Dr. Petra Kalshoven

Biography

Petra Tjitske Kalshoven is a Senior Lecturer in Social Anthropology at the University of Manchester. She holds a Master's degree in Classical Languages and Cultures from Leiden University and a Ph.D. in Cultural Anthropology from McGill University, awarded in 2006. Her career includes a faculty lecturer position at McGill's interdisciplinary Arts Legacy Freshman Program and a postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Aberdeen. Since moving to Manchester in 2009, she has focused her research on the skilled manifestations of human curiosity, including themes of mimesis, performance, and ecology. Kalshoven's current project, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), examines nuclear decommissioning as a conceptual playground for societal and ecological future-making, involving ethnographic fieldwork across multiple countries. She has also contributed to literature on contemporary practices such as Indianism, exploring cultural representations and identity through the crafting of replicas. Her insights are drawn from ecological anthropology, particularly the interplay between human and more-than-human ecologies, showcasing the dynamics of knowledge production and the significance of materials in anthropological study.

Research Interests

Experience