Rebecca Bryant

Prof. Rebecca Bryant is a Professor of Cultural Anthropology at Utrecht University's Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences. She holds affiliations with the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRI) and the London School of Economics' European Institute. Her expertise spans forced migration, borders, sovereignty, and unrecognized states, with a focus on Cyprus, Greece, and Turkey. Bryant has conducted extensive research on post-conflict reconciliation, ethnic conflict displacement, and the temporal dimensions of sovereignty.

Education: She earned her degree in Cultural Anthropology from the University of Chicago, followed by teaching/research roles at the London School of Economics, George Mason University, and the American University in Cairo. She also served as a Fulbright Fellow at Bogaziçi University and a visiting professor at Middle East Technical University’s Cyprus campus.

Research Interests: Bryant’s work examines sovereignty’s everyday practices, particularly in contested regions. Her recent projects include studying Syrian youth integration in Turkey (funded by UK’s ESRC and TÜBITAK) and exploring refugee perspectives on choice (funded by Volkswagen Stiftung and Wellcome Trust). Key themes include infrastructural imperialism, temporalities of conflict, and the anthropology of the future.

Publications: Her notable works include *Sovereignty Suspended* (2020), co-authored with Mete Hatay, and *The Anthropology of the Future* (2019). Her articles analyze sovereignty’s paradoxes, de facto states, and aeropolitics, reflecting interdisciplinary engagement with political theory and global studies.

Awards & Grants: Bryant has received grants from the MacArthur Foundation, US Institute of Peace, and NEH. Her fellowships include the Cornell University Society of Fellows (2002-3) and Princeton’s Institute for Advanced Study (2005-6). She is a sought-after speaker on topics like chronotopes and crisis, as seen in her 2019 invited talks on ‘The Anthropology of the Future’ and ‘Ignoring Crisis: Willful Blindness and Climate Change’.

Labs/Teams: Co-leads the ‘Well-Being and Integration of Syrian Youth in Turkey’ project with Ahmet Içduygu. Participates in the ‘Between Policy and Protection’ consortium, analyzing refugee agency in decision-making. Her research bridges ethnographic fieldwork with policy-oriented analysis.