Dr Deema Kaneff

• PhD in Social Anthropology, University of Adelaide, Australia
• BA with Honours in Anthropology, University of Adelaide, Australia

Dr Kaneff gained her PhD in Anthropology from the University of Adelaide, Australia, before taking up a postdoctoral position at the Department of Social Anthropology, University of Cambridge, England.  In 1999 she became a founding member of the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Halle, Germany, as a Senior Research Fellow.

She continues her affiliation with the Max Planck Institute as an Associate, as well as holding her present position (since August 2007) as Reader in Social Anthropology, Birmingham University.

Dr Kaneff has carried out long term fieldwork in Bulgaria, in both rural and urban areas and during the socialist and postsocialist periods, and, since 2000, also in Ukraine.  She has worked on a range of topics, including: local politics and state building, property relations, postsocialist transformations and global capitalism, markets and moralities, transnational migration, and social exclusion and inequalities. She is the author of: Who Owns the Past: The Politics of Time in a ‘Model’ Bulgarian Village (Berghahn, 2004) and a number of edited volumes (see below for these and other publications).

Dr Kaneff has been awarded a number of research grants (see other activities below) and has taken a leading role in initiating and supporting networks of scholars across Europe – she is a founding member of the International Association for Southeast European Anthropology (InASEA).

Courses taught:

• European Societies: A Cross Cultural Perspective
• Global Capitalism and Migration

Dr Kaneff has also taught a wide range of courses at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels on topics including: Introduction to Anthropology; Anthropological Understandings of the Balkans; Development and Emerging Inequalities in Europe; Researching Russia and Eastern Europe; Postsocialism and Postsocialist Development; as well as lecturing on research methods (especially ethnographic).

Previous teaching experience:

Before taking up her present position at the University of Birmingham, Dr Kaneff has taught  at various universities around the world, including:

• University of Adelaide, Australia
• Cambridge University,  England
• Martin Luther University, Halle-Wittenberg, Germany

She is also highly experienced in supervising PhD students - on various topics - both in Germany (while at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology) as well as, more recently, in the UK (at the University of Birmingham).

Research Interests

Trained as an anthropologist, Dr Kaneff’s  research is based on carrying out ethnographic fieldwork in particular rural and urban sites in Bulgaria and Ukraine for protracted periods of time (amounting to a number of years).

Bulgaria

Topics researched:

• postsocialist reforms -  especially property relations, emerging market relations, rebuilding the state and new political elites
• local-national politics
• migration – rural-urban and transnational
• social exclusion/inclusion
• informal economy

Ukraine

Topics researched:

• postsocialist reforms – especially property relations, privatisation and emerging tensions
• migration
• rural development  
• religion and identity
• informal economy

Current and Recent Projects

• 2012-14 - Bulgarian Science Fund, Bulgaria.
  Title of project: ‘Bulgarian Churches Abroad: Orthodox Values of National Identity’.  Dr Kaneff was an international consultant for the project.
• 2010-2013 - British Council Grant, UK.
  Title of project: ‘Innovative teaching and research through academic partnerships’ between the University of Birmingham, UK, and the Kazakh-British Technical University in Almaty, Kazakhstan. Lead Partners: G. Yemelianova (University of Birmingham) and S. Zhanabayeva (Kazakh-British Technical University).
• 2003-2006 - Volkswagen Foundation Grant, Germany.
  Title of project: ‘Political, Economic and Social Inclusion and Exclusion in Bulgaria and Poland’.  Co-directed with C. Hann (Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Germany) and F. Pine (Department of Anthropology, Goldsmiths, University of London, U.K.).
• 1995 - Richard Carley Hunt Postdoctoral Fellowship, USA
  Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, U.S.A.
• 1994 - Nuffield Small Grant in the Social Sciences, U.K.

Professional Appointments

• Associate Member of Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Halle, Germany
• External Reviewer for the Nordic-Russian Cooperation Programme in Higher Education and Research, on behalf of the Nordic Council of Ministers and the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation
• Member of Editorial Board ‘European Studies in Socio-Cultural Anthropology and Ethnology’,  Berghahn Press
• Member of the Editorial Board, Südosteuropa
• Member of Editorial Board,  Anthropology
• Member of Editorial Board,  Bulgarska Ethnologia
• Founding member, International Association for Southeast European Anthropology (InASEA)
• Member, European Association of Social Anthropologists (EASA)