Projects per year
Personal profile
Profile
I am an anthropologist with a long-term interest in the study of the "otherwise", in seeing how something we take for granted might well be different. On the basis of fieldwork conducted in Indonesia over the last thirty years, I have studied how democracy may sometimes be awkwardly reproduced by corruption, and how corruption itself is implicated in conspiracy theories about the corona pandemic in Indonesia; how human-made environmental disruption and climate change are co-produced by animals and other nonhumans; how some stones might just possibly be alive; and how witchcraft might not be so different from a global viral pandemic as we might like to think.
My current research interests revolve around climate change and environmental disruption, multi-species ethnography and the strange time that is the Anthropocene. Specifically, I am researching the relationship between coral death and the return of Jesus in Papua; the way care for songbirds on Java is leading to their extinction; and the conundrum of why noise music is a political provocation in Indonesia, a country in which few people otherwise worry or are upset about noise.
Current research projects:
- I am PI of the reseach project BLUE: Multispecies Ethnographies of Oceans in Crisis. The project is financed by the Danish Research Foundation and investigates four of the global crises that the world's oceans currently face: rising water temperatures, acidification, micro-plastics, and invasive species.
- I am an associated researcher in Java-Futurism. Chronotopes of Sonic Activism in Indonesia, a research project that studies noise and experimental music in Indonesia from an interdisciplinary aesthetic-anthropological perspective. Java-Futurism is financed by the Swedish Research Council and led by PI, Sanne Krogh Groth at Lund University.
- I am finally a participant and member of the management committee of the EU COST project “Comparative Analysis of Conspiracy Theories (COMPACT)”.
Cooperation and dissemination
When I am not teaching, I am:
- Editor-in-Chief (with Mark Graham) of Ethnos, an international, peer-reviewed journal of anthropology. Ethnos is included in the Social Citation Index and in 2022 had an impact factor of more than 1,3 in the Thompson Citation Report, making it the premiere journal of anthropology in Europe and one of the highest-ranking in the world.
I am currently tinkering with:
- A book on corals, conservation and the Second Coming of Christ
- A book about experimental music and political imaginaries in Indonesia (with Sanne Krogh Groth)
- An article about stones, geology and spirits in the Anthropocæne.
- An article about the Anthropocene as geological event (with Thomas Schwartz Wentzer)
- An article about post-truths, conspiracies, Argentina and Indonesia (with Noa Vaisman)
- An article about aesthetic equivocation in Javanese noise music (with Sanne Krogh Groth).
- A book chapter entitled "more-than-human holism"
- A book chapter entitled "Security - vernacular, multispecies, otherwise" for an anthology with Intervention Press about "vernacular security", a concept I coined in an article in 2005.
- A chapter about the bird-keeping, species extinction, and how humans teach birds to sing the songs of other species for bird competitions on Java. The chapter is part of the anthology What on Earth! Outrage and Anthropology on a Disrupted Planetthat I edit with Peter Crawford for Anthem Press.
Research
Keywords
- Anthropology and Ethnography
- Other countries
- Indonesia
- Climate and culture
- Marine biology
- Comparative methods
- Music culture
- Philosophers
- Conflict
- The Role of Rumour in Conflict
- Concept of democracy
- Democracy in Indonesia
Areas of expertise
- Subject area
- Environmental anthropology
- Coral reefs anthropology
- Extinction anthropology
Fingerprint
- 1 Similar Profiles
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BLUE: Multispecies Ethnographies of Oceans in Crisis
Bubandt, N. O. (PI), Swanson, H. A. (CoPI), Brendtner, F. (Participant) & Tarpgaard, J. M. (Participant)
01/01/2021 → 28/02/2025
Project: Research
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Java-Futurism: Chronotopes of Sound Activism in Indonesia
Groth, S. K. (PI) & Bubandt, N. O. (Participant)
01/03/2020 → 28/02/2023
Project: Research
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CEH: Centre for Environmental Humanities
Riede, F. (Project manager), Swanson, H. A. (Project manager), Nissen, U. (Participant), Bubandt, N. O. (Participant), Krasilnikoff, J. (Participant), Korsbæk, M. (Project coordinator), Dietrich, J. (Participant), Fischer, G. (Participant), Heymann, M. (Participant), Achermann, D. (Participant), Tejsner, P. (Participant), Eilenberg, M. (Participant), Læssøe, J. (Participant), Walsh, M. (Participant), Clausen, S. W. (Participant), Lysgaard, J. A. (Participant), Mortensen, P. (Participant), Clasen, M. (Participant) & Nygaard, S. E. (Participant)
01/01/2017 → …
Project: Research
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Aesthetics of Extinction: The Asian Songbird Crisis Revisited
Bubandt, N. O. (PI) & Groth, S. K. (Participant)
01/09/2025 → 31/12/2027
Project: Research
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Carlsberg Foundation Monograph Fellowship
Bubandt, N. O. (PI)
01/08/2020 → 31/07/2021
Project: Research
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Birds after Geertz: The Rise and Fall of Songbirds in Indonesia
Bubandt, N., Apr 2024, In: Indonesia. 2024, 117, p. 1-30 30 p.Research output: Contribution to journal/Conference contribution in journal/Contribution to newspaper › Journal article › Research › peer-review
Open AccessFile251 Downloads (Pure) -
Philosophy on Fieldwork: Case Studies in Anthropological Analysis
Bubandt, N. (Editor) & Wentzer, T. S. (Editor), Jul 2022, Abingdon: Routledge. 516 p.Research output: Book/anthology/dissertation/report › Anthology › Research › peer-review
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Rubber Boots Methods for the Anthropocene: Doing Fieldwork in Multispecies Worlds
Bubandt, N. (Editor), Oberborbeck Andersen, A. (Editor) & Cypher, R. (Editor), Mar 2023, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. 421 p.Research output: Book/anthology/dissertation/report › Anthology › Research › peer-review
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Dis-spiracy Theory: Why Corona Rhymes with Corruption in Indonesia
Bubandt, N., 1 Jan 2023, Covid Conspiracy Theories in Global Perspective. Butter, M. & Knight, P. (eds.). Abingdon: Routledge, p. 58-72 15 p. (Conspiracy Theories).Research output: Contribution to book/anthology/report/proceeding › Book chapter › Research › peer-review
Open Access2 Citations (Scopus) -
Trance Against the Machine: Aesthetic Transpositions in Indonesian Electronic Music and Beyond
Groth, S. K. & Bubandt, N., 2025, (Accepted/In press) In: Resonance. Journal of Sound and Culture.Research output: Contribution to journal/Conference contribution in journal/Contribution to newspaper › Journal article › Research › peer-review
Activities
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Crafting Ethnography
Krause-Jensen, J. (Organizer), Hasse, C. (Organizer), Louw, M. E. (Participant), Helle, M. P. (Participant), Bubandt, N. O. (Participant) & Herzfeld, M. (Participant)
16 May 2024Activity: Participating in or organising an event types › Participation in or organisation af a conference
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Futures Lecture with David Wengrow: "Prospects for a New History of Humanity, and the Roots of Inequality"
Tørring, M. L. (Organizer), Harvey, D. C. (Organizer), Wengrow, D. (Speaker), Bubandt, N. O. (Chair person), Riede, F. (Chair person) & Fabian, L. (Chair person)
7 Dec 2023Activity: Participating in or organising an event types › Participation in or organisation of workshop, seminar or course
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The Research Programme of Anthropology's Departmental Seminar Series
Cova, V. S. (Speaker), Hansen, A. S. (Chair person) & Bubandt, N. O. (Participant)
16 Nov 2023Activity: Participating in or organising an event types › Participation in or organisation of workshop, seminar or course
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The Research Programme of Anthropology's Departmental Seminar Series
Bubandt, N. O. (Speaker), Swanson, H. A. (Chair person) & Tørring, M. L. (Organizer)
13 Oct 2022Activity: Participating in or organising an event types › Participation in or organisation of workshop, seminar or course
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BLUE Openings : Approaches to More-Than-Human Oceans
Bubandt, N. O. (Organizer), Swanson, H. A. (Organizer), Brendtner, F. (Organizer) & Tarpgaard, J. M. (Organizer)
16 Nov 2021 → 17 Nov 2021Activity: Participating in or organising an event types › Participation in or organisation af a conference
Prizes
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Carlsberg Foundation Monograph Fellowship
Bubandt, N. O. (Recipient), 22 Nov 2019
Prize: Prizes, scholarships, distinctions
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Rigmor og Carl Holst-Knudsens Videnskabspris
Bubandt, N. O. (Recipient), 24 May 2017
Prize: Prizes, scholarships, distinctions
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Clifford Geertz Prize in the Anthropology of Religion (Honorable Mention)
Bubandt, N. (Recipient), 25 Nov 2015
Prize: Prizes, scholarships, distinctions
Press/Media
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I verdens tredjestørste demokrati bliver der endelig lyttet til de unge
16/02/2024
1 Media contribution
Press/Media: Press / Media
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Mennesket har taget så meget kontrol over klodens udvikling, at vi har mistet kontrollen igen
06/06/2021
1 Media contribution
Press/Media: Press / Media
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Nord for Aarhus kaster unge sig i de iskolde bølger. Målet er morgensus og en tættere kontakt med naturen
16/11/2019
1 Media contribution
Press/Media: Press / Media