Laura Ogden (L.J.)

I am an anthropologist focused on transnational mobility, education, and kinship with a specialisation in multimodal and audiovisual ethnography.

My current research explores various facets of transnational migrant youth's lives between West Africa and Europe, including transnational sibling relationships (intra-generational kinship) in migrant families, secondary and tertiary educational trajectories, and the role of digital media in young people's mobility experiences. I explore these questions using multimodal/ audiovisual, multi-sited, and participatory ethnographic methods.

My PhD and postdoctoral research explored the patterns, experiences and effects of the transnational mobility of young people with a migration background between Ghana and Germany, as part of the ERC-funded MO-TRAYL project.

My MA in Cultural Anthropology and Visual Ethnography (Leiden University, 2016) investigated how the 2013 Timorese primary-school curriculum reform - on which I also worked as a consultant editor - navigated and highlighted tensions between the educational ideals of various local and international stakeholders. I produced the ethnographic film Scripting Change as part of my thesis.

My other qualifications span Sociology, Spanish and Latin American Studies, Cross-Disciplinary Art and Design, and Copyediting.

I previously worked in international development in Timor-Leste (East Timor) with government, NGOs and international donors (2011-2017) and in the arts sector in Melbourne, Australia (2008-2011), as a public art and youth studio coordinator. 

I have lived in Australia, Mexico, Timor-Leste, the Netherlands, and Germany, and I speak English, Portuguese, German, Dutch, Spanish, and Tetun (the lingua franca of Timor-Leste).