Michelle Engeler

Michelle Engeler is a Lecturer and postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Basel. She coordinates the MSG Changing Societies master's program and teaches at the Graduate School of Social Sciences (G3S). Her work bridges qualitative methodology, migration studies, kinship analysis, and political anthropology, with regional expertise in Switzerland and West Africa.

• Departments: Social and Cultural Anthropology
• Key research themes: im/mobility, transnational life trajectories, and socio-political change in diasporic communities

Her recent publications examine migration decision-making in West Africa, political economies in Guinea, and the interplay between development interventions and migration choices. These works employ ethnographic methods to analyze transnationalism, socio-political dynamics, and postcolonial contexts.

Her teaching and research engage with the Department’s focus areas on:

• Intimacy, gender, and sexuality
• Medical anthropology
• Material culture and heritage