Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin - Institut für Europäische Ethnologie

Sowmya Maheswaran is a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute for European Ethnology (IfEE) and the Berlin Institute for Empirical Migration Research (BIM) at Humboldt University in Berlin. Her research and teaching focus on the global dynamics of violence and resistance, particularly in the context of (post-)war, displacement, political movements and diasporic exile.

In her doctoral project ‘Resistance in Motion: A Global Horizon of Tamil Struggles,’ (Widerstand in Bewegung. Ein globaler Horizont tamilischer Kämpfe), she examined how dissidents, their political subjectivities and cultures of resistance emerge and transform under postcolonial conditions. She conducted transnational ethnographic research in Sri Lanka, in the former war zone and quasi-state of Tamil Eelam and in the diaspora.

Furthermore, she deals with the geopolitical dimensions of development and infrastructure in post-/colonial contexts. In collaborative research, she conducted field studies on the controversial ‘Tren Maya’ train project in Mexico and the 'Colombo Port City', 'Hambantota habour' and 'Trincomalee mega city' plans in Sri Lanka, analyzing processes of dispossession, extractivism, as well as demographic and social change.

Sowmya Maheswarans work combines political and global anthropology with critical migration research.

Curriculum Vitae

• Since 2025: Postdoctoral researcher (research and teaching) at the Institute for European Ethnology and the Berlin Institute for Empirical Migration Research
• 2024: Research assistant in the project "Transforming Solidarities. Practices and Infrastructures in the Migration Society", Humboldt-University Berlin (Berlin University Alliance)
• 2021-2025: PhD Candidate at the Faculty of Philosophy, Humboldt University in Berlin, funded by a Hans Böckler Foundation scholarship
• 2022-2024: Independent research project (with Timo Dorsch): "The Dark Side of Infrastructure. Global Configurations of State, Capitalism and Violence in Sri Lanka and Mexico"
• since 2020: Political consulting and conflict analysis (especially for development and human rights organisations)
• since 2018: Freelance journalism on Sri Lanka
• 2020: Master of Arts in Ethnology, Goethe University Frankfurt am Main
• 2019: Bachelor of Arts in Ethnology, Goethe University Frankfurt am Main
• 2017: Bachelor of Arts in Educational Science/Pedagogy, Goethe University Frankfurt am Main

Research interests

• Anthropology of Violence, focus: post-/war and post-/colonial conditions
• Global and Political Anthropology
• Resistance, Mobilization and Collective Movements
• Political Subjectification
• Critical Migration Research, focus: flight, exile and diasporic communities
• Ethnographic methods

University Administration

Since 2026: Member of the Institute Council, Institute of European Ethnology, Humboldt University of Berlin
Since 2025: Member of the Examination Committee, Institute of European Ethnology, Humboldt University of Berlin
2021–2022: Doctoral Student Representative, Institute of European Ethnology, Humboldt University of Berlin

Scholarships

2021–2025: Doctoral scholarship, Hans Böckler Foundation
2018–2020: M.A. scholarship, German Academic Scholarship Foundation (Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes)
2016–2018: Deutschlandstipendium; PROMOS and DAAD scholarships for research stays abroad
2014–2016: Nassau Central Study Fund (Nassauischer Zentralstudienfonds)