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, and social and political movements.

In her doctoral project ‘Resistance in Motion: A Global Horizon of Tamil Struggles,’ completed in November 2025, she examined how dissidents, their political subjectivities and cultures of resistance emerge and transform under postcolonial conditions. She conducted ethnographic research in Sri Lanka, in the former war zone and quasi-state of Tamil Eelam, in the diaspora and in exile.

In addition, 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’ and ‘Trincomalee’ in Sri Lanka in order to analyse processes of dispossession, extractivism, as well as demographic and social change.

Sowmya Maheswarans work combines approaches from 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 (book editing, science communication and public relations) in the project "Transforming Solidarities. Practices and Infrastructures in the Migration Society", a joint project of the Berlin University Alliance
• 2021-2025: Doctoral studies at the Faculty of Philosophy at Humboldt University in Berlin (funded by a scholarship from the Hans Böckler Foundation)
• 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 (especially under [post-]war and [post-]colonial conditions)
• Global and Political Anthropology
• Resistance, Mobilization and Collective Movements
• Critical Migration Research (with focus on flight, exile and diasporic communities)
• Political Subjectification
• Ethnographic methods