Dr. Sinah Kloß
I will be on leave from the BCDSS from 1 October 2024 to 31 March 2025 (winter term 2024/25), acting as Visiting Professor of Anthropology of the Americas at the Department of Anthropology of the Americas, University of Bonn.
Researcher and Coordinator of Research Group "Marking Power: Embodied Dependencies, Haptic Regimes and Body Modification"
Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies
Niebuhrstraße 5
D-53113 Bonn
Phone: +49 228 73 62575
s.kloss@uni-bonn.de
www.sinahkloss.com
Academic Profile
Tattoos, Body Modification and Haptic Regimes: Sensory History and Embodied Dependencies in Indo-Caribbean Communities
The research project discusses the sensory history of body modification and the interrelation of permanence, tactility, religion and servitude in Hindu Indian communities of (colonial) Suriname, Trinidad and Guyana. It focuses on the tattoos and tattooing practices of Indian indentured laborers in the Caribbean as well as contemporary Caribbean Hindu women, their tattoos and related life histories. Particularly tactility, vision and sound are taken as starting points to analyze the role of biopower in asymmetrical and embodied dependencies, from both an anthropological and historical perspective.
2010–2014
Ph.D. Studies, Social Anthropology, Heidelberg University, Germany
2005–2010
Magistra Artium (M.A.), Human Geography, Social Anthropology and Indology, University of Göttingen, Germany
since 2020
Research Group Leader "Marking Power: Embodied Dependencies, Haptic Regimes and Body Modification," BCDSS, University of Bonn, Germany
2016–2020
Research Associate, Morphomata Center for Advanced Studies, University of Cologne, Germany
2015–2016
Research Associate, Global South Studies Center, University of Cologne, Germany
2010–2013
Research Associate, Heidelberg Centre for Transcultural Studies, Heidelberg University, Germany
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Equal Opportunity Representative, BCDSS (since 12/2023)
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Head of Committee, Executive Board, Society for Caribbean Research (Socare e.V.) (since 03/2023)
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Advisory Editorial Board of "Global South Studies," University of Virginia, USA (since 07/2017)
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Executive Board, Society for Caribbean Research (Socare e.V.), Coordinator of the Division "International Affairs" (03/2021–03/2023)
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Representative and Speaker of the Research Group Leaders and Postdoctoral Researchers, BCDSS (12/2020–12/2021)
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Founding Member of the Working Group "Umgang mit Übergriffen auf Feldforschungen" [Dealing with Violence/Assault during Fieldwork], cooperation with the Gender Equality Office, University of Bonn (09/2020–09/2021)
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Member of the Finding Commission for the Steering Committee of the Global South Studies Center, University of Cologne (11/2020–12/2020)
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Member of the Editorial Board of the web magazine "Voices from Around the World," Global South Studies Center, University of Cologne (10/2015–12/2018)
2018
Affiliated Fellowship at the KITLV/Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies, University of Leiden, Netherlands
2017
Visiting Research at the University of Guyana, School of Education and Humanities, Guyana
2015–2017
Fellowship at the Center for Religion, Economy and Politics (ZRWP), University of Basel, Switzerland
2011–2012
Visiting Research at the University of Guyana, School of Education and Humanities, Guyana
- DFG (German Research Foundation)
- Volkswagen Foundation
- Fritz Thyssen Foundation
- German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD)
- 2024. "Serving toward Release: Tattoos, Religious Work, and Coercion in Post-Indenture Communities." In Journal of Global Slavery 9: 17–42. Access
- 2024. "Tattooed Dependencies: Sensory Memory, Structural Violence and Narratives of Suffering among Caribbean Hindu Women." In Narratives of Dependency, edited by E. Brüggen and M. Gymnich, 347–365. Berlin: De Gruyter. Open access
- 2024. "Talking History: Ethnographic Interviews, Intersectional Identities, and Power Negotiations in Research Encounters." In Un-Mapping the Global South, edited by Gero Bauer, Nicole Hirschfelder, and Fernando Resende. Transdisciplinary Studies. New York: Routledge. Access
- 2023. "'We Knew It!': Caribbean Hindu Responses to Restrictions of Touch during COVID-19." In CoronAsur: Asian Religions in the Covidian Age, edited by Emily Zoe Hertzman, Natalie Lang, Erica M. Larson, and Carola E. Lorea, 129–133. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. Open access
- 2022. "Embodying Dependency: Caribbean Godna (Tattoos) as Female Subordination and Resistance." In The Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology 27(4): 601–612. Open access
- 2020. Tattoo Histories: Transcultural Perspectives on the Narratives, Practices, and Representations of Tattooing. Routledge Studies in Cultural History. New York: Routledge.
- 2020. "Indelible Ink: An Introduction to the Histories, Narratives, and Practices of Tattooing." In Tattoo Histories: Transcultural Perspectives on the Narratives, Practices, and Representations of Tattooing, 3–30. New York: Routledge.
- 2020. As editor. With K. Gröne, B. Braun, M. Schüller, and M. Bollig. Fairer Handel: Chancen, Grenzen, Herausforderungen. München: oekom.
- 2020. "Giving and Development: Ethno-Religious Identities and 'Holistic Development' in Guyana." In Religion and Development in the Global South, edited by A. Heuser and J. Köhrsen, 113–138. New York: Routledge.
- 2017. "The Global South as Subversive Practice." In The Global South 11(2): 1–17.
- 2017. "Sexual(ized) Harassment and Ethnographic Fieldwork: A Silenced Aspect of Social Research." In Ethnography 18(3): 396–414. Open access
- 2017. "Contesting 'Gifts from Jesus': Conversion, Charity, and the Distribution of Used Clothing in Guyana." In Social Sciences and Mission 30(3): 346–365.
- 2016. Fabrics of Indianness: The Exchange and Consumption of Clothing in Transnational Guyanese Hindu Communities. London, New York: Palgrave Macmillan.