtained a Master of Advanced Studies in Cultural Mediation and Anthropology of the Mediterranean from Ca' Foscari University of Venice in 2004. From 2012 onwards, Nadia worked as an independent expert on (community) media, migration and inclusion for the Council of Europe and other international organisations. She has been a member of the Board of the Swiss Foundation for Radio and Culture SRKS/FSRC since 2018 and was in the collective management team of Radio LoRa in Zurich from 2005 to 2010. Nadia also has extensive experience in intercultural communication and advocacy for the private and non-profit sectors.

https://ethnologie.philhist.unibas.ch/en/doctorate/phd-students-and-projects/