Sandro Simon is a PhD student in the DELTA project and works in the Sine-Saloum Delta in Senegal.*
He studied History and German at the Albert Ludwigs University of Freiburg i. Br. (DE) and the University of Basel (CH) before enrolling for the Master in African Studies with the main modules Social Anthropology and Environment & Human Well-Being.
In the course of his studies, Sandro spent a semester at the Institutes of Cultural Geography and Development Studies at the Rijksuniversiteit Groningen (NL). After completing his M.A., he taught at the Institute of Social Anthropology in Basel and worked for NGOs in Switzerland and Ecuador before joining the DELTA project. As part of this, he spent a fellowship at the Anthropology Department of the University of Minnesota (USA).
Sandro's master's thesis engages legal and environmental anthropology to examine urban agriculture practices in the Below Foncha wetlands of Bamenda, Cameroon. An excerpt from it has been published as an edited volume article.
* Sandro previously worked in the Tana Delta, Kenya, but due to the deterring security situation, had to cease his fieldowork there.
Among his releases are
Rhythming Volatilities: Gleaning from and Salvaging for Capitalists. Special Issue 'Volatility - Making and Unmaking Liveable Worlds’. Social Anthropology/Anthropology Sociale 31(4), 2023. 134-153.
The Art of Gleaning and Not Becoming Domesticated in Mollusc Waterworlds. Special Issue '‘Fluid Dispossessions’: Contested Waters in Capitalist Natures’. Ethnos, 2023. 1-20.
(with A. M. Ritz) Fluchtlinien der Erfahrung. Multimodale Widerspenstigkeit entlang der Siemensbahn Berlin(Multimodal Essay). Environmental Anthropology Network Special Section ‘Unruly Berlin’, 2023.
Rhythm and Aesthetics in Waterwork and Audiovisual Practice. Special Issue ‘Rhythmic Aesthetic Formations: Multimodal Explorations’. Entanglements 5(1/2), 2022. 233-243.
(with I. M. Cook, V. Hänsch) Introduction: Rhythmic Aesthetic Formations: Multimodal Explorations. Entanglements 5(1/2), 2022. 199-207.
Presence and Absence in Mollusc Lifeworlds and Visual Essays (Visual Essay). Special Issue ‘Visual Essays in Post-Digital Habitats’. AnthroVision 8, 2022. 1-14.
Bidonville–Bidonmondes (Multimodal Essay). Special Issue 'Waste’. Anthropology Now, 2022. Print/Online.
Gleaning Time: Practice, Pause and Anticipation in the Sine-Saloum Delta, Senegal. In: Krause, F. und Harris, M. (eds.): Delta Life: Exploring Dynamic Environments where Rivers Meet the Sea. Oxford, New York: Berghan, 2021. 249- 270.
Bidonmondes. 6-Channel Video Installation. 2020. Extracting Us / ONCA Gallery Brighton. Re-exhibited 2022 in Despite Extractivism.
(with the DELTA team) Delta Worlds: Life between Land and Water. 2020. Reimer. 224 p.
Deux Horizons. Split-Screen Video/Two Channel Audio. 4:16min. DV. 2020. Shown at different Conferences and Workshops.
Emotion and Epistemic Murkiness: Fieldwork under the Possibility of Fire. Sentio 1, 2019. 61-67.
mollUScs + MOLLusCS. In: Wüthrich, E. (ed.). Catalogue for the Artbook Fair 'I Never Read', Art Basel, 2019. No pagination.
Fearing Together, Fearing Alone: Fieldwork Under the Possibility of Fire. In: Krause, F. (ed.). Delta Methods: Reflections on Researching Hydrosocial Lifeworlds, Cologne Working Papers in Ethnology 7, 2018. 57-68.
Constructing the Tana Delta: Imaginaries, Scales and Placeness of Watery Infrastructure. Voices Around the World 3. Global South Studies Center, 2017. No pagination.
Fragile Ground, Contested Soil: Dynamics of Tenure and Policy in the Bamenda Wetlands. In: Boehi, M., Ramutsindela, M. und Miescher, G. (eds.): The Politics of Nature and Science in Southern Africa. Basel: Basler Afrika Bibliographien, 2016. 281-308.
(with Y. van den Berg) Report of the Conference 'Comment penser l'anthropocéne?' of the Collège de France', Paris (05-06.11.2015). In: Somatosphere.com
(with Y. van den Berg) The Anthropocene in the Classroom. In: Newsletter der Schweizerischen Gesellschaft für Afrikastudien (SGAS), 15/2, 2015. 40-41.
Work Life | Life Work - A Narration on Anthropological Fieldwork. In: Cargo Zeitschrift für Ethnologie 34, 2014. 38-39.
Report of the Conference 'Future Africa' of the Vereinigung für Afrikawissenschaften in Deutschland (VAD), Bayreuth (11.-14.07.2014). In: Newsletter der Schweizerischen Gesellschaft für Afrikastudien (SGAS), 14/2, 2014. 30-33.
Report of the Workshop 'The Politics of Nature and Science in African History' of the Basel Graduate School of History, Basel (15.-16.05.2014). In: HSozKult.de, 2014.