Laura Huttunen

I am a social anthropologist, interested in transnational anthropology, migration issues, and ways of living with violent pasts. I have worked with the Bosnian diaspora since early 2000s, carrying out ethnographic research both in Finland and in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Currently I am working with the politics of disappearances in various contexts, ranging from wartime Bosnia-Herzegovina to current flows of global migration.

 

I am currently leading research project “Governance and grieving: Disappearing migrants and emergent politics” (DiMig) (Academy of Finland, project funding 2018 – 2022)

Ethnographic approaches to migration

Diaspora and transnational studies

Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bosnian diaspora

Missing persons, forcibly disappeared persons

 

Reserach projects

 

• Governance and grieving: Disappearing migrants and emergent politics (DiMig) (Academy of Finland, project funding 2018 – 2022)

• Absence and liminality: Missing persons and the social order (Institute for Advanced Social Research, University of Tampere 2012-2014)

• Between Nation States and Transnational Networks: Renegotiating Communities in Bosnian Diaspora (Academy of Finland, 2005-2007

 

Social sciences, social anthropology

Huttunen, Laura & Marko Juntunen (2018) Suburban encounters: superdiversity, diasporic relationality and everyday practices in the Nordic context. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, DOI: 10.1080/1369183X.2018.1531695

Huttunen, Laura (2017) Troubled conjunctures: Ethnography, psychotherapy and transnational social fields. In Grønseth A. S. and Josephides, L. (eds) The ethics of (relations of) knowledge-creation: Transactions, Relations and Persons. Oxford: berghahan Books.

Huttunen, Laura (2016) Liminality and Contested Communitas: The Missing Persons in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Conflict and Society: Advances in Research 2 (2016): 201–218. doi:10.3167/arcs.2016.020117

Huttunen, Laura (2016) Protective Barriers and Entrapping Walls: Perceptions of Borders in the Post-Yugoslav Bosnian Diaspora. Journal of Borderland Studies. DOI: 10.1080/08865655.2016.1202775

Huttunen, Laura (2016) Remembering, Wittnessing, Bringing Closure: Srebrenica Burial Ceremonies on YouTube. In Andrea Hajek, Christine Lohmeier & Christian Pentzold (eds.) Social Memory in a Mediated World: Remembering in Troubled Times. Palgrave MacMillan.

Huttunen, Laura (2014) Srebrenica burial ceremonies on YouTube: remembering the dead and the missing in a contested political situation. Thanatos vol. 3:1 theme issue ‘Death, mourning and the internet´, 141-148.

Huttunen, Laura (2014) From individual grief to a shared history of the Bosnian war: Voice, audience and the political in psychotherapeutic practices with refugees. Focaal vol. 68, 2014:1.

Huttunen, Laura (2010) Sedentary Policies and Transnational Relations: A ‘Non-sustainable’ Case of Return to Bosnia. Journal of Refugee Studies Vol. 23: 1, 41-61.

Huttunen, Laura (2010) Emplacement through Family Life: Transformation of Intimate Relations. In Faist, Thomas; Pitkänen, Pirkko; Gerdes, Jürgen and Reisenauer, Eveline (eds): Transnationalisation and Institutional Transformations. Collected Working Papers from the TRANS-NET Project. Working Paper 87/2010, COMCAD - Center on Migration. Citizenship and Development. Bielefeld, ss. 236-255. 

Huttunen, Laura (2009) Historical Legacies and Neo-colonial Forms of Power?: A Postcolonial Reading of the Bosnian Diaspora. In Irni, Sari, Keskinen, Suvi, Mulinari, Diana & Tuori, Salla (eds.) Complying with Colonialism. Gender, 'Race' and Ethnicity in the Nordic Region. Aldershot: Ashgate.

Huttunen, Laura (2009) Undoing and Redoing Homes: The Bosnian War and Diasporic Home-making. In Saarikangas Kirsi & Johansson Hanna (eds.) Homes in Transformation: Dwelling, Moving, Belonging. Helsinki: Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura.

Huttunen, Laura (2005) ’Home’ and ethnicity in the context of war: Hesitant diasporas of Bosnian refugees. European Journal of Cultural Studies vol. 8 (2), 177 – 195.