Sarah Riebel

Academic Career

Sarah Riebel joined the research group Social and Political Anthropology, led by Prof. Dr. Judith Beyer, as a doctoral candidate in April of 2020. Riebel studied Sociology and History at the University of Konstanz and the University of Oslo in pursuit of her bachelor’s degree. Building on this degree, she completed her M.A. in Social and Cultural Anthropologyand Sociology at the University of Konstanz. For her master’s thesis, entitled “Cascades of Crises: Narratives of Conflict, Catastrophe and Crisis in Sri Lanka – An anthropological Analysis,” she researched the effects of the civil war, the tsunami, and the Easter bombings on tourism and on the narratives of locals during a stay in-country for field research.

Contact: sarah.riebel@uni-konstanz.de

Interests

• Narratives of crisis
• (Ethno-)religious communities in South (and Southeast) Asia
• Development aid
• Intercultural and interreligious dialogue
• Activism

Dissertation project

Harmonious Coexistence? Interfaith Dialogue Between (Ethno-)Religious Communities, NGOs and the State in Myanmar (working title)

This project will examine the meaning of interfaith dialogue in the multireligious and multiethnic state of Myanmar. The anthropological analysis aims to question the official discourse of the state, which represents the interfaith dialogue as a measure to help ensure peace and harmony, as well as to protect the population. The settlements that result from this discourse are often implemented top-down, with the support of large organizations like the United Nations. In light of this trend, various local visions and practices of the interfaith dialogue will also be made visible in a bottom-up approach, which will ethnographically study smaller non-governmental organizations (NGOs), activist groups, and initiatives by individuals working for specific configurations of religious coexistence. The qualitative data will be collected through several field research trips to Myanmar, mostly in Yangon. Methods will include participatory observation, discussions, and interviews that will take place at workshops, at interfaith prayer sessions, and at other interreligious initiatives and events.

The project’s driving question is twofold: what is the significance of the interfaith dialogue as a political practice in contemporary Myanmar, and what effects does it create? Additionally, the project will investigate the impact of vernacular interpretations of European-influenced concepts and the discourse surrounding them; of particular interest are community, religion, and race, terms that came to Myanmar via India during the British colonial occupation. The goal is furthermore to decentralize the perspective on this research area, which until now has been predominantly Eurocentric.

The dissertation will align theoretically with the works of legal anthropologist Laura Nader and her concept of a harmony ideology, as well as with Judith Beyer’s critical works on community-building processes of ethno-religious groups in Myanmar.