News & Events
June 2025
Elisabeth at ECAS
We are pleased that Elisabeth Schubiger’s paper entitled “Water for Oil: Fluid Dispossessions and Extractive Practices in Northern Kenya” has been accepted for a presentation in the panel “Hazardous Flows: Technology, Creativity and Risk on Africa’s Rivers” at the 10th European Conference on African Studies to be held from 25 to 28 June 2025 in Prague, Czech Republic.
Detailed information about presentations will be available at the conference website.
February 2025
Master Seminar on Infrastructure and Social Imagination
Agnieszka is teaching a Master Seminar “Living Houses, Ghostly Roads and Sky-scraping Towers: Infrastructure and Social Imagination” at the Department of Social Sciences, University of Fribourg
Online Lecture Series at the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy
Agnieszka gave an inaugural talk “An Anthropology of Infrastructure: China’s Belt and Road Initiative Through the Eyes of an Anthropologist” in the online lecture series “Social Anthropology Today: Practicing and Doing Anthropology in Uncertain Times” for the students of the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy. Together with Oksana Owsiiuk and Madlen Kobi from the University of Fribourg, and Marharyta Chabanna from the Academy, Agnieszka coordinates this lecture series introducing the discipline of Social Anthropology to the students of the Faculty of Social Sciences in the spring semester 2025.
January 2025
NCCR application submitted
Agnieszka has been part of the team submitting the application for the new interdisciplinary National Center for Competence in Research (NCCR) “Future Energy Landscapes”. The NCCR is headed by the ETH Zurich and Università della Svizzera italiana, and brings together researchers from seven Swiss Universities to collaborate on developing and testing scenarios for socially and ecologically sustainable energy futures. The NCCRs are 12-year research programs funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation together with the applying Universities. Agnieszka is the leading PI of the Work Package “Maintenance, Repair, and Transformation of Energy Infrastructures”.
PhD Colloquium - Human Geography meets Social Anthropology
On January 27,2025, our team member Hannah Plüss presented her PhD project in a joint colloquium from the Human Geography and Social Anthropology Units to interchange ideas and knowledge.
Team-Workshop on Methods and Ethics
On January 17, 2025, we had our first team workshop at the University of Fribourg. In the afternoon, we could invite two excellent researchers:
Yonatan Gez, University Institute of Lisbon, gave some exciting insights on his applications of the ECRIS collaborative research approach in two projects, SALMEA and FamilEA.
Madlen Kobi, University of Fribourg, showed us how she and her team from Urban Bricolage brought to light the reality and people behind the idea of Circular Construction.
A big thank you to our speakers and our attendees for the vivid debates and rich food for thought.
Welcome to the team, Elisabeth!
I am passionate anthropologist and researcher and in the Maintaining Relationship project, I am working as a postdoctoral researcher. In my work, I will examine how decentralized hydropower infrastructures in the Swiss Alps are maintained over time—not just technically, but through social ties, kinship, and community dynamics. I have always been fascinated by the conflicting goals of a sustainable transition—those moments when infrastructure, progress, and technology collide with human realities.
I look forward to be working at this unique intersection within the framework of my new position and to be part of this team.
October 2024
Agnieszka at the China Week in London
Agnieszka was one of the speakers on panel “Situating the Chinese model of infrastructure development” during the China Week 2024 at Lau China Institute, School of Global Affairs, King’s College London.
July 2024
Welcome to the team, Hannah!
I am Hannah Plüss. With great pleasure I join the "Maintaining Relations" team as a PhD student. This project perfectly fits my longtime focus on Latin America and my diverse experiences around community building and management. I am eager to conduct fieldwork with communities on an equal footing and to contribute to transdisciplinary knowledge about socially sustainable energy production.
May 2024
Agnieszka at the roundtable about the repercussions of China's One Belt One Road Initiative
Agnieszka participated in the roundtable “China’s One Belt One Road Initiative: Repercussions in Asia and Beyond” at the 10th Meeting of the Swiss Asian Society and Swiss Society of the Study of the Middle East hosted by the University of Basel.
March 2024
Agnieszka and Madlen at the Gymnasium Thun
Together with Madlen Kobi, Agnieszka taught a class «China durch die Augen der Sozialanthropologie» at the Thun Gymnasium (high school), Switzerland.
