Area and Development Studies
PhD Researcher in Area and Development Studies (ESRC 1+3)
Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, University of Exeter
Start date: September 2014
Research topic: Food and the construction of community among the Palestinian diaspora in the UK
My research utilises ethnographic methods to explore how food is used as a tool for community building by Palestinians living in the UK. Theoretically, the PhD engages with anthropological literature concerning commonality, kinship and relatedness. These concepts are applied to the ethnographic data to better understand how food and food practice can be read as an instance of resistance to diasporic living, and as a performance of banal nationalism.
Research supervisors: Professor Ilan Pappé, Dr Jason Hart, Dr Sophie Richter-Devroe
Professional memberships/Positions held:
Teaching assistant: Gender, Identity and Modernity in the Middle East; Ethnography of the Middle East
Email: lvb201@exeter.ac.uk