Research Focus Areas

• Migration and mobility Studies
• Transnational Studies
• Memory Studies
• Political Anthropology
• Regional focus: Southest Europe; Northern Europe; translocal bosnian communities

Short Biography

Sanda Üllen holds a PhD degree from the Department of Cultural and Social Anthropology of the University of Vienna. In the past she worked on diverse projects, including research on e.g. representations and perceptions of migration(s) in Austrian school textbooks; family migration and integration; Multiculturalism, Gender Equality, Cultural Diversity and Sexual Autonomy. In her PhD, through analysing transnational family networks between Bosnia and Scandinavia and their family home(s) and houses, she questions the dynamic interplay between what people remember and/or silence, how this influences and shapes their belongings and practices of emplacement and also how different contexts and places (especially the family house) influence exactly how and what is being remembered. 

Her research interests include memory, politics of belonging and identity, migration and transnational dynamics, and violence with a regional focus on the Western Balkans.

Selected Publications

• 2016   Ambivalent Sites of Memories: The Meaning of Family Homes for Transnational Families. In Tosic/Palmberger "Memories on the move. Experiencing Mobility, Rethinking the Past". Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
• 2016  Memories of Migration(s) in School. In: JERO (Journal for Educational Research Online), double blind peer-review, gemeinsam mit C. Markom.
• 2015   Familiengründungsmigration, Heiratsverhalten und Integration von Drittstaatsangehörigen in Österreich. Projektbericht. Wien: ICMPD, gemeinsam mit Hofmann, Martin und Bilger, Veronika.
• 2014  Connecting Past and Future – Negotiating Present: Memories and belongings in post-war Sarajevo. In: Kamal, Noura, Eva Kössner, and Klaudia Rottenschlager (eds.): Past-Present-Fielwork: Anthropological Contributions at the Intersection of Memory, Power, and Culture. Conference Report Vienna Anthropology Days 2013. Austrian Studies in Social Anthropology, Sondernummer KSA-Tage 2013, Bd. 2, 37 p. http://www.univie.ac.at/alumni.ksa/index.php/ksa-tage-2013/past-present-fieldwork.html 
• 2014  Involving Pupils in Migration Research: Debating the ‚Other’ in Textbooks and Classrooms. In: JEMMS (Journal of Educational Media, Memory and Society), Berghahn, peer-reviewed, gemeinsam mit C. Hintermann/C. Markom und H. Weinhäupl.
• 2013  ’Ich bin von hier und hier muss ich sein’ – Zugehörigkeit, Erinnerung und Gewalt im transnationalen Kontext am Beispiel bosnisch-herzegowinischer Jugendlicher. In: Aufwachsen im Ausnahmezustand. Sozialanthropologische Beiträge über Adoleszenz in Unsicherheit und Gewalt. Maria Six-Hohenbalken (Hg.). Wien: Wiener Verlag für Sozialforschung.
• 2008  Flucht und (nie) wieder zurück? Konzepte von Zugehörigkeit und Identität bei bosnischen Flüchtlingen in Kopenhagen. In: Kuckuck. Notizen zur Alltagskultur 23 (2): 16-20.

Lectures and Presentations

• Family house as an active participant in construction of memories among transnational families. Second Annual Conference of the Memory Association, Copenhagen, Denmark, 15.12.2017.
• Zuhause erinnern? Transnationale Familien und die Ambivalenzen des Erinnerns im bosnisch-herzegowinischen Nachkriegskontext. Invited lecture for the „Balkanforschung an der ÖAW“, Department for Balkan Studies, Institute for Modern and Contemporary History Research, Austrian Academy of Sciences. 29.11.2017.
• “I'm going to a Date with My Past" - Family House as an Ambivalent Site of Memories for Transnational Families. BrownBag Seminar at the Centre for South East European Studies, University of Graz, 29.11.2016.
• Looking Behind Closed Doors. Negotiating Distance and Intimacy in the Field. Invited lecture at the PhD Seminar, Centre for South East European Studies, University of Graz, 29.11.2016.
• ’Ich will meine Erinnerungen nicht verkaufen.’ Die Bedeutung von Zuhause für transnationale Familien. Invited lecture fort he course „Einführende Vorlesung in die Anthropologie der Migrationsforschung“, Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Vienna, 18.01.2016.
• “Transnational Mobility and the Role of Diasporas: Insights from the Case of Bosnians, Indians and Filipinos in Austria and the UK”, ITHACA Project Final Conference. Invited as Discussant, Florence, Italy, 21.10.2015.
• „’Ich will meine Erinnerungen nicht verkaufen’ - Das Zuhause als Ort der Erinnerung im Spannungsfeld zwischen Vergangenheit und Zukunft.“ Paper presented at the 38. DGV-Tagung „Krisen. Re-Formationen von Leben, Macht und Welt“, Marburg, Germany, 01.10.2015.
• „Mobilizing Diasporas: Engaging with the Place of Origin for Bosnians – Herzegovinians and Ukrainians in the UK & Austria“. ITHACA Regional Dissemination Workshop, invited as discussant, Brighton, Great Britain, 24.-25. .09.2015.
• “Bosnian migration to Austria: between labour migration and transnational mobility”, Invited paper presented at the Conference “Governing irregular Migration: States, Actors and Intermediaries”, Athens, Greece, 08.-09.07.2015.
• “Time and the City. Ethnographic Explorations of the Past, Present and Future in Contemporary Cities”, Paper presented at the 10th Days of Cultural and Social Anthropology, University of Vienna, 24.04.2015.
• „Connecting past and present, negotiating the uncertainty – memories and identities in post-war Sarajevo.” Paper presented at the 10th Biennial Conference of IAGS ‘The Aftermath of Genocide: Victims and Perpetrators, Representations and Interpretations.’ Siena, Italy. 22.06.2013.
• “Connecting past and future – negotiating present: memories and belongings in post-war Sarajevo.” Paper presented at the 8th Days of Cultural and Social Anthropology, University Vienna. 06.06.2013.
• „’Ich bin von hier und hier muss ich sein’: Zugehörigkeit, Erinnerungen und Gewalt im transnationalen Kontext am Beispiel bosnisch-herzegowinischer Jugendlicher.” Paper presented at the 7th Days of Cultural and Social Anthropology, University Vienna. 25.05 2012.
• “Politische und gesellschaftliche Transformationen in Süd-/Osteuropa: Beiträge der Anthropologie.” Paper with Sabrina Kopf, presented at the 7th Days of Cultural and Social Anthropology, University Vienna. 24.05.2012.
• „Contested memories – Gegenwarten des Erinnerns im Spannungsfeld zwischen Vergangenheit und Zukunft am Beispiel von Bosnien-Herzegowina“, Paper presented at the 34. German Anthropological Association „Wa(h)re Kultur? Kulturelles Erbe, Revitalisierung und die Renaissance der Idee von Kultur“, Vienna. 14.-17.09.2011.
• „Reconciling the past“ – Paper presented at the Conference „Picturing Moral Courage: Stories of Survival“, The Post-Conflict Research Center, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. 14.-17.07.2011.
• „Negotiating new places – Being and Longing in a Post-Conflict Society“. Paper presented at the conference „People make Places – Ways of Feeling the World“, The 10th International SIEF Congress, Lissabon, Portugal. 17.-21.04.2011.
• „Imagining Bosnia between Past and Future: Memories, Home and Belonging in a Post-Conflict Society". Paper presented at the conference „Crisis and Imagination", The 11th Biennial EASA Conference, NUI Maynooth, Irland. 24.-27. 08.2010.
• „The "Glocal" Field" – Theorien und praktische Ansätze zur Überwindung der Dichotomie Global/Lokal." Paper with Sabrina Kopf, presented at the 6th Days of Cultural and Social Anthropology, University Vienna. 22.-23. 04. 2010.
• “Vom Asylwerber zum Staatsbürger.” Paper presented at the conference „momentum09. Freiheit“, Hallstatt. 22.-25.10.2009.
• „Identity and Belonging in the Aftermath of War Atrocities. Bosnian Refugees Case Study in Denmark“, Paper presented at the conference “The New Face of the Genocide in the 21st Century”, The 8th Biennial Conference of International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS). Institute for Conflict Analysis & Resolution, George Mason University, Arlington, Virginia, USA. 7.-10.06.2009.
• „Hier sind wir nicht und dort gibt es uns nicht. Identität(en) und Zugehörigkeit(en) bei bosnischen Flüchtlingen in Kopenhagen.“ Paper presented at the 5th Days of Cultural and Social Anthropology. 23.04.2009.
• „Präsentation von ExpertInneninterviews mit österreichischen Politikerinnen“ im Rahmen des EU NODE-Projekts  „Contesting Multiculturalism. Gender Equality, Cultural Diversity and Sexual Autonomy.“, Institut für Kultur- und Sozialanthropologie, Universität Wien. 30. 11.2008.