Making Honey- Making Identity

Ethnographic research project conducted at the Department of European Ethnology at the University of Vienna, under the supervision of Brigitta Schmidt-Lauber (Universität Wien) and Gisela Welz (Goethe-Universität Frankfurt). The project was funded by a doctoral fellowship (Doc-Fellowship) from the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW) between 2018 and 2021. In 2021, the project was awarded the prestigious Theodor Körner Prize, and in 2024, it received the Grete Mostny Preis. An abstract engraved on porcelain is currently preserved in the Memory of Mankind Archive in the Hallstatt mines.

 

The research aimed to analyze how the notion of "Sardinianness" is conceived and negotiated in the field of beekeeping in Sardinia. The multispecies approach allowed me to consider bees and the environment as participants in the research. Their agency emerged as "gatekeepers" for beekeepers. I introduced the notion of the Human-Bee-Environment relationship to better observe the interdependence between humans, the environment, and bees, which underlies how Sardinian beekeepers interpret their Sardinian identity. Methodologically, I employed visual ethnography techniques, including filming and drawing.

 

The thesis was successfully defended in 2023 and is freely accessible in the University of Vienna's repository (here).

 

Much of the film material produced during this work is available on my Vimeo profile.