Tirza van Bruggen

Research

I identify primarily as an anthropologist. However, my research is interdisciplinary. I hold degrees in International Relations and Development Studies as well as Anthropology and combine theoretical and methodological approaches from all these fields of study. I also draw extensively on theoretical insights from philosophy and sociology.

The focus of my research is to understand local and global power dynamics and their impacts. I mostly study this in the context of citizenship, identity and state formation, socio-economic inequality, and (sustainable) development. As my preferred research approach, I conduct fieldwork using predominantly qualitative research methods, including ethnography, participant observation, open-source research, and in-depth, (un)structured and focus group interviews.

Until now, I conducted fieldwork mainly in Semarang, in Indonesia, studying the history, discourse, contemporary practices and (state-citizen) interactions that shape Chinese Indonesian identity formation. This was also the focus of my PhD research which I conducted as part of the research programme ‘Rule and Rupture’ and that was funded by the European Research Council (ERC).

I currently (since May 2024) work as a Postdoc on the research project ‘Universal Aspirations vs. Geopolitical Divides: Imagining the World as a “Post-Millennial” in the SDG Era’. This is a multi-sited, comparative study focusing on how youth in Denmark and Tanzania locally engage with ‘development’ in a world where development is increasingly framed as a global challenge and ‘universal aspiration’, as represented by the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). This project is funded by the Independent Research Fund Denmark (DFF).