Research Focus Areas

• Visual and multimodal anthropology: representations, (in)visibilities, ethnographic media practices
• Mobility studies: urban mobility, rural-urban linkages, transnational migration, displacement
• Urban studies: development, urbanization, segregation, neighborhoods, place-making

Short Biography

Sanderien Verstappen is associate professor in social and cultural anthropology with a focus on visual anthropology at the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology of the University of Vienna. Her long-term research interests include mobility studies, urban studies, media studies, social inequality, and the politics of belonging. As a visual anthropologist trained in ethnographic filmmaking, she uses film as a research method and as a means of communicating with varied audiences, including the research participants themselves. At the University of Vienna she leads the Vienna Visual Anthropology Lab, which supports multimodal approaches in research and teaching.

An overview of her publications and films is on her website.

Team

Selected recent publications

• Sanderien Verstappen and Sarah Davies. 2024. “Ethnographic film as world-making: Connecting visual anthropology with Science and Technology Studies.” Visual Anthropology Review. https://doi.org/10.1111/var.12338
• Sanderien Verstappen. 2024. “‘Today, we teach the kids where we are from’: Event filmmaking and diasporic homemaking among Indian Muslims in North America.” HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory 13. https://doi.org/10.1086/729992
• Suzana Jovicic, Barbara Göbl, Sanderien Verstappen, and Fares Kayali. 2024. “Designing amidst uncertainty: Drifting and byproducts in the intersection of Anthropology and Computer Science.” CoDesign 1-16. https://doi.org/10.1080/15710882.2024.2396945
• Willy Sier and Sanderien Verstappen. 2024. “Empty homes: Filming homeownership in rapidly urbanising China.” Visual Studies 39 (1–2), 24–32. https://doi.org/10.1080/1472586X.2023.2217796
• Sanderien Verstappen. 2023. “Worlding cycling research with anthropology: an anthropological research agenda for urban cycling.” Urban, Planning and Transport Research. https://doi.org/10.1080/21650020.2023.2264360
• Sanderien Verstappen. 2022. New Lives in Anand: Building a Muslim Hub in Western India. Seattle: University of Washington Press. Link to the open access digital edition: https://uw.manifoldapp.org/projects/new-lives-in-anand.
• Sanderien Verstappen. 2020. “Ultrashort, low-resolution and anonymous: Designing anthropological films for smartphone viewers.” entanglements 3 (1): 62-80. Permalink: https://entanglementsjournal.wordpress.com/ultrashort-low-resolution-and-anonymous-designing-anthropological-films-for-smartphone-viewers-2/?fbclid=IwAR2i9oSrep4FgNctOmY-tOV2CSwNYpy7olUHYeO7cr4D-wa7xQ2J2Qde6iw
• Sanderien Verstappen, in conversation with Mario Rutten and Isabelle Makay. 2021. “Ethnocinematographic theory: How to develop migration theory through ethnographic filmmaking.” In Karolina Nikielska-Sekula and Amandine Desille, eds., Visual Methods in Migration Studies: New Possibilities, Theoretical Implications, and Ethical Questions, 99-116. New York: Springer. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-67608-7_6