Laila Prager

Prof. Dr. Laila Prager is a Senior Research Fellow in the Humanities Research Fellowship Program at NYU Abu Dhabi. She is Professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Hamburg (Germany) and a member of AGYA (Arab-German Young Academy of Sciences and Humanities). Formerly, she worked as a researcher and senior 6 lecturer in Social Anthropology at the University of Münster and Leipzig (Germany). Dr. Prager’s research interests center on the narrative representation and performance of the past among Bedouin societies in Syria and Jordan; kinship, cosmology, inter-religious conflicts, ritual healing, and migration among the Arab speaking Alawi/Alawite (Nusairy) society in South Eastern Turkey (Hatay/Çukurova) and Alawi migrant communities in Germany. Current projects include a comparative study of the various ways in which heritage is displayed, enacted, and appropriated at local, national, and transnational levels in the Gulf region as well as an interdisciplinary research project on the societal transformations emerging from the increase of major diseases in the Gulf region, such as diabetes type 2, thalassemia, and other genetically induced illnesses. Recent publications include (as guest editor of the Special Issue of Nomadic Peoples), Reshaping Tribal Identities in the Contemporary Arab World. 18 (2); Bedouinity on Stage (2014) The Rise of the Bedouin Soap Opera (Musalsal Badawi) in Arab Television. Nomadic Peoples 18 (2): 53-77 and “Displaying Origins: Heritage Museums, Cultural Festivals, and National Imageries in the UAE” Horizons in Humanities and Social Sciences 1 (2015): 22-46. Dr. Prager received her MA and PhD degrees from the University of Münster, Germany.

Research Interests

• Kinship and Gender
• Medical Anthropology
• Migration and Transnationalism
• Heritage construction (museums, festivals, media, etc.)
• Islam and "heterodox" religious groups
• Anthropology of the Middle East (Turkey, Syria, Jordan, UAE, Palestinian diaspora, and Muslim Migrants in Germany and Europe

Awards

• Oktober 2010 Forschungsförderungspreis der Frobenius Gesellschaft, Frankfurt (Academic distinction for anthropological research and publication: "Die Gemeinschaft des Hauses")

Publications

Prager, L.. “The Miracle of Rebirth: Stigmata, Transmigration, and the Remembrance of Former Lives in Alawi Religion”. (2016): S. 281-310.

Prof. Prager, L., M. Prager, G. Sprenger. “Parts and Wholes: Essays on Social Morphology, Cosmology, and Exchange in Honour of J.D.M. Platenkamp”. (2016)

Prager, L.. “The Mnemonic Body: Cycles of rebirth and the remembrance of former lives in Alawi religion”. Körper, Sexualität und Medizin in muslimischen Gesellschaften. Hg. Patrick Franke, Susanne Kurz & Claudia Preckel . Bamberg: Univ. of Bamber Press, 2015 Forthcoming, S. ..

Prager, L.. ““Dangerous liaisons”: Modern bio-medical discourses and changing practices of cousin marriage in Southeastern Turkey”. Cousin Marriages and the Medicalisation of Spouse Selection. Hg. Alison Shaw and Aviad Raz. New York / Oxford: Berghan Books, 2015 Forthcoming, S. ..

Prager, L.. “Bedouinity on Stage. The Rise of The Bedouin Soup Opera (Musalsal Badawi) in Arab Television”. Reshaping Tribal Identities in the contemporary Arab World, Special Issue Nomadic Peoples 18(2). (2014): S. 53-77.