Biography
My ethnographic work has evolved around the role and experience of im/mobility in people’s lives, in Central America and elsewhere. More specifically, I have focused on families’ cross-border labour and carework; migrant trajectories and illegalization; and the interplay between displacement and emplacement. Theoretically and methodologically, I build on anthropology, feminist geography and critical development studies. I hold a MA in Development Studies (with Cultural Anthropology) from Radboud University Nijmegen, a MA in Latin American Studies from the University of Amsterdam, and a PhD in Development Studies from the University of Antwerp.
After my MA research on gendered violence in Belize City, for which I received the MA Thesis Award ‘Gerrit Huizer’ in 2007, and subsequent MA research with Central American migrants, my PhD research further explored topics of migration and im/mobility in Central America. The research took translocal Nicaraguan livelihoods as its starting point and showed the relevance of integrating a diversity of highly differentiated migration experiences for understanding migration-development dynamics. The ethnographic research consisted of multi-sited and multi-method fieldwork, including social mappings and a survey. It also built on a yearlong financial diaries project, in collaboration with research and development institute Nitlapan of the Universidad Centroamericana (UCA) in Managua. Focusing on asymmetric cross-border interdependencies (regional and international) and the livelihood dimensions of carework, ‘illegality’ and remittances, the thesis offered a comprehensive and contextually sensitive understanding of access to mobility and its implications for individual and family well-being.
Before joining ISS in September 2020, I worked as a postdoctoral researcher at Utrecht University on the 'Lost in Migration' project, focusing on migrant skills in the Dutch carework sector. As a researcher at the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (Germany), I subsequently co-developed the project African trajectories across Central America: displacements, transitory emplacements, and ambivalent migration nodes, funded by the German Research Foundation. This project addresses the entwined im/mobilities of African and Caribbean migrants who traverse Central American countries in an attempt to reach North America, situating their experiences in a context of globe-spanning migration ‘crises’, regimes and industries. In particular, the project asks to what extent novel conceptualizations of the displacement/emplacement dialectic can be applied to differentiated, drawn-out and volatile migrant trajectories. It builds on a multi-sited ethnographic approach to explore the ambivalent, locally embedded dynamics of displacement and im/mobility, paying specific attention to migrants’ temporary experiences of emplacement in border communities marked by marginalization and state intervention. Conceptually and geographically, the project enriches pressing debates about both migrant journeys and 'transit' regions across and beyond the so-called Global South. Methodologically, the project addresses the challenge of 'following' migrants across time and space.
At ISS, I will further develop my research on migrant journeys and other trajectories of im/mobility within communities characterized by translocal linkages, securitization dynamics, and (informal) humanitarian initiatives, with the aim of contributing to critical innovations in migration-development nexus thinking.
In addition, I enjoy integrating my research experience with an interdisciplinary approach to teaching migration and multimethods courses. I also co-organize the Migration Research Seminar Series and the Development Research Series at ISS. I welcome PhD students with an interest to work on issues related to the topics above.
International Institute of Social Studies
- winters@iss.nl
More information
Work
- Zeynep Kasli & Nanneke Winters (2023) - How does a place become (less) hostile? Looking at everyday encounters between migrants and non-migrants as acts and processes of bordering
- Mahardhika Sjamsoeoed Sadjad, Zeynep Kasli, Nanneke Winters, Haya Alfarra, Mausumi Chetia, Xander Creed, Vanessa Ntinu & Gabriela Villacis Izquierdo (2023) - Grappling with unease – together: collective reflections on Migration Studies and Colonialism by Mayblin and Turner - [link]
- Nanneke Winters (2023) - Everyday Politics of Mobility: Translocal Livelihoods and Illegalisation in the Global South - Journal of Latin American Studies, 55 (1), 77-101 - doi: 10.1017/S0022216X23000020 - [link]
- Nanneke Winters (2023) - Making a living while on the move: migrant trajectories, hierarchized mobilities and local labour landscapes in Central America
- Nanneke Winters (2022) - A healthy dose of pessimism as a way forward in migration-development thinking? - DevISSues, 24 (2), 8-10 - [link]
- SWS (Nanneke) Winters, Griet Steel & Carlos Sosa (2021) - Moving far away to stay: translocal livelihoods, labour migration corridors and mobility in rural Nicaragua - doi: 10.4337/9781788117425.00009
- Gery Nijenhuis, Maggi W.H. Leung, Marcel Coenders & Nanneke Winters (2021) - Rethinking knowledge and skills in migration: A spatial–temporal perspective - Population, Space and Place, 27 (5) - doi: 10.1002/psp.2450 - [link]
- Nanneke Winters (2021) - Following, Othering, Taking Over. Research Participants Redefining the Field through Mobile Communication Technology - Social Analysis, 65 (1), 133-142 - doi: 10.3167/sa.2020.650109 - [link]
- H Drotbohm & Nanneke Winters (2021) - A shifting yet grounded transnational social field: Interplays of displacement and emplacement in African migrant trajectories across Central America - Population, Space and Place, 27 (5) - doi: 10.1002/psp.2421 - [link]
- Nanneke Winters & E Reichl (2020) - Pay and go? Transit migration regimes and migrant navigation in Central America - [link]
- Nanneke Winters (2020) - Displaced lives in the Americas. A review of three cross-border ethnographies - European Review of Latin American and Caribbean Studies, 213-218 - doi: 10.32992/erlacs.10675 - [link]
- H Drotbohm & Nanneke Winters (2020) - The Event in Migrant Categorization: Exploring Eventfulness Across the Americas - Vibrant : VIrtual Brazilian Anthropology, 17, 1-20 - doi: 10.1590/1809-43412020v17d650 - [link]
- Nanneke Winters & C Mora Izaguirre (2019) - Es cosa suya: Entanglements of border externalization and African transit migration in northern Costa Rica - Comparative Migration Studies, 7 (27) - doi: 10.1186/s40878-019-0131-9 - [link]
- Nanneke Winters (2019) - Haciendo-lugar en tránsito. Reflexión sobre la migración africana y trabajo de campo en Darién, Panamá - Revista Interdisciplinar da Mobilidade Humana, 27 (56) - doi: 10.1590/1980-85852503880005613
- Nanneke Winters & F Reiffen (2019) - Haciendo-lugar vía huellas y apegos: las personas migrantes africanas y sus experiencias de movilidad, inmovilidad e inserción local en América Latina. Introduction to the Special Issue ‘Migrantes africanos en América Latina: (in)movilidades y haciendo-lugar’ - Revista Interdisciplinar da Mobilidade Humana, 27 (56) - doi: 10.1590/1980-85852503880005602
- Nanneke Winters (2018) - Redrawing the Central American Migrant Caravan: How Other (African) Trajectories Cross Its Path - [link]
- F Reiffen & Nanneke Winters (2018) - Care in crisis: Ethnographic perspectives on humanitarianism – Conference Report - [link]
- Nanneke Winters (2018) - Beyond the bird in the cage? Translocal embodiment and trajectories of Nicaraguan female migrants in Seville, Spain - Geoforum - doi: 10.1016/j.geoforum.2018.05.019 - [link]
- H Drotbohm & Nanneke Winters (2018) - Transnational lives en route. African trajectories of displacement and emplacement across Central America
La Chispa
- Start date approval
- March 2023
- End date approval
- March 2026
- Place
- UTRECHT
- Description
- redactielid La Chispa, journalistiek platform
2101 The Making of Development
- Year
- 2024
- Course Code
- ISS-2101-24-25
Master track GMD
- Year
- 2024
- Course Code
- ISS-GMD-24-25
General Information
- Year
- 2024
- Course Code
- ISSGENERAL-24-25
3105 Research Paper Preparation
- Year
- 2024
- Course Code
- ISS-3105-24-25
4394 SPD: Working towards the RP
- Year
- 2024
- Course Code
- ISS-4394-24-25
4270 Migration and Development
- Year
- 2024
- Course Code
- ISS-4270-24-25
4271 People on the Move
- Year
- 2024
- Course Code
- ISS-4271-24-25