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Political Anthropology and Development studies: Religion, Gender, humanitarian aid
South Asia: Sri Lanka
Southeast Asia: Indonesia, Timor Leste
Latin America: Honduras, Haiti, Peru
Christine Schenk has been a senior lecturer and senior researcher at the Institute of Social Anthropology and Empirical Cultural Studies since 2021. Her research explores the role of religion and religious organisations in societies in war and crisis situations. She is currently working on a book project on the reform of family law in Sri Lanka after the civil war.
Christine Schenk studied geography at the University of Regensburg and the Humboldt University in Berlin. She then completed the postgraduate programme "International Cooperation for Sustainable Development" at the Department of Rural Development at the Humboldt University of Berlin. She completed her dissertation on the regulation of family relations in the context of Sharia, tsunami and civil war in Aceh, Indonesia, at the Department of Geography and Environment at the University of Geneva in 2016.
Christine Schenk spent research stays at the Department of International Development, London School of Economics and Politics (2013), at the School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford (2016-17, including teaching) and at the University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka (2016-17). Christine Schenk was a lecturer at the Department of Religious Studies at UZH from 2017-2021.
Prior to her academic career, Christine Schenk worked for ten years as a consultant in the context of political and humanitarian crises in Asia (Sri Lanka, East Timor, Indonesia) and Latin America (Haiti, Peru, Honduras) in various institutional forms of development cooperation (non-governmental organisations, bilateral and multilateral cooperation, ministries).
since 2018, Co-PI with Prof Neloufer de Mel, Department of English, University of Colombo: Intimacy - negotiating proximity and distance in the digital media in Sri Lanka, financial contribution from the Swiss State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI) to strengthen cooperation between the University of Zurich and the University of Colombo, Sri Lanka.
(2018,Co-PI with Pia Hollenbach, Thiruni Kelegama, Nilanjana Premaratna): Organisation Sri Lanka Roundtable, Graduate Campus University of Zurich
(2018, PI): Post-war recovery in Sri Lanka: Challenges, actors and practices (http://p3.snf.ch/Project-182941)
(2016 – 2017, PI): Postdoc.mobility Stipendium, Department of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford: Islamic leaders, secular-religious territory, and citizenship in Sri Lanka and Aceh, Indonesia: http://p3.snf.ch/Project-165427)
(2014 – 2015, PI): Marie-Heim Vöglin Stipendium, Biopolitics in Aceh, Indonesia: Sharia, state-building and the negotiation of public authority: http://p3.snf.ch/Project-155916
(2013 – 2015, PI): Marie-Heim Vögtlin Stipendium, Reconciling Islamic values with reconstruction efforts: the role of the Sharia in population administration in Aceh, Indonesia: http://p3.snf.ch/Project-145537
Member of the American Anthropological Association
Member of the Editorial Board of the Zurich Anthropology Working Papers (ZANTHRO)
Member of the Commission for Research and Promotion of Young Researchers (KFN), Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, UZH
Member of the Mobility Commission, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, UZH
Schenk, C. G., Gökarıksel, B. and Behzadi, N. E. (2022) Security, violence, and mobility: The embodied and everyday politics of negotiating Muslim femininities. Introduction the Special Issue. Political Geography. 94: 102597. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.polgeo.2022.102597
Schenk, C. G. and Hasbullah, S. (2022) Informal sovereignties and multiple Muslim feminisms: Feminist geo-legality in Sri Lanka. Political Geography. 94: 102527. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.polgeo.2021.102527
Schenk, C. G. (2019). Legal and spatial ordering in Aceh, Indonesia: Inscribing the security of female bodies into law. Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space. https://doi.org/10.1177/0308518X19836119, part of special issue on ‘Feminist legal geographies’
Schenk, C. G. (2016) Islamic leaders and the legal geography of family law in Aceh, Indonesia. The Geographical Journal. https://doi.org/10.1111/geoj.12202, part of special issue on ‘Legal pluralisms, justice and spatial conflicts: New directions in legal geography’.
Schenk, C. G. (2013) Navigating an inconvenient difference in antagonistic contexts: Doing fieldwork in Aceh, Indonesia. Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography. 34 (3): 342–356. https://doi.org/10.1111/sjtg.12036
Schenk CG, Gökarıksel B and Behzadi NE (2022) Security, violence, and mobility: The embodied and everyday politics of negotiating Muslim femininities. Special Issue. Political Geography 94: 102597. https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/political-geography/special-issue/10P316XQWJK
Korf, B., R. Singarayer, R. Abeyrathne, K. Devarajah, D. Dharmarajah, T. Flämig, T. Sakthivel, C. G. Schenk, J. Ziegler and M. Ziebell (2001a) Conflict-Threat or Opportunity? Berlin: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Landwirtschaftlich-Gärtnerische Fakultät.
Schenk, C. G. (2019) Islam, legal geography and methodological challenges in Indonesia. In: O'Donnell T, Robinson DF and Gillespie J (eds) Legal Geography. London, New York: Routledge, 58-70.
Schenk, C. G. (2009) Negotiating statehood and humanitarian assistance in Timor-Leste: an incompatible pair?, in: C. Cabasset-Semedo and F. Durand. Timor-Leste: How to build a new nation in SouthEast Asia in the 21st Century. Bangkok, Thailand: IRASEC Publications.
Korf, B. and Schenk, C. (2022) Giftige Ethnokratie. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 165, 19 July 2022, 1
Schenk, C. G. and Korf, B. (2019) Liberale Kräfte geraten ins Kreuzfeuer. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 20 September 2019, 13.
Schenk, C. G. (2018) Warum sich ein Blick über die Grenzen Europas lohnt, wenn in der Schweiz über die Anerkennung religiöser Gruppen und ihrer Praktiken diskutiert wird. Reformierte Presse Facultativ.
Korf, B. & Schenk, C. G. (2019) Sri Lankas Muslime – die Entfremdung begann im Bürgerkrieg. In: Misteli, S. (ed.). Zürich: Neue Zürcher Zeitung.
Schenk, C. G. (2019) Gefährliche Zwietracht zwischen den Religionen. In: Holthuizen, A. (ed.) Reformiert. Zürich: Die Evangelisch-Reformierte Zeitung, Kirchenbote Kanton Zürich.
Schenk, C. G. (2020). Islamophobie und Raum in Zeiten von Corona: Am Beispiel Sri Lanka. fakultativ/Beilage Reformierte Presse, Theologische Fakultät.
Korf, B. & Schenk, C. G. 2019. Liberale Kräfte geraten ins Kreuzfeuer. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 20.05.2019.
Schenk, C. G. (2018) Warum sich ein Blick über die Grenzen Europas lohnt, wenn in der Schweiz über die Anerkennung religiöser Gruppen und ihrer Praktiken diskutiert wird. fakultativ/Beilage Reformierte Presse, Theologische Fakultät.
Schenk, C. G. 2005 Analysis of oral histories in selected villages of Timor-Leste. Contribution to the chapter: ‘Forced displacement and famine’ in Commission for Reception Truth and Reconciliation (CAVR) ed ‘CHEGA’. Final Report to the Government of Timor-Leste CAVR, Dili, Timor-Leste
Schenk, C. G. (2004) Post-conflict reconstruction needs assessment in Timor-Leste-lessons learnt and good practices. In-Country Study Timor-Leste. Working Paper 7. in: Needs assessment methodologies in post-conflict situations on behalf of World Bank, UNDP and BMZ. Eschborn, Washington, New York: GTZ, UNDP, World Bank. http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.578.9949&rep=rep1&type=pdf
Schenk, C. G. (2005) Analysis of oral histories in selected villages of Timor-Leste. Contribution to the chapter: ‘Forced displacement and famine’ in Commission for Reception Truth and Reconciliation (CAVR) ed ‘CHEGA’. Final Report to the Government of Timor-Leste CAVR, Dili, Timor-Leste
Schenk, C. G. (2004) Post-conflict reconstruction needs assessment in Timor-Leste-lessons learnt and good practices. In-Country Study Timor-Leste. Working Paper 7. in: Needs assessment methodologies in post-conflict situations on behalf of World Bank, UNDP and BMZ. Eschborn, Washington, New York: GTZ, UNDP, World Bank. http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.578.9949&rep=rep1&type=pdf
Schenk, C. G. (2003) 'Monitoring and evaluation in IFSP-heading towards impact assessment', in: E. Bauer and N. Schall. Lessons learnt - best Practices 2003. Working Paper 52. Trincomalee, Sri Lanka: IFSP.
Schenk, C. G. (2006) Maps of “Torture locations in Dili and Baucau, Timor-Leste”, “Military movements in Timor-Leste and forced displacements in Timor-Leste”. Contribution to the Final Report of the Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation (CAVR), Timor Leste.