Laura Ogden (L.J.)

I am an anthropologist focused on transnational youth with a specialisation in multimodal and audiovisual ethnography.

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

My PhD and postdoctoral research explored 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 public arts sector in Melbourne, Australia (2008-2011).