Dr. Victoria Kumala Sakti

  • News and information on consultation hours

    I am currently on leave from the University of Münster. I will be spending the 2026 summer semester as a visiting/acting professor at the Institute of Anthropology at the University of Heidelberg.

    You are still very welcome to contact me via this email address, as I will continue to check it regularly. If you are interested in working with me—whether regarding supervision, projects, or other academic matters—please feel free to get in touch.

  • Research

    Victoria Sakti is a social and cultural anthropologist whose research and teaching explore transnational mobilities, ageing, displacement, gender, political violence, and social transformation, with a regional focus on Southeast Asia—particularly Indonesia and Timor-Leste. Drawing upon long-term ethnographic fieldwork, her work foregrounds perspectives, practices, and experiences emerging from the Global South.

    Victoria’s research centres on three interconnected areas: the experiences of ageing in contexts of forced migration and protracted displacement; the dynamics of care, everyday life, and inequality within urban environments; and the emotional and social dimensions of memory and violence, including processes of social repair. Her approach combines ethnographic, multi-modal, and creative methods to examine how individuals and communities navigate shifting social and political landscapes.

    Her forthcoming book, Boundaries of Repair: Memory, Emotion, and Mobility across Timor-Leste and Indonesia, explores how memory, care, and irreconciliation shape everyday efforts to rebuild relationships in the shadow of impunity. She is also the co-editor of Aspiring in Later Life: Movements Across Time, Space, and Generations (with M. Amrith and D. Sampaio, Rutgers University Press, 2023).

    Before joining the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology and the Cluster of Excellence “Religion and Politics” at the University of Münster, Victoria has held positions at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity in Göttingen and the “Languages of Emotions” Cluster at Freie Universität Berlin. 

    She is a member of the Editorial Boards for the Journals of Ethos and International Quarterly for Asian Studies 

  • Research Focus

  • Research Area

  • Teaching approach

    will follow soon

  • Research

    Winter term 2025/26

    Übung: Studying Transnational Lives: care, Borders, and Mobility [082883] 
    [Fr., 10:00 – 12:00 Uhr | s.A. | STU 105 (2.10)]

    Summer term 2025

    Übung: preparing for Fieldwork [080887]
    [Individual Event| STU 105 (2.10)]

    Seminar: Writing Ethnography: Method and Craft [080880]
    [Individual Event| STU 102 (2.10)]

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    Publications

    Book (Monograph)

    • , , and . Aspiring in Later Life: Movements Across Time, Space, and Generations New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press.

    Articles

    Research Articles (Journals)
    • , , and . “Reflections on Ethics in Research with Older Displaced Persons in West Timor: Considering the ‘Time Effect’.” International Quarterly for Asian Studies 54 (1): 39–58. doi: 10.11588/iqas.2023.1.14992.
    • . “Older Refugee Perspectives on Death, Remembrance, and Burial: The East Timorese in Indonesia.” Journal of Refugee Studies fead010: 1–18. doi: 10.1093/jrs/fead010.
    • . “Ageing at the Margins: Gendered and Southern Narratives of Displacement among the East Timorese in Indonesia.” Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 49 (4): 1065–1081. doi: 10.1080/1369183X.2022.2115632.
    • , and . “Introduction: Living in the here and now: Extended temporalities of forced migration.” Journal of Intercultural Studies 43 (4): 457–463 . doi: 10.1080/07256868.2022.2088084.
    • . “‘Here for Now’: Temporalities of ageing and forced displacement through pension narratives.” Journal of Intercultural Studies 43 (4): 497 –513. doi: 10.1080/07256868.2022.2086227.
    • . “Aging in Timorese Exile: (Im)mobilities of Care and Intergenerational Relationships.” Journal of Intergenerational Relationships 18 (3): 301–319. doi: 10.1080/15350770.2020.1787039.
    • . “Im/mobile Subjects: Identity, Conflict and Emotion Work among East Timorese Meto Diaspora.” Social Identities 23 (4): 467–477.
    • . “‘Thinking Too Much’: Tracing Local Patterns of Emotional Distress After Mass Violence in Timor-Leste.” Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology 14 (5): 438–454.
    Research Article (Book Contributions)
    • . “Ageing and Senescence.” in The Cambridge Handbook of Psychological Anthropology, edited by E. Lowe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
    • , , and . “Introduction.” in Aspiring in Later Life: Movement Across Time, Space, and Generations, edited by M Amrith, V.K. Sakti and D. Sampaio. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press.
    • . “‘It’s like a big family feud!’ Researching social trauma and repair through the lens of emotion and culture.” in Anthropologie der Emotionen: Affektive Dynamiken in Kultur und Gesellschaft, edited by T. Stoduka, A.V. Poser, G. Scheidecker and J. Bens. Berlin: Dietrich Reimer Verlag.
    • . “Im/mobile Subjects: Identity, Conflict and Emotion Work among East Timorese Meto Diaspora.” in Patterns of Im/mobility, Conflict and Identity, edited by B. Bräuchler. London and New York: Routledge.
    • . “The Politics of Loss and Restoration: Massive Bad Death in the Oecussi Highlands.” in The Dead as Ancestors, Martyrs, and Heroes in Timor-Leste, edited by L. Kent and R.G. Feijo. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.
    • , and . “Understanding Reconciliation through Reflexive Practice: Ethnographic Examples from Canada and Timor-Leste.” in Ethnographic Peace Research – Approaches and Tensions, Rethinking Peace and Conflict Studies, edited by G. Millar. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
    • . “The act of killing and dealing with present-day demons of impunity – a conversation with Joshua Oppenheimer.” in Feelings at the margins – dealing with violence, stigma and isolation in Indonesia, edited by T. Stodulka and B. Röttger-Rössler. Frankfurt am Main: Campus Verlag.
    • . “Erinnerungsarbeit in Osttimor: Das Living Memory Project.” in Die Freiheit, für die wir kämpfen – Osttimor in der Unabhängigkeit, edited by H. Myrttinen, M Schlicher and M. Tschanz. Berlin: regiospectra.
    • . “Trauern um das Unfassbare.” in Die Freiheit, für die wir kämpfen – Osttimor in der Unabhängigkeit, edited by H. Myrttinen, M. Schlicher and M. Tschanz. Berlin: regiospectra.

    Special Issue of a Journal

    • Sakti, V.K., and Amrith, M.(Eds.), eds. .“Living in the here and now: Extended temporalities of forced migration.” Special Issue Journal of Intercultural Studies 4.

    AbstractThesis (Doctoral or Postdoctoral)

    • . “Bonds and Boundaries: Emotion, Memory and Social Repair in Timor-Leste.” Dissertation thesis, Freie Universität Berlin.

    Objective, Multimedia-based or Online Publications

    Web Publications (Blog Articles)
    • . “Who Cares for Older Refugees? An East Timorese Healthcare Worker’s Mission.” American Ethnological Society (AES) essay collection
    • . “Die unsichtbare Diaspora.” südostasien - Zeitschrift für Politik, Kultur, Dialog
    • . “Portraits of Ageing in Displacement: East Timorese Diasporas in Indonesia.” MMG Blog
    Website (Publicly Available)
    • . “Ageing in displacement: The East Timorese diaspora in indonesia.”

    Review in a Digital Collection

    • . “The Cultural Dimension of Peace: Decentralization and Reconciliation in Indonesia by B. Bräuchler (2015), London: Palgrave Macmillan.” Journal for Peace Research