I am a postdoc researcher affiliated to the Institute for European Ethnology and the Centre for transdisciplinary Gender Studies at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. My research interests cover migration and racism, gender and sexuality, questions of West and East inequalities in Germany and intersectionality.

Currently I am working on two projects, which deal with largely untold histories of migration and their consequences. On the one hand, I am researching the gender dynamics around the recruitment of young female nurses from Southern India by West German hospitals and homes for the elderly in the 1960s. In particular, I am interested how the legal, social and economic framework of the recruitment has influenced the long-term gender dynamics within the families of the nurses. On the other hand, I am beginning a project investigating the interwovenness of West-East relations in Germany with transnational migration. Starting with a German-German family, which has migration stories in the context of both Germanies, I am exploring different perspectives on the West-East divide and migration. Through both projects I am attempting to diversify the representation of migration in Germany, introduce intersectional perspectives into it and question the dominant forms of representation.

More information about my research can be found on: urmila.de