Hello! My name is Annika Schmeding and I am a cultural anthropologist and Senior Researcher at NIOD -  Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies in Amsterdam. My work explores belonging and community formation in (post) conflict settings as well as notions of representation and leadership among minority groups. 

For the past decade I have worked, traveled and researched in Afghanistan and the wider region (including Pakistan, Iran, Turkey, Syria). My professional experience ranges from research for private sector companies, NGOs and national governments to expert testimony in international court cases. 

In 2020, I earned my doctorate in anthropology from Boston University. I hold an MA in Middle Eastern Area Studies from Leiden University in the Netherlands (2014) and a BA in Social and Cultural Anthropology, Political Science and Comparative Literature from Freie Universität Berlin/Germany (2011). I have also previously studied at the National Institute of Pakistan Studies at Quaid-I-Azam University Islamabad/Pakistan (2009/2010) and was a fellow at the IIAS/International Institute for Asian Studies (2015) and post-doctoral Fellow at the Harvard Society of Fellows. I enjoy engaging interdisciplinary inquiry in my teaching and my course ‘Orientalism Reloaded’ (taught together with Carolin Maertens and Jeanne Berrenberg) has been covered in the media. 

Outside of my research work, I have been involved in different socio-cultural projects, including fundraising for the Afghan children’s circus by driving a motor rickshaw from Kabul to Istanbul and repatriating Islamic arts through international exhibitions in Afghanistan. In my free time I’m either dancing, photographing or playing the cello.