Ann-Christin Zuntz

Ann is a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow in Edinburgh's School of Social and Political Science. As an economic anthropologist, she studies the nexus between displacement and global capitalism in the Mediterranean, especially in the context of the Syrian conflict.   Her current projects include:

• PI, Brokers of displacement – An ethnography of the infrastructure of Syrian refugees’ circulations throughout the Mediterranean, 3-year project funded by the British Academy using ethnographic methods to study the “infrastructure of displacement” that holds refugees and things together, and positions them in global economies (starting in September 2022)
• Co-I, Field Songs, an AHRC-funded project using ethnographic methods and collaborative workshops to document the role of Syrian (agri)cultural heritage and mainstream Syrian agricultural expertise into sustainable development policies (since November 2021): https://www.onehealthfieldnetwork.org/field-songs
• PI, Refugee labour under lockdown, an AHRC-funded project using remote ethnographic research to document how working conditions and relationships with agricultural intermediaries and employers have changed for displaced Syrians in agriculture during the pandemic (2020/21): https://www.onehealthfieldnetwork.org/refugee-labour-under-lockdown

Ann is a member of the One Health FIELD Network, a multidisciplinary collaboration of UK-based, Syrian, Turkish and Jordanian academics and practitioners. Together, they do research on the nexus between displacement, food security and refugee labour in the Middle East.   Her research outputs include:

• Zuntz, Ann-Christin, Klema, Mackenzie, Abdullateef, Shaher, Almashhor, Esraa, Alnabolsi, Salim Faisal, Akay, Sinem Sefa, Akbulut, Bürge, Ayaes, Selin, Karabiyik, Ertan, and Lisa Boden (2022). “Syrians’ only option – Rethinking unfree labour through the study of displaced agricultural workers in the Middle East.” Journal of Modern Slavery 7(2): 10-32.
• Zuntz, Ann-Christin, Klema, Mackenzie, Abdullateef, Shaher, Mazeri, Stella, Alnabolsim, Salim Faisal, Alfadel, Abdulellah, Abi-habib, Joy, Azar, Maria, Calia, Clara, Burke, Joseph, Grant, Liz, and Lisa Boden. 2021. "Syrian refugee labour and food insecurity in Middle Eastern agriculture during the early COVID-19 pandemic." International Labour Review 161(2): 245-266.
• Zuntz, Ann-Christin. 2021. “Refugees’ transnational livelihoods and remittances: Syrian mobilities in the Middle East before and after 2011.” Journal of Refugee Studies 34(2): 1400–1422. Winner of the 2021 Best Article Prize of the Syrian Studies Association.