As most of the people at the department know, my name is Mikel Venhovens. For the next year I will be a Postdoc in the “Settler Colonial Beasts” project, headed by Michael Eilenberg as a postdoc. I have a background in Conflict Studies & Human Rights (Utrecht University) and completed my PhD at Aarhus University in 2021, during which I also had a Fulbright Research Stay at the University of Colorado, Boulder.

Since then, I have been the PI of a DFF International Postdoc project at the University of Amsterdam and Aarhus University named:  Territorial Phantom Pain: Exploring the Post-Conflict Environment of Territorial Loss, Crisis and Non-Return in the Republic of Georgia, where I looked at the effects of territorial loss, and prolonged crisis through displacement and its aftermath in a contemporary ‘frozen conflict’.

In the “Settler Colonial Beasts” project, I will focus on the socio-(geo) political new frontier of Russian imperialism in the Republic of Georgia.  One way of doing this, is through the notion of disgust towards the presence and effects of increased Russian influence in the capital of Tbilisi. Besides that, I will be contributing to a project headed by Katrine Godfredsen at Malmo University named: Death and Dying under Military Occupation: Asserting Sovereignty in Palestine, Georgia and Western Sahara”. Lastly, I will engage in some side and passion projects that have been laying on my desk for way too long. Hopefully.

Contact: 
Mikel Venhovens
School of Culture and Society
Department of AnthropologyMoesgård Allé 20
8270 Højbjerg
mjh.venhovens@cas.au.dk