Multi/Modalities
Encounters in the Postmigrant Society
How do we want to and how can we shape our coexistence?
16.01.2026
In my research project ‘Between Encounter and Distancing,’ I examined the affective-emotional experiences as well as the relationship dynamics and processes of knowledge transfer in a civic encounter format – mentorships with refugee children and young people – from a psychological anthropology perspective. During my research, these children and young people came mainly from Syria. The format aimed to overcome segregation along socio-cultural and socio-spatial lines of difference as well as educational inequality.
Through encounters and meaningful interpersonal bonds, mentorships are intended to improve the children's prospects for participation and contribute to their successful integration. The research project was characterised in particular by an auto-ethnographic and participatory-collaborative methodology. I myself took on a mentorship with a young person for several years and led students of anthropology in a focus group to reflect on their mentorship experiences. The collaboration with the students resulted, among other things, in the vignette presented at the beginning and the linocut (Elena Tietze) that illustrates it.