Dr. Victoria Kumala Sakti

  • Aktuelles und Informationen zur Sprechstunde

    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.

  • Forschung

    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 

  • Forschungsschwerpunkt

  • Forschungsregion

  • Lehransatz

    folgt in Kürze

  • Lehre

    Wintersemester 2025/26

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

    Sommersemester 2025

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

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

     

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    Publikationen

    Fachbuch (Monografie)

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

    Artikel

    Forschungsartikel (Zeitschriften)
    • , , und . „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.
    • , und . „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.
    Forschungsartikel (Buchbeiträge)
    • . „Ageing and Senescence.“ In The Cambridge Handbook of Psychological Anthropology, herausgegeben von E. Lowe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
    • , , und . „Introduction.“ In Aspiring in Later Life: Movement Across Time, Space, and Generations, herausgegeben von M Amrith, V.K. Sakti und 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, herausgegeben von T. Stoduka, A.V. Poser, G. Scheidecker und 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, herausgegeben von 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, herausgegeben von L. Kent und R.G. Feijo. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.
    • , und . „Understanding Reconciliation through Reflexive Practice: Ethnographic Examples from Canada and Timor-Leste.“ In Ethnographic Peace Research – Approaches and Tensions, Rethinking Peace and Conflict Studies, herausgegeben von 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, herausgegeben von T. Stodulka und 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, herausgegeben von H. Myrttinen, M Schlicher und M. Tschanz. Berlin: regiospectra.
    • . „Trauern um das Unfassbare.“ In Die Freiheit, für die wir kämpfen – Osttimor in der Unabhängigkeit, herausgegeben von H. Myrttinen, M. Schlicher und M. Tschanz. Berlin: regiospectra.

    Sonderheft einer Fachzeitschrift

    • Sakti, V.K., und Amrith, M.(Eds.), Hrsg. .„Living in the here and now: Extended temporalities of forced migration.“ Sonderausgabe Journal of Intercultural Studies 4.

    Qualifikationsschrift (Dissertation oder Habilitationsschrift)

    • . „Bonds and Boundaries: Emotion, Memory and Social Repair in Timor-Leste.“ Dissertationsschrift, Freie Universität Berlin.

    Gegenständliche, multimediale oder -Veröffentlichungen

    Webpublikationen (Blogbeiträge)
    • . „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
    Webauftritt (öffentlich zugänglich)
    • . „Ageing in displacement: The East Timorese diaspora in indonesia.“

    Rezension in einer Online-Sammlung

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