Dr Maria Kastrinou
Senior Lecturer in Anthropology
- Anthropology
- Social Science and Communications
- College of Business, Arts and Social Sciences
Summary
Maria Kastrinou is a social anthropologist with fieldwork experience in South-Eastern Mediterranean, specifically in Syria, Greece, Lebanon and in the Israeli-Occupied Golan Heights. Her research critically interrogates the politics of religion, sect, state and statelessness, the political and cultural lives of refugees, and the political economy of conflict and resistance. Her monograph Power, Sect and State in Syria (I.B. Tauris 2016) is the first ethnography of the Druze minority in Syria, and one of only a handful of anthropological works about Syria. She has been engaged with projects on sectarianism, statelessness and refugees in the Middle East and she is currently working on the Druze Heritage Foundation funded research project ‘Lives across divides: Ethnographic stories from the Golan Heights.’ Experimenting between anthropology and theatre, together with Hannah Knoerk and Johannes Birringer, they formed the Hotspot Collective and created, produced and performed ‘The Price of Water’ – a political play about refugees, capitalism and the Hotspot critically engaging with Kastrinou's ethnographic work in Greece and the Middle East.
Qualifications
BA (Hons) Anthropology (Durham), PhD Anthropology (Durham)
Responsibility
Social and Political Sciences Postgraduate Research Co-Director
Anthropology Placements Convenor
Newest selected publications
Kastrinou, M., Said, S., Jarbouh, R. and Emery, S. (2025) 'Sectarianization and the state among Druze communities in Syria: Case studies of Jaramana and Golan', inSectarianism and Civil War in Syria. London : Routledge. pp. 278 - 303. ISBN 10: 1-003-55772-4. ISBN 13: 978-1-032-90379-8.
Kastrinou, M. and Knoerk, H. (2024) 'To the future guests of Lesvos: Hospitality and history among Syrian refugees in Greece'. History and Anthropology, 0 (ahead of print). pp. 1 - 16. ISSN: 0275-7206 Open Access Link
Kastrinou, M. (2023) 'Looking at ethnic cleansing in Palestine from the occupied Syrian Golan'. FocaalBlog. pp. 1 - 13. ISSN: 0920-1297 Open Access Link
Kastrinou, M., Said, S., Jarbouh, R. and Emery, SB. (2023) 'Still There: Politics, Sectarianism and the Reverberations of War in the Presences and Absences of the Syrian State'. Conflict and Society, 9 (1). pp. 147 - 166. ISSN: 2164-4543 Open Access Link
Kastrinou, M., Khalaf, SN. and Hayward, B. (2020) 'Peace and War in Hawi al-Hawa', in Khalaf, SN. (ed.) Social Change in Syria: Family, Village and Political Party. London : Routledge. pp. 291 - 318. ISBN 10: 1-003-05055-7. ISBN 13: 978-0-367-50626-1. Open Access Link