Ioana Brunet
Ioana Brunet
QUALIFICATIONS
2020 M.A, Visual Anthropology, SNSPA University Bucharest
2012 B.A., Sociology, University of Bucharest
PRINCIPAL RESEARCH INTERESTS
Memory Politics; Collective Memory; Tourism Industry; Cultural Commodification; Identity Formation; National Identity; Post-Imperial Contexts; Race and Ethnicity; Material Culture; Visual Anthropology; Eastern Europe.
RESEARCH PROFILE
I am a Ph.D. Candidate in Social Anthropology at the University of Regensburg, under the co-supervision of Prof. Dr. Ger Duijzings and Dr. Johana Wyss, and a Ph.D. Student Researcher for the ERC-funded project MEMPOP: Memory and Populism from Below (2024 - 2028).
My research focuses on the politics and practices of memory in the borderland region of Bukovina, Romania. I investigate how tourism development performatively produces the region’s contemporary identity by reflecting and refracting its complex heritage, often drawing on both private and collective memories. Through various methods and a broadly ethnographic approach, I aim to understand how various material and immaterial traces of the past intermingle with present political and identitarian projects, particularly in the context of rising populist sentiments.
My earlier experiences participating in various ethnographic projects in Romania, both during and outside my academic studies, sparked my interest in these themes, which I developed further as an Erasmus guest researcher at the IKGS Institute in Munich.
I am further interested in the potential of anthropology as a medium for storytelling, examining how the integration of art, image, and film, together with text, can enhance ethnographic narratives to disclose alternative perspectives.
Ongoing Projects and Grants
2024–2028 Memory and Populism from Below (MEMPOP), ERC 2022 Starting Grant, Horizon Europe, European Commission (101076092). Ph.D. Student Researcher.
Invited Talks, Public Lectures or Roundtables
2024 November, 22. Populism in a thriving border town. Touristification and its local discontent (PhD research in progress). International Interdisciplinary Conference on the History and Culture of Bukovina for Early Career Researchers, Bukovina-Institute, University of Augsburg.
2022 November, 24. Photo Exhibition „Hydrobiographies – Irrigation system Sadova-Corabia” –the visual results of a team fieldwork conducted during the MA Visual Studies Program at SNSPA University Bucharest.
2021 October, 9. The Traditional Lipovan Russian Bania - presentation of fieldwork conducted in the Danube Delta in the summer of 2021, at Future is Heritage Student Conference (Arnhem, The Netherlands).
2020 February, 13. People. Boxes. Photographers - Personal Archives Research Project, together with Omnia Foto Group, presented at “Responsible Tourism in Romania. Our stories” Conference (Bucharest).
2019 April, 13. “Gated Communities – Case Study: Greenfield Community” – project presented at the International Conference (Im)mobilities: place-making, boundaries, interconnectedness - 17’th International “Border Crossing” Student Conference (Bucharest).
2019 April, 12. “Collective memory in the digital age – A netnography of a historical photography study group” – project presented at the International Conference (Im)mobilities: place-making, boundaries, interconnectedness - 17th International “Border Crossing” Student Conference (Bucharest).
Conference and Workshop Organisation
2024 December 1-4. Memory and Populism from the Margins. Conference, Vila Lanna, Prague. Co-organised with the MEMPOP Team as the Inaugural Conference of the ERC-funded project Memory and Populism from Below (MEMPOP) 2024–2028.
