Julia Leser
Biographic Data
| ID | 193312 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Julia Leser |
| GIVEN NAMES | Julia |
| FAMILY NAME | Leser |
| SIGNATURE | LESER J |
| AFFILIATIONS | Leipzig University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-1330-5503 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 15 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 15 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 15 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2019 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Populist truth-making: A conceptual approach to populism in the context of European museums
This article develops the concept of populist truth-making as a device to study the effects of populist politics on museums in Europe. Despite a growing interest in the (mis)uses of the past by populist politics in heritage and memory studies, our understanding of how populist politics affect museums and other heritage institutions is still limited. With reference to our cross-European ethnographic study of museums and populism, this conceptual a…
Weaponizing Nature, Naturalizing Violence: Anthropologies of Ecofascism
After decades of denial and obstruction, the global Right is increasingly willing to acknowledge that climate change is a threat to lives and lifeways everywhere. Moreover, some seize on the specter of ecological collapse to advance fascistic politics. Mass shootings by White men who propose that eliminating racialized people will ease environmental pressures—including in Christchurch and El Paso—have been the most spectacular manifestations of t…
The haunting of the wolf: Nature, nationalism, and violent inheritance
Wolves have been extinct in Germany for 300 years, but they have been returning to Eastern Germany since the 1990s. The return of wolves has been exploited in election campaigns by the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party, which is targeting the rural population in Eastern Germany. In 2019, AfD politicians demanded the introduction of an 'upper limit' for the wolf population and the legalization of the shooting of this strictly prote…
Right-Wing Populism and Museums: Findings from an Interview Study in the UK, Poland and Germany
This paper contributes to the growing research on right-wing populism's increasing impact on cultural and heritage institutions, presenting findings from an interview study with museum professionals in Poland, Germany, and the UK. Our comparative analysis highlights the multifarious ways populist politics affect museum work, including potentially violent interventions that target museum staff and more diffuse forms of influence on museums that ar…
Forum: Critical Ethnography
Ethnography is a political practice with an ambivalent relationship to power. On the one hand, it has benefitted from, legitimized and stabilized hegemonic power relations. On the other hand, it can challenge the self-evidence of the status quo, give room for multiple experiences and worldviews, and place itself in the service of emancipation and social transformation. The forum does not define what critical ethnography is but brings together a r…
The Politics of Negative Emotions
The wolves are coming back: The politics of fear in Eastern Germany
Since 1990 the wolf has been a protected species in Germany; killing a wolf is a crime punishable by a prison sentence of up to five years. In Eastern Germany, where the political ground is shifting to the right, locals argue that the wolves are not German but Western Polish, undeserving of protection since they have invaded Saxon territory and threatened the local way of life. Many people in Eastern Germany feel that the wolf, like the migrant, …
Entre coopération et conflit: La « coopération de confiance » entre la police et les centres de consultation spécialisés dans l’accompagnement des victimes de la traite des êtres humains
La lutte contre la traite est devenue un champ d’action étatique dans lequel s’entremêlent logiques humanitaire, sociale et d’assistance d’une part, et logiques pénales d’autre part, leurs exigences parfois contradictoires devant être conciliées. La négociation de ces deux logiques au niveau de la street-level bureaucracy se retrouve généralement dans la répartition des responsabilités entre les autorités pénales d’une part, et les acteurs en cha…
Toxische Orte? Faktoren regionaler Anfälligkeit für völkischen Nationalismus
Ostdeutsche Identität(en) im Wandel? Perspektiven für Intra- und Interkohortenvergleiche
Der Beitrag analysiert ostdeutsche Identitätsbildungsprozesse bei jungen Erwachsenen im Jahr 2004 und rund zehn Jahre später. Empirische Basis ist ein Intra- und Interkohortenvergleich der Befunde von drei qualitativen Studien basierend auf Leitfadeninterviews und Gruppendiskussionen. Dieser diachrone Vergleich zeigt partielle Kontinuitäten in den Identitätskonstruktionen der ostdeutschen Befragten: Die wahrgenommene Abwertung Ostdeutschlands bil…
The functionality of affects: Conceptualising far-right populist politics beyond negative emotions
By focusing on negative affects, such as anger, fear and hate, a normative critique of affective politics tends to overlook the ambiguity and situated nature of affective politics. This paper suggests embracing the ambivalences that characterise the emotional dynamics in political arenas; therefore, it emphasises the functionality of affects. The study adopts a post-dualistic understanding of political affects based on the conceptual devices of S…
Wolves Are Coming Back: The Politics of Fear in Eastern Germany
The Category of 'Culture' in Vice Squad Policing in Germany
This article makes a twofold claim. First, the notion of ‘culture’ is inherently interwoven with the classification system that organises the daily work of police officers. In their understanding, culture is a one-size-fits-all category to produce boundaries in terms of gender, ethnicity, class, and the willingness of a population to submit to police authority. The second claim is that ‘culture’ has a particular functionality in the field of poli…
On the Sensory Policing of Vices
This paper explores the policing of vices and offers a critical inquiry into the affective politics of policing practices seen through police and state ethnography, political anthropology, and the 'affective turn' in social and cultural theory. It shows how the moral worlds of policing sex work and performing raids in the red-light 'milieu' are constituted in the making of boundaries through visual, olfactory, somatosensory, and auditory sensatio…
On the affective governmentality of anti-trafficking efforts: An ethnographic exploration
The state cannot be conceived as an apparatus of purely rational decision-making, as we argue in this paper using the case of governing human trafficking. We used a state ethnographic approach to reveal the three functions borne by affects in the governing of trafficking prevention projects. First, in affective displays used by police officers to regulate and govern the clients they encounter in their everyday practices. Second, the role of affec…
The functionality of affects: Conceptualising far-right populist politics beyond negative emotions
By focusing on negative affects, such as anger, fear and hate, a normative critique of affective politics tends to overlook the ambiguity and situated nature of affective politics. This paper suggests embracing the ambivalences that characterise the emotional dynamics in political arenas; therefore, it emphasises the functionality of affects. The study adopts a post-dualistic understanding of political affects based on the conceptual devices of S…
On the affective governmentality of anti-trafficking efforts: An ethnographic exploration
The state cannot be conceived as an apparatus of purely rational decision-making, as we argue in this paper using the case of governing human trafficking. We used a state ethnographic approach to reveal the three functions borne by affects in the governing of trafficking prevention projects. First, in affective displays used by police officers to regulate and govern the clients they encounter in their everyday practices. Second, the role of affec…
Right-Wing Populism and Museums: Findings from an Interview Study in the UK, Poland and Germany
This paper contributes to the growing research on right-wing populism's increasing impact on cultural and heritage institutions, presenting findings from an interview study with museum professionals in Poland, Germany, and the UK. Our comparative analysis highlights the multifarious ways populist politics affect museum work, including potentially violent interventions that target museum staff and more diffuse forms of influence on museums that ar…
Forum: Critical Ethnography
Ethnography is a political practice with an ambivalent relationship to power. On the one hand, it has benefitted from, legitimized and stabilized hegemonic power relations. On the other hand, it can challenge the self-evidence of the status quo, give room for multiple experiences and worldviews, and place itself in the service of emancipation and social transformation. The forum does not define what critical ethnography is but brings together a r…
Entre coopération et conflit: La « coopération de confiance » entre la police et les centres de consultation spécialisés dans l’accompagnement des victimes de la traite des êtres humains
La lutte contre la traite est devenue un champ d’action étatique dans lequel s’entremêlent logiques humanitaire, sociale et d’assistance d’une part, et logiques pénales d’autre part, leurs exigences parfois contradictoires devant être conciliées. La négociation de ces deux logiques au niveau de la street-level bureaucracy se retrouve généralement dans la répartition des responsabilités entre les autorités pénales d’une part, et les acteurs en cha…
The Category of 'Culture' in Vice Squad Policing in Germany
This article makes a twofold claim. First, the notion of ‘culture’ is inherently interwoven with the classification system that organises the daily work of police officers. In their understanding, culture is a one-size-fits-all category to produce boundaries in terms of gender, ethnicity, class, and the willingness of a population to submit to police authority. The second claim is that ‘culture’ has a particular functionality in the field of poli…
On the Sensory Policing of Vices
This paper explores the policing of vices and offers a critical inquiry into the affective politics of policing practices seen through police and state ethnography, political anthropology, and the 'affective turn' in social and cultural theory. It shows how the moral worlds of policing sex work and performing raids in the red-light 'milieu' are constituted in the making of boundaries through visual, olfactory, somatosensory, and auditory sensatio…
On the affective governmentality of anti-trafficking efforts: An ethnographic exploration
The state cannot be conceived as an apparatus of purely rational decision-making, as we argue in this paper using the case of governing human trafficking. We used a state ethnographic approach to reveal the three functions borne by affects in the governing of trafficking prevention projects. First, in affective displays used by police officers to regulate and govern the clients they encounter in their everyday practices. Second, the role of affec…
Toxische Orte? Faktoren regionaler Anfälligkeit für völkischen Nationalismus
Ostdeutsche Identität(en) im Wandel? Perspektiven für Intra- und Interkohortenvergleiche
Der Beitrag analysiert ostdeutsche Identitätsbildungsprozesse bei jungen Erwachsenen im Jahr 2004 und rund zehn Jahre später. Empirische Basis ist ein Intra- und Interkohortenvergleich der Befunde von drei qualitativen Studien basierend auf Leitfadeninterviews und Gruppendiskussionen. Dieser diachrone Vergleich zeigt partielle Kontinuitäten in den Identitätskonstruktionen der ostdeutschen Befragten: Die wahrgenommene Abwertung Ostdeutschlands bil…
The functionality of affects: Conceptualising far-right populist politics beyond negative emotions
By focusing on negative affects, such as anger, fear and hate, a normative critique of affective politics tends to overlook the ambiguity and situated nature of affective politics. This paper suggests embracing the ambivalences that characterise the emotional dynamics in political arenas; therefore, it emphasises the functionality of affects. The study adopts a post-dualistic understanding of political affects based on the conceptual devices of S…
Wolves Are Coming Back: The Politics of Fear in Eastern Germany
The Category of 'Culture' in Vice Squad Policing in Germany
This article makes a twofold claim. First, the notion of ‘culture’ is inherently interwoven with the classification system that organises the daily work of police officers. In their understanding, culture is a one-size-fits-all category to produce boundaries in terms of gender, ethnicity, class, and the willingness of a population to submit to police authority. The second claim is that ‘culture’ has a particular functionality in the field of poli…
On the Sensory Policing of Vices
This paper explores the policing of vices and offers a critical inquiry into the affective politics of policing practices seen through police and state ethnography, political anthropology, and the 'affective turn' in social and cultural theory. It shows how the moral worlds of policing sex work and performing raids in the red-light 'milieu' are constituted in the making of boundaries through visual, olfactory, somatosensory, and auditory sensatio…
The wolves are coming back: The politics of fear in Eastern Germany
Since 1990 the wolf has been a protected species in Germany; killing a wolf is a crime punishable by a prison sentence of up to five years. In Eastern Germany, where the political ground is shifting to the right, locals argue that the wolves are not German but Western Polish, undeserving of protection since they have invaded Saxon territory and threatened the local way of life. Many people in Eastern Germany feel that the wolf, like the migrant, …
Entre coopération et conflit: La « coopération de confiance » entre la police et les centres de consultation spécialisés dans l’accompagnement des victimes de la traite des êtres humains
La lutte contre la traite est devenue un champ d’action étatique dans lequel s’entremêlent logiques humanitaire, sociale et d’assistance d’une part, et logiques pénales d’autre part, leurs exigences parfois contradictoires devant être conciliées. La négociation de ces deux logiques au niveau de la street-level bureaucracy se retrouve généralement dans la répartition des responsabilités entre les autorités pénales d’une part, et les acteurs en cha…
The Politics of Negative Emotions
Forum: Critical Ethnography
Ethnography is a political practice with an ambivalent relationship to power. On the one hand, it has benefitted from, legitimized and stabilized hegemonic power relations. On the other hand, it can challenge the self-evidence of the status quo, give room for multiple experiences and worldviews, and place itself in the service of emancipation and social transformation. The forum does not define what critical ethnography is but brings together a r…
Populist truth-making: A conceptual approach to populism in the context of European museums
This article develops the concept of populist truth-making as a device to study the effects of populist politics on museums in Europe. Despite a growing interest in the (mis)uses of the past by populist politics in heritage and memory studies, our understanding of how populist politics affect museums and other heritage institutions is still limited. With reference to our cross-European ethnographic study of museums and populism, this conceptual a…
Weaponizing Nature, Naturalizing Violence: Anthropologies of Ecofascism
After decades of denial and obstruction, the global Right is increasingly willing to acknowledge that climate change is a threat to lives and lifeways everywhere. Moreover, some seize on the specter of ecological collapse to advance fascistic politics. Mass shootings by White men who propose that eliminating racialized people will ease environmental pressures—including in Christchurch and El Paso—have been the most spectacular manifestations of t…
The haunting of the wolf: Nature, nationalism, and violent inheritance
Wolves have been extinct in Germany for 300 years, but they have been returning to Eastern Germany since the 1990s. The return of wolves has been exploited in election campaigns by the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party, which is targeting the rural population in Eastern Germany. In 2019, AfD politicians demanded the introduction of an 'upper limit' for the wolf population and the legalization of the shooting of this strictly prote…
Right-Wing Populism and Museums: Findings from an Interview Study in the UK, Poland and Germany
This paper contributes to the growing research on right-wing populism's increasing impact on cultural and heritage institutions, presenting findings from an interview study with museum professionals in Poland, Germany, and the UK. Our comparative analysis highlights the multifarious ways populist politics affect museum work, including potentially violent interventions that target museum staff and more diffuse forms of influence on museums that ar…
Political science (11 works) · Sociology (9 works) · Law (8 works) · Politics (8 works) · Epistemology (4 works) · Ethnography (4 works) · Philosophy (4 works) · Psychology (4 works) · Anthropological Studies and Insights (3 works) · Anthropology (3 works)