In 2022, we awarded Dr. Valerie Nur our Research Grant for her outstanding doctoral dissertation. In 2024, the dissertation was published in our Studien zur Kulturkunde under the title Die Unbeständigkeit der Dinge. Handwerk, Familie und Mobilität bei den Tuareg in Niger published in Dietrich Reimer Verlag. We are very pleased that this book has now been awarded the Ethnography Research Prize at this year’s Fieldwork Days at the Technical University of Dortmund.
Awarded by the Sociology of Knowledge Section of the German Sociological Association and accompanied by a prize of 1,500 euros, this award recognizes outstanding and innovative work in ethnographic social research every two years.
Based on 21 months of ethnographic fieldwork, Valerie Nur examined Tuareg craftsmanship as a social practice in which artisanal skills are passed down across generations. The book demonstrates that craft skills not only enable the production of objects but also shape perceptions of the material world and the ways in which people act within it. In this way, the study contributes to current debates on craftsmanship, learning, and material culture.
