Ward Berenschot has been appointed professor by special appointment of Comparative Political Anthropology of South and Southeast Asia at the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences at the University of Amsterdam (UvA).

This is an endowed KITLV-KNAW chair, previously taken by Gerry van Klinken and, before that, Peter Boomgaard. Ward will dedicate one day a week to his Professorship at the UvA, next to his work as senior researcher at the KITLV. Ward’s research focuses on a comparative understanding of the dynamics of state-society interaction, focusing on topics such as citizenship, communal violence, clientelism, access to justice and collective action in, particularly, India and Indonesia. At the UvA, Ward will teach courses related to political anthropology, and he will work on a new NWO-funded research project on the conflicts caused by the expansion of oil palm plantations in Indonesia.

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