HELENA WULFF
Helena Wulff is Professor of Social Anthropology, Stockholm University. Her current research focusses on expressive cultural forms in a transnational perspective. Studies on the transnational world of dance and social memory through dance have generated questions in relation to place, mobility and emotions, as well as to visual culture. Her most recent interest concerns writing as cultural process and form among contemporary Irish writers. Her field research has been located in London, Stockholm, New York, Frankfurt-am-Main, and for more than a decade in Ireland, especially Dublin.
Helena Wulff is Professor of Social Anthropology, Stockholm University. Her current research focusses on expressive cultural forms in a transnational perspective. Studies on the transnational world of dance and social memory through dance have generated questions in relation to place, mobility and emotions, as well as to visual culture. Her most recent interest concerns writing as cultural process and form among contemporary Irish writers. Her field research has been located in London, Stockholm, New York, Frankfurt-am-Main, and for more than a decade in Ireland, especially Dublin.
Among Helena Wulff’s recent books are the monograph Dancing at the Crossroads: Memory and Mobility in Ireland (2007, Berghahn, Oxford, paperback 2009) and The Emotions:
A Cultural Reader (commissioned editor, 2007, Berg, Oxford). Some of her earlier publications are the monographs Ballet across Borders: Career and Culture in the World of Dancers (Berg, 1998, reprinted 2001) and Twenty Girls: Growing Up, Ethnicity and Excitement in a South London Microculture (1988, Almqvist & Wiksell International), the volumes New Technologies at Work: People, Screens and Social Virtuality (edited with Christina Garsten, 2003, Berg, Oxford), and Youth Cultures: A Cross-Cultural Perspective (edited with Vered Amit-Talai, 1995, Routledge, London).
A Cultural Reader (commissioned editor, 2007, Berg, Oxford). Some of her earlier publications are the monographs Ballet across Borders: Career and Culture in the World of Dancers (Berg, 1998, reprinted 2001) and Twenty Girls: Growing Up, Ethnicity and Excitement in a South London Microculture (1988, Almqvist & Wiksell International), the volumes New Technologies at Work: People, Screens and Social Virtuality (edited with Christina Garsten, 2003, Berg, Oxford), and Youth Cultures: A Cross-Cultural Perspective (edited with Vered Amit-Talai, 1995, Routledge, London).
Selected articles on dance:
2009 “Ways of Watching: Dance Photography, Performance and Aesthetics”, in Ina-Maria Greverus and Ute Rischel (eds.), Anthropology and Aesthetics. Berlin: LIT Verlag.
2008 ”Ethereal Expression: Paradoxes of Ballet as a Global Physical Culture”, Ethnography, 9(4): 519-536.
2008 “To Know the Dancer: Formations of Fieldwork in the Ballet World”, in Narmala Halstead, Eric Hirsch and Judith Okely (eds.), Knowing How to Know. Oxford: Berghahn Books.
2006 “Experiencing the Ballet Body: Pleasure, Pain, Power” in Suzel Ana Reily (ed.), The Musical Human: Rethinking John Blacking's Ethnomusicology in the 21st Century. Aldershot: Ashgate Press.
2005 “´High Arts´and the Market: An Uneasy Partnership in the Transnational World of Ballet”, in David Inglis and John Hughson (eds.), The Sociology of Art. Basingstoke: Palgrave.
2005 “Memories in Motion: The Irish Dancing Body”, Body & Society, issue on “the dancing body”, (ed.) Bryan S. Turner, vol. 11(4): 45-62.
2004 “The Critic´s Eye: Ethics and Politics of Writing Dance Reviews”, in Eeva Anttila, Soili Hämäläinen, Teija Löytönen and Leena Rouhiainen (eds.), Making a Difference in Dance. Helsinki: Theatre Academy
2003 “Steps on Screen: Technoscapes, Visualization and Globalization in Dance”, in Christina Garsten and Helena Wulff (eds.), New Technologies at Work. Oxford: Berg.
2003 “The Irish Body in Motion: Moral Politics, National Identity and Dance”, in Noel Dyck and Eduardo P. Archetti (eds.), Sport, Dance and Embodied Identities. Oxford: Berg.
2003 “Steps and Stories about Ireland”, Choreographic Encounters, vol 1: 70-74.
2002 “Aesthetics at the Ballet: Looking at ´National´ Style, Body and Clothing in the London Dance World”, in Nigel Rapport (ed.), British Subjects. Oxford: Berg.
2002 “Yo-yo Fieldwork: Mobility and Time in a Multi-Local Study of Dance in Ireland”, Anthropological Journal on European Cultures, issue on Shifting Grounds: Experiments in Doing Ethnography, vol. 11: 117-136.
2001 “Dance, Anthropology of” in Neil J. Smelser and Paul B. Baltes (eds.), International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences, pp.3209-3212. Oxford: Elsevier.
2001 ”Reverberations of Riverdance: Irishness, Technology and the Global Marketplace”, in Report from 5th Nordic Dance Research Conference (NOFOD), Copenhagen, January 27-30, 2000.
1998 “Access to a Closed World: Methods for a Multi-Locale Study of Ballet as a Career”, in Vered Amit (ed.), Constructing the Field. London: Routledge.
1998 “Perspectives Toward Ballet Performance: Exploring, Repairing and Maintaining Frames”, in Felicia Hughes-Freeland (ed.), Ritual, Performance, Media. London: Routledge.
1998 “At Home Abroad: Ballet Frankfurt and the World” in Ina-Maria Greverus et al. (eds.), Frankfurt am Main: An Anthropological City Guide. Frankfurt: Kulturanthropologie Notizen.
1997 “Studying Ballet as an Ex-Native: Dialogues of Life and Field Work”, in Anne Clara Groffman et al.(eds.), Kulturanthropologinnen im Dialog. Königstein: Ulrike Helmer Verlag.
1997 “Chance and Change: Aesthetics and Work Practice at Ballet Frankfurt”, Dance Research Conference of NOFOD. Proceedings of the Conference, 13-16 November, Helsinki.
2009 “Ways of Watching: Dance Photography, Performance and Aesthetics”, in Ina-Maria Greverus and Ute Rischel (eds.), Anthropology and Aesthetics. Berlin: LIT Verlag.
2008 ”Ethereal Expression: Paradoxes of Ballet as a Global Physical Culture”, Ethnography, 9(4): 519-536.
2008 “To Know the Dancer: Formations of Fieldwork in the Ballet World”, in Narmala Halstead, Eric Hirsch and Judith Okely (eds.), Knowing How to Know. Oxford: Berghahn Books.
2006 “Experiencing the Ballet Body: Pleasure, Pain, Power” in Suzel Ana Reily (ed.), The Musical Human: Rethinking John Blacking's Ethnomusicology in the 21st Century. Aldershot: Ashgate Press.
2005 “´High Arts´and the Market: An Uneasy Partnership in the Transnational World of Ballet”, in David Inglis and John Hughson (eds.), The Sociology of Art. Basingstoke: Palgrave.
2005 “Memories in Motion: The Irish Dancing Body”, Body & Society, issue on “the dancing body”, (ed.) Bryan S. Turner, vol. 11(4): 45-62.
2004 “The Critic´s Eye: Ethics and Politics of Writing Dance Reviews”, in Eeva Anttila, Soili Hämäläinen, Teija Löytönen and Leena Rouhiainen (eds.), Making a Difference in Dance. Helsinki: Theatre Academy
2003 “Steps on Screen: Technoscapes, Visualization and Globalization in Dance”, in Christina Garsten and Helena Wulff (eds.), New Technologies at Work. Oxford: Berg.
2003 “The Irish Body in Motion: Moral Politics, National Identity and Dance”, in Noel Dyck and Eduardo P. Archetti (eds.), Sport, Dance and Embodied Identities. Oxford: Berg.
2003 “Steps and Stories about Ireland”, Choreographic Encounters, vol 1: 70-74.
2002 “Aesthetics at the Ballet: Looking at ´National´ Style, Body and Clothing in the London Dance World”, in Nigel Rapport (ed.), British Subjects. Oxford: Berg.
2002 “Yo-yo Fieldwork: Mobility and Time in a Multi-Local Study of Dance in Ireland”, Anthropological Journal on European Cultures, issue on Shifting Grounds: Experiments in Doing Ethnography, vol. 11: 117-136.
2001 “Dance, Anthropology of” in Neil J. Smelser and Paul B. Baltes (eds.), International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences, pp.3209-3212. Oxford: Elsevier.
2001 ”Reverberations of Riverdance: Irishness, Technology and the Global Marketplace”, in Report from 5th Nordic Dance Research Conference (NOFOD), Copenhagen, January 27-30, 2000.
1998 “Access to a Closed World: Methods for a Multi-Locale Study of Ballet as a Career”, in Vered Amit (ed.), Constructing the Field. London: Routledge.
1998 “Perspectives Toward Ballet Performance: Exploring, Repairing and Maintaining Frames”, in Felicia Hughes-Freeland (ed.), Ritual, Performance, Media. London: Routledge.
1998 “At Home Abroad: Ballet Frankfurt and the World” in Ina-Maria Greverus et al. (eds.), Frankfurt am Main: An Anthropological City Guide. Frankfurt: Kulturanthropologie Notizen.
1997 “Studying Ballet as an Ex-Native: Dialogues of Life and Field Work”, in Anne Clara Groffman et al.(eds.), Kulturanthropologinnen im Dialog. Königstein: Ulrike Helmer Verlag.
1997 “Chance and Change: Aesthetics and Work Practice at Ballet Frankfurt”, Dance Research Conference of NOFOD. Proceedings of the Conference, 13-16 November, Helsinki.
Helena Wulff is Editor-in-chief (with Dorle Dracklé) of Social Anthropology: Journal of the European Association of Social Anthropologists (EASA); editor (with Jonathan Skinner) of the book series ”Dance and Performance Studies”, Berghahn Books, Oxford; editorial board member of the book series ”Progress in European Ethnology”, Ashgate, London; editorial board member of the journals Cultural Sociology, Anthropological Journal on European Cultures, Culture Unbound: The Journal of Current Cultural Research; member of Nordic Visual Studies Network, and of the International Advisory Board of the Academy for Irish Cultural Heritages, University of Ulster, where she also has been a Visiting Scholar. She was member of the board of Advanced Cultural Studies Institute of Sweden (ACSIS), Linköping University, and of the Executive Committee of the EASA.