معرفی
Laila Prager is an Assistant Professor at the Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology within the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Hamburg. She has held this position since April 2013, having previously served as a Senior Lecturer at the Institute of Ethnology at Münster University from 2011 to 2013. Her academic work focuses on the anthropology of the Middle East, with particular expertise in Alawi religious practices, kinship systems, gender relations, and cultural heritage.
Dr. Prager received her Doctorate in Social and Cultural Anthropology from the Westfälische Wilhelms-University of Münster in 2010, with a dissertation titled 'Die 'Gemeinschaft des Hauses': Religion, Heiratsstrategien und transnationale Identität türkischer Alawi/Nusairi-Migranten in Deutschland' (The People of the House: Religion, Marriage Choices, and Transnational Identity of the Alawi/Nusairy Migrants in Germany). She completed her Magister degree in Social and Cultural Anthropology, Modern History, and Pre-History at the same institution in 2005, including Erasmus studies at the École des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris.
Dr. Prager's research spans multiple interconnected domains within anthropology. She has made significant contributions to understanding Alawi/Nusairi religious practices, particularly examining concepts of rebirth, stigmata, and transmigration. Her work on kinship and gender has explored matrifocality in the Arab world, cousin marriage practices, and changing family structures. In recent years, she has expanded her research to include heritage construction in the Gulf states, particularly examining museums, cultural festivals, and national identity formation in the UAE. Her studies of Bedouin soap operas have provided insights into how tribal identities are represented and transformed through contemporary media.
Her publication record demonstrates a consistent focus on religious practices, kinship systems, and cultural identity among Middle Eastern communities, with an evolving emphasis on heritage production and gender dynamics in the Gulf region. Her most recent work explores the experiences of Emirati women leaders navigating between state-promoted feminism and traditional gender expectations.
- Forschungsförderungspreis der Frobenius Gesellschaft, Frankfurt (2010)
Dr. Prager has supervised numerous research projects funded by organizations including the German Research Foundation. Her current research includes investigations into heritage discourses in the Middle East, matrifocality in the Arab world, and religious change among Alawi communities. She has organized significant academic events including workshops on varieties of Emirati womanhood and conferences on museums in Arabia.
Her research connects with broader academic networks through collaborations with scholars specializing in Middle Eastern studies, gender studies, and anthropology of religion. Dr. Prager's work bridges disciplinary boundaries, connecting anthropology with religious studies, gender studies, and media studies to provide nuanced understandings of cultural transformation in the Middle East.
