Dr. Mathijs Pelkmans

Biography

Mathijs Pelkmans is a specialist in anthropology with a focus on the Caucasus and Central Asia. His major fieldwork, conducted between 1999-2001, examined territorial borders and the social biography of the iron curtain, particularly between Georgia and Turkey. His work documented the changing patterns of everyday life at the border and resulted in the publication 'Defending Border' (2006), which highlighted the unexpected hardening of social and cultural boundaries accompanying the dissolution of the iron curtain. Pelkmans conducted further fieldwork in Kyrgyzstan between 2003-2004 and engaged in shorter research trips in 2018, exploring the religious and political facets of post-socialist changes. His recent projects have focused on the trajectories of militant secularism, nationalism, and missionary movements in Muslim-majority contexts, analyzing the dynamics of conviction in these areas. Over the past decade, he has published extensively, including the monograph 'Fragile Conviction' (2017) and co-edited volumes such as 'Ethnographies of Doubt' (2013), 'Wilful Blindness' (2020), and 'People Compare' (2022). Currently, he is developing a long-term research project entitled 'Trading Truths Caucasus: Missionaries, Diplomats, Spies.'

Research Interests