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Alexandra Cotofana

Assistant Professor
Alexandra_Cotofana.jpg
 
 
Introduction

 

Alexandra Coțofană's research explores intersections of politics, modernities, and ontologies of governing. Alexandra’s scholarly interests focus on political ecologies, the ontological turn, the study of political elites and ways of governing, as well as the occult as a tool for governing, and discursive techniques employed in populist imaginaries to form racial, gender, and political Others. She also has 11 years of experience in organizing human rights documentary film festivals, the last four of which were dedicated to being the Director of the In Lights Film Festival in Bloomington Indiana.

Alexandra earned her PhD in Cultural Anthropology from Indiana University Bloomington, with a Doctoral Minor in Religious Studies. Prior to joining Zayed University, she held a Lectureship in History and Anthropology at Butler University.

Languages: English, French, Spanish, Italian, Romanian

Qualifications:

• 2018, PhD Cultural Anthropology (Indiana University, Bloomington)

• 2016, M.A. Cultural Anthropology (Indiana University Bloomington)

• 2011, M.A. Cultural Anthropology (National School for Political and Administrative Studies, Bucharest)

• 2009, B.A. Political Sciences (National School for Political and Administrative Studies, Bucharest)

Professional Membership:

• International Study of Religion in Eastern and Central Europe Association, 2016 - present

• American Ethnological Society, 2015 - present

• Association for Women in Slavic Studies, 2014 - present

• Soyuz | Postsocialist Cultural Studies, 2014 - present

• Society of Visual Anthropology, 2014 - present

• National Association of Student Anthropologists, 2014 - present

• Society for the Anthropology of Religion, 2014 - present

• Digital Anthropologies Interest Group, 2014 - present

• Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies, 2013 - present

• American Anthropological Association, 2012 - present

• Romanian Cultural Anthropology Society, 2010 – present

Research and Professional Activities

 

 

Alexandra Coțofană's research explores intersections of politics, modernities, and ontologies of governing. Alexandra’s scholarly interests focus on political ecologies, the ontological turn, the study of political elites and ways of governing, as well as the occult as a tool for governing, and discursive techniques employed in populist imaginaries to form racial, gender, and political Others.

Research interests:

  • Ontological Turn
  • Political Elites
  • Political Anthropology
  • Nationalism
  • Politics of Secularism
  • Secrecy
  • Anthropology of Religion
  • Visual Anthropology
  • Documentary Film

Current Projects:

Political Ecologies in Europe

The Familial Occult

Governing with the Occult

Keywords:

Political Ecologies in Europe, Familial Occult, Governing with the Occult

 

Teaching Areas

 

Introduction to Culture & Society

Critical Thinking

 

 

Edited Books:

• Alexandra Coțofană and James M Nyce (eds.), Religion and Magic in Socialist and Post-Socialist Contexts, "Soviet and Post-Soviet Politics and Society (SPPS) Volume 2 (Stuttgart: Ibidem Verlag, 2017)

• Alexandra Coțofană and James M Nyce (eds.) Religion and Magic in Socialist and Post-Socialist Contexts, "Soviet and Post-Soviet Politics and Society (SPPS) Volume 1 (Stuttgart: Ibidem Verlag, 2017)

Articles:

• “Occult Puppets and Puppeteers. George Soros, Civil Society and Political Imaginaries in Postsocialist Romania” in Anthropological Quarterly (under review)

• "Reinventing Witchcraft: Romanian Politics and the Occult" in LeftEast (CriticAtac, 2018)

• “The Importance of a Meaningless 1989. Romanian Political Theologies and The Religious Left” in Transfer of knowledge about religion and atheism in Central and Eastern Europe (series: Religion and its others. Studies in Religion, Nonreligion and Secularity, De Gruyter, 2019) – forthcoming (peer-reviewed)

• “White Man Law versus Black Magic Women: Racial and Gender Entanglements of Witchcraft Policies in Romania,” Culture and Society: Journal of Social Research 8.2 (2017): 69-95 (peer-reviewed)

• James M Nyce and Alexandra Coțofană, “The Moral and Ontological Ambiguity of a Borderland: Identity, Magic and Witchcraft in Bucovina, Northern Romania” in Alexandra Coțofană and James M Nyce (eds.) Religion and Magic in Socialist and Post-Socialist Contexts, "Soviet and Post-Soviet Politics and Society (SPPS) Volume 2 (Stuttgart: Ibidem Verlag, 2017)

Alexandra Coțofană and James M Nyce, “Introduction” in Alexandra Coțofană and James M Nyce (eds.) Religion and Magic in Socialist and Post-Socialist Contexts, "Soviet and Post-Soviet Politics and Society (SPPS) Volume 1 (Stuttgart: Ibidem Verlag, 2017)

• Alexandra Coțofană, “The curse prayers of Saint Vasile or how to “declare war to the Devil”” in Alexandra Coțofană and James M Nyce (eds.) Religion and Magic in Socialist and Post-Socialist Contexts, "Soviet and Post-Soviet Politics and Society (SPPS) Volume 1 (Stuttgart: Ibidem Verlag, 2017)

• Alexandra Coțofană, “Documentary Film and Magic in Communist Romania,” Open Theology 3 (2017): 198–210 (peer-reviewed)