In March and April 2022, Till Mostowlansky, Research Professor and Eccellenza Professorial Fellow in Anthropology and Sociology, and Agnieszka Sobocinska, a historian at King’s College, both members of Allegra Lab, invited four anthropologists and historians to discuss their work. Together they thought through humanitarianism and mobility, past and present. 

E1 | Building Aidland: Aid Workers and the Creation of a Global Aid Industry in the 1970S, with Kevin O’Sullivan, from the National University of Ireland, Galway, author of The NGO Moment: The Globalisation of Compassion from Biafra to Live Aid, speaks about aid workers and the creation of a global aid industry in the 1970s.

E2 | Being like Family: Humanitarian Mobility and Metaphors of Kinship across Asia, with Chika Watanabe, from the University of Manchester, discusses her work on the activities of a Japanese NGO, the Organization for Industrial, Spiritual and Cultural Advancement (OISCA), in Myanmar.

E3 | Race, Security, and the Contradictions of Humanitarianism, with Young-Sun Hong, from Stony Brook University, talks about her long-standing work on German aid to Korea in the Cold War. 

E4 | Mobilities after Displacement, with Ann-Christin Zuntz, from the University of Edinburgh, speaks about her research on refugee workers in agricultural businesses in the Middle East and how their labour relates to mobility and humanitarianism.

Allegra Lab is a movement aiming to embolden anthropologists and other academics to enliven the “dead space” between standard academic publications and fast-moving public debates. It is hosted by Les Indépendantes, a non-profit association specialising in science communication, education and research, chaired by Julie Billaud, Associate Professor of Anthropology and Sociology.