Scientific career

Tim Bunke was a research assistant and Ph.D. candidate at the Department for Social and Cultural Anthropology at the University of Konstanz from July 2011 to July 2016. He studied Social and Cultural Anthropology as well as Medieval and Modern History at the Georg-August-University Göttingen. In his MA-thesis, he used the example of the Eastern Congo to explore the sociopolitical dynamics of ethnic conflicts.
He successfully completed his Ph.D. project with the title "Introducing the Human Trafficking Legislation in Zambia. An Ethnography of Global Connections, Vernacularisation and Appropriations" in February 2017. The Ph.D. project was financed by the Centre of Excellence "Cultural Foundations of Integrations".

Since July 2016 he works as peace worker for the organization Weltfriedensdienst e.V. in Northern Kenya.

Publications

- „Fighting Human Trafficking in Zambia - A Shotgun Approach gone astray?" In: Journal of Trafficking, Organized Crime and Security (forthcoming).

Presentations

23.01.2016 - “Gendered Images of Human Trafficking as Connective Devices in Zambia”, International Workshop: The Gender Dimensions of Human Trafficking, Department of Cultural and Social Anthropology, University of Cologne.

19.11.2015 - "The State and its Boundaries - Controlling Human Trafficking at the Zambian-Tanzanian Border", Institute of Cultural and Social Anthropology, University of Göttingen

08.07.2015 - „The Conundrum of Coercion – the Non-Mobilization of Law in Zambia“, European Conference for African Studies, Paris, France.

28.05.2015 - „‘Freiwillig oder wider Willen?’ (Über-)Lebensentscheidungen auf dem afrikanischen Kontinent“, Universität Göttingen (mit Sarah Fuchs, Anna Hüncke, Thomas Kirsch).

27.05.2015 - „Human Trafficking Law in Zambia – Tracing Processes of Vernacularization“, University of Siegen.

18.07.2014 - „Nichts geht ohne uns – die Vereinten Nationen in Sambia als ‚Obligatory Passage Point‘“, Klausurtagung des Exzellenzclusters der Universität Konstanz, Ittingen, Switzerland.

02.10.2012- „Human Trafficking and Refugeeism in Zambia“, DFG SPP 1448 Conference, Maputo, Mocambique.

Teaching

Winter 2015/16 - Human Trafficking - Anthropological perspectives on global phenomenon

Summer 2015  - Anthropology and Human Rights

Winter 2012/13 - Ethnicity and Conflict

Research interests

  • East and Southern Africa (Zambia, Tanzania)
  • legal anthropology
  • human rights
  • migration
  • policies
  • construction and mobilization of ethnic identities
  • conflict and peace studies
  • political anthropology
  • post-genocidal societies
  • transnational conflicts

Activities

Type Institution
Membership Vereinigung für Afrikawissenschaften in Deutschland (VAD)
Membership European Association of Social Anthropologists (EASA)