Lotte Pelckmans

Lotte Pelckmans is an anthropologist currently serving as External Lecturer at the Centre for Advanced Migration Studies within the SAXO Institute at the University of Copenhagen's Faculty of Humanities. She previously held positions as associate professor at Nijmegen University (Anthropology and Development Studies), researcher at the Danish Institute for International Studies (2015-2016), and has maintained research affiliations with Leiden University, Aarhus University, and the Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies.

• Education and early career at Leiden University (Anthropology, African Studies Centre, Institute for History)
• Associate professor at Nijmegen University
• EU co-fund scholarship recipient for French academia (CEAF, EHESS)
• Researcher at Danish Institute for International Studies (2015-2016)

Pelckmans specializes in social mobility and status at the crossroads of (post-)slavery and migration studies, with a focused geographical emphasis on francophone West Africa. Her research integrates anthropological fieldwork with visual methodologies, examining how historical legacies of slavery continue to shape contemporary social structures, mobility patterns, and identity formations. She employs innovative approaches combining oral history, visual anthropology, and legal anthropology to document displacement narratives and resistance strategies among marginalized communities, particularly women and formerly enslaved populations in Mali, Niger, and Nigeria. Her work frequently addresses the intersection of memory, media representation, and visual culture in post-slavery contexts.

Analysis of her recent publications reveals consistent thematic focus on unrecorded displacements, particularly among women in post-slavery societies, with increasing attention to legal frameworks and court testimonies. Her scholarship demonstrates methodological innovation through the integration of documentary filmmaking with traditional anthropological research, creating multi-modal representations of mobility and social transformation in West Africa. Geographically, her work centers on Mali, Niger, and Mauritania, with particular attention to Fulani and Soninke communities.

• EU co-fund scholarship for French academia (CEAF, EHESS)
• Senior Heinz Heinen fellowship at Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies (2019)
• Editorial board member of 'Slaveries and Post-Slaveries' journal (CIRESC, France)

Pelckmans serves as Co-I on a collaborative GCRF/UKRI UK-funded research project examining Protracted Displacements of People with slave status in Mali, West Africa. She has extensive experience conducting fieldwork across West Africa, particularly in Mali, with recent activities including interviews with female activists in Bamako (December 2021). Her research portfolio includes significant contributions to documentary filmmaking, notably co-editing 'River Nomads' (2016) about transnational mobility of nomadic fishermen, and producing 'Ganbanaaxu Fedde' (2023) documenting transnational anti-slavery movements. She actively participates in academic knowledge exchange through lectures, workshops, and editorial work, including serving as peer reviewer for Imaginations: Journal of Cross-Cultural Media Studies.

She is integral to the research ecosystem at the Centre for Advanced Migration Studies (AMIS) at University of Copenhagen, which houses her primary academic affiliation. Her collaborative network spans multiple institutions including Aarhus University (where she held a postdoc position at Comparative Literature department in 2018), CIRESC in France (journal editorial work), and the Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies in Germany. Her research projects frequently involve transnational teams addressing complex questions of historical justice, contemporary slavery, and migration patterns in West Africa.