The project investigates affective landscapes, memories and desires of mothers and daughters with mobile biographies in Switzerland. The focus is on the legacies and continuities in Swiss political anxieties over migrant reproduction and mothering and their impact on emotional belonging (or non-belonging). Through participatory ethnographic fieldwork, the research examines how migration policies and social inequalities have shaped the feelings of belonging or non-belonging of women in midlife and their adult daughters, whose gendered identities have been transformed by international migration. Personal narratives of reproduction and work across generations reflect the changes and specificities of gendered migration, labour and belonging in post-capitalist societies. Sound mapping and a collage of memories and soundscapes will contribute to the sensory dimension and the ethnography’s collaborative, multimodal nature. The research design and methodology emphasise 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/