Doing fieldwork in Eastern Europe: introduction

Michaela Schäuble studied social anthropology and comparative literature at Tübingen (Germany) and Yale (USA) Universities. In addition she has trained as a documentary filmmaker at the Granada Centre for Visual Anthropology (Manchester University). At present she is working on her PhD dissertation entitled 'Recollecting violence: gender, religion, and national identity in a central Dalmatian town'. Her particular interests include visual anthropology, gender and representation, social memory, as well as issues of globalisation. She can be contacted at michaela_schaeuble(AT)web.de.

Tomasz Rakowski studied ethnology and cultural anthropology at the University of Warsaw (Poland), and at present he stands as a doctorate student at the Institute of Polish Culture at the University of Warsaw. He is about to finish his PhD dissertation, entitled: 'The anthropologist as a poverty visitor; Polish economic transition and the culture of powerlessness'. He has carried out fieldwork in the rapidly de-industrialised regions in Poland and in northern Mongolia (Hovsgol). He is also a medical doctor, graduated at the Medical University of Warsaw and working at the Emergency Unit. He can be contacted at tomaszrak(AT)o2.pl.

Wlodzimierz Karol Pessel (born in 1979) studied cultural sciences at the University of Warsaw. He is currently engaged in writing a doctoral thesis devoted to the cultural history of sewage and garbage collection in Warsaw during the twentieth century. He teaches anthropology and sociology of culture in the Institute of Polish Culture at the University of Warsaw. He can be contacted at wlodzimierz(AT)pnet.pl.