Silvia Wojczewski

Afro-german, Afro-pean-, Afro-politan –the relation between travel and the practice and narration of diasporic selves

Born and raised in Frankfurt, Germany, Silvia is a research assistant and PhD candidate in the field of Anthropology of travel and tourismat the Institute of Geography and Sustainability, University of Lausanne since 2016.She is also affiliated tothe LACS (Laboratoire d’anthropologie culturelle et sociale) at the Université de Lausanne. HerPhD project explores the relation between mobility and identity. Drawing from ethnographic fieldwork with people that claim an Afro-German identity for themselves living in Frankfurt and Berlin, the research aims to understand how diverse forms of transnational mobility are connected to the formation of diasporic selfhood and how socially and culturally constructed categories of identity are negotiated, challenged and transgressed by practices and narratives of mobility in connection with an Afro-diasporic identity. For her research she accompanies participants during their travels and she does biographical interviews to complete this lived experience of travelling together. Silvia studied social and cultural anthropology and environmental management in Vienna (Austria) and Córdoba (Spain) with fieldwork in Mexico(Yucatán) (2005-2011). After her Master in Anthropology she worked as a research assistant at the Medical University of Vienna, Department for Ethnomedicine and International Health (2012-2015) and mainly worked about international migration of health-workers in sub-Saharan African countries (with partners in Uganda, Mali, Botswana, Sudan and South Africa) as well asglobal care networks.Her research interests are: Mobility and identity, constructions of selfhood, Afroeuropean studies, diasporic identities, the link between migration and tourism, spatial biographies and social anthropolog