- E-mailTone.Bringa@uib.no
- Phone+47 55 58 92 77
- Visitor AddressFosswinckels gate 6Lauritz Meltzers hus5007 Bergen
- Postal AddressPostboks 78025020 Bergen
My research consists of two main thematic pillars: First, Muslim societies with a long historical presence in Southeastern Europe, and as part of this, but more generally, ethnic identity anchored in religion and relations between Muslims and Christians. Second, societies and people experiencing dramatic political upheavals which lead to violent conflict and war, and as extension of this theme, various normalizing processes after war, such as; return of internally displaced people to their homes, war crimes tribunals, public discourses concerning justice, right and blame, war memorials, and how different people express their experiences and adjust to new political structures.
My ethnographic research has taken place in Bosnia-Herzegovina, first as part of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (-1991), and then as a country at war (1992-1995), where ethnic leaders were seeking different political divisions of territory on behalf of their presumed populations, and where the civilian population was the main target of political and military campaigns, and lastly, as an independent state with deep political administrative and social divisions based on ethnicity (anchored in different religious traditions), and conflicting public narratives about the war.
Spring 2004: State, culture and identity (SANT 205; lectures given in English).
Autumn 2005: Power, Ideology: Political regimes, dominance and violence (SANT 206; lectures given in English).
Spring 2006, Automn 2006, Spring 2007 and Automn 2007: Anthropological Research Methodologies and Theory Development (SANT 301).
Autumn 2009: Power and ideology: Political regimes, dominance and violence (SANT 206; lectures given in English).
Spring 2010: Islam and Muslim lives in Southeastern Europe. (SANT 280; lectures given in English).
- (1993). Nationality categories, national identification and identity formatio n in "multinational" Bosnia. Anthropology of East Europe Review.
- (2016). "Returning Home: Revival of a Bosnian Village, film and presentation.".
- (2011). Sarajevo: A Bosnian Kaleidoscope. Ethnos. 565-567.
- (2011). Fran Markowitz. "Sarajevo: A Bosnian Kaleidoscope" (book review). Ethnos. 565-567.
- (2016). Eurasian Borderlands: Spatializing Borders in the Aftermath of State Collapse. Palgrave Macmillan.
- (2016). Engaged Anthropology: Views from Scandinavia. Palgrave Macmillan.
- (2009). Biti musliman na bosanski nacin.
- (1995). Being Muslim the Bosnian Way: Identity and Community in a Central Bosnian Village.
- (2007). For Knowledge and Virtue.Aspects of Education in Kathmandu, Nepal.
- (2022). Navigating Queer Possibilities: An ethnographic study of the everyday lives of queer men in Amman, Jordan.
- (2022). "Det sku bo folk i husan" - Minner og materialitet fra gjenreisningstiden på Sørøya.
- (2021). Belonging, Hope, and the Future in South Caucasus A Study of The First Post-War Generation of Abkhazia.
- (2021). "Welcome to reality!" Populism and mistrust among the Sweden Democrats.
- (2019). Multiculturalism in an everyday perspective: Immigration and settlement services in Vancouver, Canada.
- (2019). Challenging Normativity: Emergent Socialities, Hope and Social Freedom.
- (2018). Establishing a New "Common Sense": A Study of the Leftist Movement in Northeastern United States .
- (2015). Smak, kunnskap og identitet: En studie av Slow Food.
- (2015). A Transnational Political Engagement: Solidarity, Nationhood and Pan-Tamilness among the Tamils of Tamilnadu.
- (2014). Islamic revival in Georgian - Chechen border Area.
- (2014). Crossing Borders: The Case of Ethnic Dagestani in Georgia.
- (2014). BATEYE GUARERO. Identity-management, resources and agency in an inactive Dominican sugar bateye.
- (2014). "Visdom hører steder til". En studie om landskap og stedliggjøring av islandskhet.
- (2013). "Taking It to The Streets" - Community Events in Post-Katrina New Orleans.
- (2012). Den nye serbiske makteliten i Prijedor, Republika Srpska, Bosnia og Hercegovina.
- (2012). Between a rock and a hard place: Undocumented migrants in Norway.
- (2011). Performing Us and the Others: Latino identification through expressive culture in a Texan theater company.
- (2011). "If you don't vote VMRO you're not Macedonian". A study of Macedonian identity and national discourse in Skopje.
- (2010). Paradise Lost: Perceptions of Displacement Among Internally Displaced Persons in Tbilisi, Georgia.
- (2009). "Dei vil kasta oss på havet": Frykt og segregasjon i eit busetjing på Vestbredda.
- (2007). Kvinneliv i Villa 31:Om hvordan diskurser, kollektivt minne og erfaring påvirker forestillinger om staten.
- (2006). National Identity among People in Kharkiv, Ukraine. Russians and Ukrainians, east and west, now and then.
- (2016). Radio interview with Rosie Charalambous for Cyprus News Digest.
- (2016). Introduction: Eurasian Borderlands. 25 pages.
- (2016). Introduction. 22 pages.
- (2016). From the War Zone to the Courtroom: The Anthropologist as Witness. 19 pages.
- (2016). From Boundaries to Borders: Spatial Practices and State-making; the Case of Bosnia-Herzegovina. 27 pages.
- (2005). Haunted by the Imaginations of the Past: Robert Kaplan's Balkan Ghosts. 24 pages.
- (2004). The Peaceful Death of Tito and the Violent End of Yugoslavia. 54 pages.
- (2002). Islam and the Quest for Identity in Post-Communist Bosnia-Herzegovina. 12 pages.
- (2002). Averted Gaze: Genocide in Bosnia-Herzegovina, 1992-1995. 36 pages.
- (2002). Averted Gaze: Genocide in Bosnia-Herzegovina, 1992-1995. 36 pages.
More information in national current research information system (CRIStin)
Selected Publications:
1995. Being Muslim the Bosnian Way: Identity and Community in a Central Bosnian Village, Princeton University Press.
2011. Book review. Sarajevo: A Bosnian Kaleidoscope, by Fran Markowitz. Ethnos, 76(4): 565-567.
2010. Nationality Categories, National Identification and Identity Formation in "Multinational" Bosnia. The Anthropology of East Europe Review, 11(1-2): 80-89.
2008. Biti musliman na bosanski nacin: identitet i zajednica u jednom srednjobosanskog selu., Sarajevo: Sahinpasic books (2nd.ed. with a new introduction of the Bosnian language edition of Being Muslim the Bosnian Way, translated by Senada Kreso) 1.ed. 1997, Sarajevo: Biblioteka Dani,
2005. Returning Home: Reconstruction and Reconciliation, in Post-War Bosnia-Herzegovina, in Roads to Reconciliation, Siri Gloppen, Elin Skaar and Astri Suhrke (eds). Lanham: Lexington Books, pp. 187-201.
2005. Haunted by the Imaginations of the Past: Robert Kaplan's Balkan Ghosts, i Why America's Top Pundits Are Wrong: Anthropologists Talk Back, Catherine Besteman, Hugh Gusterson (eds). California Series in Public Anthropology, 13. Berkeley: University of California Press, pp. 60-82.
2004. The Peaceful Death of Tito and the Violent Destruction of Yugoslavia, in Death of the Father: An Anthropology of the End in Political Authority, John Borneman (ed.). London: Berghahn Books: 148-201.
2003. Sociology after Bosnia and Kosovo: Recovering Justice, by Keith Doubt. Slavic Review, 62 (1): 168-169.
2002. Averted Gaze: Genocide in Bosnia-Herzegovina 1992-1995, in Annihilating Difference: The Anthropology of Genocide, Alex Hinton, (ed.). Berkeley: University of California Press, pp. 194-271.
2002. Islam and the Quest for a National Identity in Bosnia, in Islam and Bosnia, Maya Shaztmiller (ed.). Montreal: McGill- Queen's University Press, pp. 24-35.
2001. The Bosnian Muslims/The Bosniaks, i Human Relations Area Files and in Encyclopedia of World Cultures. New Haven: Yale University Press.
1997. Book review. Medjugorje: Religion, Politics and Violence in Rural Bosnia by Mart Bax." The American Ethnologist, 24(1).
1993. Nationality categories, national identification and identity formation in "multinational" Bosnia. The Anthropology of East Europe Review, Special Issue "War among the Yugoslavs, 11(1-2).
Ethnographic/documentary films
1993. We are all Neighbours, Disappearing World: War Triology (Bosnia). Granada Television. Anthropologist Tone Bringa and Director Debbie Christie.
2001. [with Peter Loizos] Returning Home: Revival of a Bosnian Village.
Sarajevo: Saga film and video.
Regional focus: Southeastern Europe
Thematic focus: Muslim societies, local Islam, Muslim-Christian relations, former Communist ruled countries, nationalism and ethnic conflicts. Societies at war, war crimes and genocide, ritual and social elaborations and expressions of war experiences