MSc, Anthropologist, PhD

Phone: +45 3693 8623

Fax: +45 3376 0510

E-mail:hv@rct.dk  

Henrik E. Vigh is a political anthropologist specialised in issues of networks, politics, violence and conflict in both Europe and Africa. He holds a Ph.D. from the Department of Anthropology, University of Copenhagen, where he has researched the mobilisation of youth into Protestant paramilitary networks in Belfast, Northern Ireland, as well as the mobilisation, demobilisation and remobilisation of young people in Bissau, Guinea-Bissau. He is currently researching undocumented West African migrants in Europe and the networks that they depend on, develop and are caught up in.  

Education

• 1992 Inauguration at the University of Copenhagen.
• 1996-1997 Post Graduate ERASMUS scholarship at the Department of Social Anthropology, Queens University.
• 1998 Defence of Masters dissertation, entitled: ’“They are Trying to Destroy our Culture”: en analyse af konfliktnarrativer blandt paramilitære Protestanter i Nordirland’.
• 1999 Employed as a Research Fellow (ph.d.-stipendiat) at the Department of Anthropology, University of Copenhagen. Affiliated with a cross-disciplinary research grant from the Council for Development Research (RUF) entitled: ‘Consequences of the Civil War in Guinea-Bissau’.
• 1999 Completed and passed an intensive language course in Portuguese at CIDAC in Lisbon, Portugal.
• 1999 Participated in a PhD Seminar (ph.d.-kursus), entitled: Morality and Social Worlds, at the Department of Anthropology, University of Copenhagen.
• 2000 Fieldwork in Bissau, Guinea-Bissau. Institutional affiliation to the Projecto Saúde Bandim and the Guinean Ministry of Health
• 2001 Participated in a PhD Seminar (ph.d.-kursus), entitled: ‘Policy, Political Culture and Rights,’ at the Department of Anthropology, University of Copenhagen.
• 2001 Completed module 3 of Copenhagen University’s Master of International Health
• 2002 Fieldwork in Bissau, Guinea-Bissau.
• 2002 Handed in PhD dissertation entitled: Navigating Terrains of War: youth and soldiering in Guinea-Bissau.
• 2002 Awarded a post-doctoral grant from the Danish Social Scientific Research Council (SSF).
• 2003 Defended PhD dissertation  

Working Experience

• 1987-1989 Sailed as a deck-hand.
• 1989-1990 National Service under the Red Cross
• 1994-1996 Worked as a consultant for Market Manager A/S 1998-1999. Worked as a copywriter for the advertising agency Young & Rubicam A/S and GN-Resound
• 1999-2002 Research Fellow at the Department of Anthropology, University of Copenhagen
• 1999-2002 Planned and taught a post-graduate course at the Department of Anthropology, University of Copenhagen, entitled: New Anthropological Perspectives on War and Conflict
• 2003 Employed at the Department of Anthropology, University of Copenhagen, as an Assistant Professor
• 2003 Fieldwork in Bissau, Guinea-Bissau. Planned a questionnaire in collaboration with the political officer at UNOGBIS (United Nation’s Office in Guinea-Bissau)
• 2004 Member of the co-ordinating group for ‘the Nordic Workshop on Children and Youth in Africa’, at the Nordic Africa Department in Uppsala
• 2004 Initiated a study group on qualitative approaches to peace and conflict studies for post-graduate students at the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Copenhagen
• 2004 Taught a course on cultural complexity at the Department of Anthropology, University of Copenhagen
• 2005 Fieldwork in Lisbon, Portugal
• 2005 Fieldwork in Bissau, Guinea-Bissau
• 2005 Followed and completed IHB course 1 and 2 (foreign ministry)
• 2005 International observer for the EU in round 1 and 2 of the presidential election in Guinea-Bissau
• 2005 Employed as researcher at the Rehabilitation and Research Centre for Victims of Torture
• 2007 Designation changed to Senior Researcher  

Publications

• 1998 They are Trying to Destroy our Culture: en analyse af konfliktnarrativer blandt paramilitære Protestanter i Nordirland. Specialerække nr. 127. Institut for Antropologi, Københavns Universitet
• 2002 (2004) Introduktion til Voldens Antropologi: fra erfaring til fællesskab. Antropologi 46: 3-15
• 2003 Navigating Terrains of War: youth and soldiering in Guinea-Bissau. Ph.d-rækken nr. 24. Institut for Antropologi, Københavns Universitet
• 2004 Navigation: unge i konfliktfyldt terræn. In: Hastrup K (ed.) Viden om verden: en grundbog i antropologisk analys, kapitel 6. København: Hans Reitzels Forlag
• 2006 Navigating Terrains of War: youth and soldiering in Guinea-Bissau. Oxford: Berghahn Books (ISBN 1-84545-148-1)