Samuli Schielke

Samuli Schielke is a social and cultural anthropologist specializing in contemporary Egypt and the Arab region. He holds the position of senior researcher at Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient (ZMO) in Berlin, where he has been employed since 2009. Additionally, he serves as a primary investigator at the Berlin Graduate School Muslim Cultures and Societies since 2018 and is recognized as a supervisor for PhD students. Schielke received his PhD in social sciences from the University of Amsterdam in 2006 and was awarded the title of docent in social anthropology from the University of Tampere, Finland in 2017.

His educational background includes:

• Arabic and Islamic studies at the University of Bonn (graduated 2000)
• PhD from the University of Amsterdam (2006)
• Docent (equivalent to associate professor) from the University of Tampere (2017)

Schielke's research focuses on the interplay between migration, social mobility, literary imagination, moral and religious lives, and political economy in Egypt and the Arab Gulf states. His current major project, "The Dream of Stability," examines Egyptian migrations and the pursuit of stable lives amid disruptive global growth. He approaches these topics through the lens of personal trajectories, class dynamics, global inequality, and the relationship between intimate lives and broader societal structures. His work often highlights the contradictions, ambiguities, and shifts in human experiences within powerful social and economic frameworks.

Schielke's publications over the last five years reveal a consistent interest in understanding how ordinary Egyptians navigate promises of religious commitment, middle-class respectability, romantic love, and political ideologies. His work challenges simplified views of Muslim piety by showing how religious lives are embedded within complex lived experiences. Recent publications focus on migration dreams, literary practices in Alexandria, and the tension between stability and mobility in contemporary Egyptian society, with particular attention to the paradox that the pursuit of stability often requires disruptive processes of growth and transformation.

His notable scientific contributions include:

• "Migrant Dreams: Egyptian Workers in the Gulf States" (2020)
• "Egypt in the Future Tense: Ambivalence, Hope and Frustration in Egypt before and after 2011" (2015)
• "Shared Margins: An Ethnography with Writers in Alexandria after the Revolution" (2021)
• "The Perils of Joy: Contesting Mulid Festivals in Contemporary Egypt" (2012)

Schielke has supervised numerous PhD students through the Berlin Graduate School Muslim Cultures and Societies. His research has been supported by various academic institutions including the Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient and collaborations with universities across Europe. He has also been involved in interdisciplinary projects bridging anthropology with visual arts, having directed the research and exhibition project "In Search of Europe" (2010-2014).

As an active scholar, Schielke maintains a presence through academic lectures, interviews, and a blog called "A Book of Unfinished Theories" where he shares works in progress. He is also an amateur photographer with a particular interest in documenting social life in Egypt and other regions of interest to his research, with his photographic work complementing his anthropological inquiry into urban space, religious practice, and everyday life.