معرفی
Marlene Persch is a Research Fellow at the University of Vienna's Faculty of Social Sciences, Institute for Cultural and Social Anthropology, and a Marietta Blau Scholarship Holder. She is currently working on her PhD project Becoming a State Actor: Production of State Awareness among Prison Officers in Ghana, analyzing how Ghanaian civil servants develop state consciousness through care practices and bureaucratic interactions.
- BA in Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Vienna
- MA in Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Vienna
Her research combines anthropological approaches to the state with debates on bureaucracy, civil service, and prison ethnographies. She investigates processes of boundary dissolution between public/private and state/family in Ghanaian prisons, linking these to notions of 'good' state practice. Earlier work focused on care narratives in prisons and border practices during Austria's 2015-2017 refugee crisis.
Marlene's publications highlight ethnographic fieldwork in Ghana and Austria, emphasizing state actors' welfare commitments and state-society intersections. She has presented at international symposia and co-edited volumes on migration and border studies.
- 2022: Peer-reviewed working paper on prison care narratives
- 2020: Co-edited volume on Austrian refugee crisis
Her awards include the sowi:docs Fellowship (2020-2025) and Marietta Blau Fellowship (2025/2026). She is affiliated with the CaSt research group, contributing to debates on state-society relationships through ethnographic methodologies.
