Miriam Gutekunst

Dr. Miriam Gutekunst is a cultural anthropologist specializing in migration and border regime studies, gender theory, and engaged scholarship. Currently, she serves as a Visiting Professor for Intersectional Gender Studies at Leuphana University and leads the DFG-funded project Ambivalent Gender Knowledge: Negotiations of Cultural Difference in Feminist Initiatives in Post-Migrant Society (2023–2027) at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (LMU). Her work bridges ethnographic research with political activism, focusing on contested gender knowledge in feminist anti-violence initiatives and the intersection of migration policies with intimate lives.

• Education: PhD in Cultural Anthropology (LMU, 2017), MA in Folklore/European Ethnology, Economics, and Religious Studies (LMU, 2012)

Her research traces how European borders externalize control through marriage migration policies (2013–2017) and examines feminist initiatives’ negotiation of cultural differences in combating forced marriage and female genital mutilation. She advocates for ethnographic writing as a pedagogical tool and critiques the integration imperative in migration policy. Key contributions include analyzing the gendered securitization of love and state regulation of transnational families.

The Ambivalent Gender Knowledge project (DFG-funded) and her monograph Crossing Borders: Migration, Marriage, and State Regulation in the European Border Regime (2018) underscore her focus on power dynamics. She has organized conferences on topics like De/Culturalization of Gender (2021) and Transnationalizing Feminism (2018), often collaborating with institutions like the Frauenakademie München and Konzeptwerk Neue Ökonomie e.V.

Grants:

• DFG Project Grant (2023–2027)