Anna Baral is postdoctoral researcher at Aarhus University within IMAGENU project. Her PhD research focused on masculinity and morality in Uganda, from the perspective of informal workers facing the frustrations of urban life in Kampala. Previously, she has studied the restoration of precolonial kingdoms in Uganda, the difficult negotiations between Ugandan traditional and state institutions, heritagization and cultural tourism, and the history of the Italian community in the country.

In her project for IMAGENU she will look at love as a project, or an experience of projection towards the future in which individuals imagine themselves as full men and women despite the frustration of the present. She will in particular investigate the role of “elsewhere” and “otherness” as geographical and ontological categories that enable imagination of gendered futures and provide resources to fulfill satisfying intimacies and livelihoods. The research will be based in Jinja and its surroundings.