Anna Baral

Anna Baral is a postdoctoral fellow at the Department of Cultural Sciences, Faculty of Arts and Humanities at Linnaeus University, and a member of the Linnaeus University Centre for Concurrences in Colonial and Postcolonial Studies. She is currently working on the project "Let's Talk About Condoms" directed by Dr. Åsa Trulsson, exploring young migrants' experiences of integration through the lenses of sexual health and relationships.

Dr. Baral's doctoral research at the intersection of urban anthropology and anthropology of gender and morality examined the moral struggles of male informal workers in Kampala, Uganda, for which she was awarded the Westinska Prize of the Royal Humanistic Science Society in 2019. Prior to her current position, she completed a postdoctoral fellowship within the project IMAGENU (Imagining Gender Futures in Uganda) at Aarhus University, where she studied interethnic and interracial couples in Jinja, Uganda, exploring how the concept of "elsewhere" shapes sexual and affective hierarchies.

Her research interests include urban anthropology, gender and sexuality studies, migration and belonging, postcolonial studies, and African urban studies. Dr. Baral approaches these topics through extensive ethnographic fieldwork, having conducted research in Uganda over fifteen years. Her work examines how moral economies, gender norms, and social hierarchies shape everyday life in African urban contexts, with particular focus on Kampala's Kisekka Market.

Dr. Baral's recent publications reveal consistent themes across gender, urban space, and social change in African contexts. Her work demonstrates how moral frameworks operate within urban markets, how gender identities transform during crises like the pandemic, and how migration experiences shape political subjectivities. She frequently employs interdisciplinary approaches that bridge anthropology, gender studies, and migration research.

• Westinska Prize of the Royal Humanistic Science Society (2019)

Dr. Baral has lectured in BA and MA courses in Anthropology, Gender Studies, African gender and sexualities, Africa Studies, and Anthropology of Humanitarian Action at Uppsala University and Aarhus University. She is actively involved in the Cluster for Borders of Justice: Migration, Equity, and the Global Postcolonial Order, contributing to research on migration, justice, and postcolonial dynamics. Through her work with RFSL Newcomers and as a research assistant for Jesper Bjarnesen's project on Invisibility in African Displacements, she has developed expertise in how gender and sexuality inform migratory experiences.