My main research areas are identity, power, language, knowledge production, international migration, and ethnic relations.

From 1987 and throughout the 1990s, my research was concentrated on the Arab Gulf region, more specifically Kuwait. I looked into the following aspects of Kuwaiti society: labour migration, ethnic relations between Kuwaitis and migrants, characterized by power and submission; the social position of women; the formation of Kuwaiti self-image and national identity; the ambivalent category of ‘Bedouin’; and the conceptualization of citizenship and democracy in a society shaped by labour migration, a rentier economy, a uniquely generous welfare state, and a cultural tradition based on Islam and tribalism.

In 2003 the focus of my research shifted from ethnic pluralism in Kuwait to religious pluralism in Lebanon. The main research question here is what accounts for the durability of Lebanese everyday (as opposed to political) confessionalism. I use an approach which looks upon confessional identity as the result of a special type of knowledge production deriving from two key institutions, the family and the school. Two additional variables in my analysis are the state and civil society. Fieldwork in Lebanon is carried out in Beirut, mainly among Maronite and Greek Orthodox Christians .

Alongside my ongoing research in Lebanon, I initiated in 2012 a project titled ‘Terms of reference and address and notions of personhood’. Central in this project is the hypothesis that notions of individuality and personhood are closely related to linguistic structure, in particular the use of personal pronouns. If self-awareness hinges on the use of I – a Cartesian principle still widely held -  what effect does this pronoun’s quasi-absence in the Vietnamese language have on the Vietnamese speakers? In the initial phase of the research, fieldwork is conducted in Southern California where the largest Vietnamese diaspora is located.

F-2011, F-2012: Anthropological research methodology and theory development (SANT 301)

S-2011, S-2012: Comparative regional ethnography (SANT 215)

S-2006, S-2008, F-2009: State, culture, identity (SANT 205)

S-2007, S-2008, S-2009: History of anthropology and theory development (SANT 201)

F-2006, F-2008: Introduction to Anthropology (SANT 101)

F- 2005: Anthropological research methodology and theory development (SANT 301)

Academic article

• Anh Nga Longva (2002). The apostasy law in Kuwait and the liberal predicament. (external link)
• Anh Nga Longva (2001). Når hverdagslivet blir feltarbeid: erfaring og antropologisk kunnskap. (external link)
• Anh Nga Longva (2006). Nationalism in pre-modern guise: The discourse on Hadhar and Badu in Kuwait. (external link)
• Anh Nga Longva (1997). Current debates on the construction of culture: How to make the anthro pological concept fit a contemporary world. (external link)
• Anh Nga Longva (2003). Nordmenn, høflighet og kunsten å omgås fremmede. (external link)
• Anh Nga Longva (2003). Introduksjon: "Non-native" antropologer om Norge. (external link)
• Anh Nga Longva (1995). Between the exotic and the objectionable:anthropology in a world of bl urred contrasts. (external link)
• Anh Nga Longva (1999). Keeping migrant workers in check: the kafala system in the Gulf. (external link)
• Anh Nga Longva (2003). The trouble with difference: gender, ethnicity and Norwegian social democracy. (external link)
• Anh Nga Longva (1997). Kuwaiti Women at a Crossroads: Privileged Development and the Constrai nts of Ethniv Stratification. (external link)

Conference lecture

• Anh Nga Longva (2000). Apostasy,civil death and the liberal predicament. (external link)
• Anh Nga Longva (2001). The apostasy law in the Middle East and the liberal predicament. (external link)
• Anh Nga Longva (2000). The patriarchal face of the nation-state: women in citizenship laws. (external link)
• Anh Nga Longva (2001). The trouble with difference: Gender, ethnicity and Norwegian social democracy. (external link)
• Anh Nga Longva (2004). The public sphere, legitimacy and recognition in Kuwait. (external link)
• Anh Nga Longva (2002). The Asianization of the Gulf. (external link)
• Anh Nga Longva (2000). Apostasy,civil death and the liberal predicament. (external link)
• Anh Nga Longva (2001). Neither autocracy nor democracy but ethnocracy: citizens, expatriates and the socio-political system in Kuwait. (external link)
• Anh Nga Longva (2004). The linguistic dimension of sectarian identity in Lebanon. (external link)
• Anh Nga Longva (2004). Gramsci in Lebanon: hegemony, civil society and the weak state. (external link)
• Anh-Nga Longva (2012). Unspeakable'I', unspeakable 'you': pronoun avoidance, self hood, and the construction of the Vietnamese social world. (external link)
• Anh Nga Longva (2000). Likhetstankegang og Multikulturalisme. (external link)
• Anh Nga Longva (2004). City planning along ethnic lines: some consequences on the public sphere in Kuwait. (external link)
• Anh Nga Longva (1999). Hadhar and Badu in Kuwait: modern statehood, Western-styled politics and the reinvention of tradition. (external link)

Master’s thesis

• Amalie Tveit; Anh Nga Longva (2016). Kaldt ute, men varmt inne. En studie av sosialitet i Longyearbyen. (external link)
• Ane Mengshoel Brorstad; Anh Nga Longva (2006). What`s up Dawg! En analyse av identitetskonstruksjon blant unge somaliske menn i Norge. (external link)
• Anh Nga Longva; Magni Skutle (2007). Arbeid over grenser. Sosiale og faglige relasjoner i et fleretnisk arbeidsmiljø. (external link)
• Marte Halsør; Anh-Nga Longva (2012). Is the 'New Man' dead? Tourism, self-perception and relative deprivation in Cuba. (external link)
• Kajsa Catharine Amundsen; Anh Nga Longva (2016). Fordi slik er tradisjonene våre: En etnografisk studie av tradisjon, endring og agens blant kvinner i innlandet av Oman.. (external link)
• Silje Heltne; Anh Nga Longva (2014). Rebel, rebel. Kvinner i Kairos liv og møte med seksuell trakassering of overgrep. (external link)
• Sarah Nathalie Endresen; Anh Nga Longva (2011). "I feel my identity is being used against my will" - Israelske fredsaktivister og kampen mot det nasjonale narrativ. (external link)
• Ellen Seljestokken; Anh Nga Longva (2016). Innenfor og utenfor i Frankrike. Sosiale og byråkratiske utfordringer for maghrebinske muslimer i interetniske forhold. (external link)
• Hanne Louise Løvgren Svane; Anh Nga Longva (2007). The custom will probably never die out?Shan tatoveringspraksis i møte med moderne thai identitet. (external link)
• Ida Berg Slang; Anh Nga Longva (2008). Pass og citadell: franskbruk i Tunis. (external link)
• Annicken Lundegård; Anh Nga Longva (2010). "Palestine Is Everything: My Homeland, My Religion, My Tradition. Without It I Am a Refugee". Drømmen om retur blant palestinske flyktninger i Rashediyeh, Sør-Libanon. (external link)
• Anh Nga Longva; Pehag Zomorodi (2007). Til kulturen skiller oss ad. En studie av skillsmisse blant pakistanske kvinner i Norge. (external link)
• Mary Stien Rørdal; Anh Nga Longva (2011). Å ta det beste fra to kulturer - En studie av tamilenes hverdagsliv i Bergen. (external link)
• Silje Fjelberg Opsvik; Anh Nga Longva (2008). Kjønnslikestilling. En grense mellom "oss" og "dem"?. (external link)
• Kjersti Simonsen; Anh Nga Longva (2018). "I love my country, but it needs to change": An ethnography of defiance, public space, and migration among young middle-class women in Tehran, Iran. (external link)
• Maria Olson Holme; Anh Nga Longva (2010). Forestillinger om alderdom. En studie av eldre mennesker i det norske samfunnet og samfunnets forestillinger om dem. (external link)
• Anh Nga Longva; Sigrun Espe (2007). Education and Revitalisation.The role of bilingual education in processes of ethnic revitalisation in the Ecuardorian highlands. (external link)
• Gudmund Ågotnes; Anh Nga Longva (2005). To be or not to be. Om strategier for overlevelse, maktkamp og vennskap i et kostskolehus. (external link)
• Ragna Hansen-Krone; Anh Nga Longva (2009). Kvinners liv og hverdag i Damaskus. (external link)
• Even Nord Rydningen; Anh Nga Longva (2009). Kryssende lojaliteter, konkurrerende autoriteter: Stat, stamme, religion og nasjon blant kurdere i syriske Jazeera. (external link)

Lecture

• Anh Nga Longva (1998). Demokrati i Norge: en hindring for multikulturalisme?. (external link)
• Anh Nga Longva (1998). Apostasy or the problem with liberal democracy. (external link)
• Anh Nga Longva (1998). The apostasy law in the age of human rights and citizenship: some legal and political implications. (external link)

Academic book chapter

• Anh Nga Longva (1997). Kuwaiti Women at a Crossroads: Privileged Development and the Constraints of Ethniv Stratification. (external link)
• Anh Nga Longva (2012). Introduction. (external link)
• Anh Nga Longva (2012). From the Dhimma to the Capitulations: Memory and Experience of Protection in Lebanon. (external link)
• Anh Nga Longva (2018). The state? What state? State, confessionalism and civil society in Lebanon. (external link)

Book anthology

• Anh Nga Longva; Anne Sofie Roald (2012). Religious Minorities in the Middle East: Domination, Self-Empowerment, Accommodation. (external link)

Media interview

• Anh Nga Longva; Hilde Bjørhovde (2004). Ekspert blikk på nordmenn. (external link)
• Anh Nga Longva; Karen Mortensen (2004). Uhøflige, vi?. (external link)
• Anh Nga Longva; Merete Holtan (2004). "Barn mangler folkeskikk" - hva ville du gjort?. (external link)

Popular science article

• Anh Nga Longva (2003). Reforms in Bahrain: democratization or the strengthening of autocracy through liberalization?. (external link)

Non-fiction monograph

• Anh Nga Longva (1997). Walls Built on Sand: Migration, Exclusion, and Sosiety in Kuwait. (external link)

Journal review

• Anh Nga Longva (2002). Bokanmeldelse. "Sand i maskineriet. Makt og demokrati i det flerkulturelle Norge". Grete Brochman, Tordis Borchgrevink og Jon Rogstad. (external link)

See a complete overview of publications in Cristin.

Monograph
1997. Walls Built on Sand - Migration, Exclusion and Society in Kuwait. Boulder: Westview Press.

Edited book
[edited with Anne Sofie Roald] 2011 Religious Minorities in the Middle East. Domination, Self-Empowerment, Accommodation. In the series "Social, Economic and Political Studies of the Middle East and Asia". Leiden: Brill, p. 370.



Chapters in anthologies
[Forthcoming] "Everyday confessionalism in Lebanon or when the state surrenders to civil society”, i Bruce Kapferer (red.) Transmutations of Power in Contemporary Global Realities.

2011a. From the Dhimma to the Capitulations: Memory and Experience of Protection in Lebanon, in Anh Nga Longva and Anne Sofie Roald (eds) Religious Minorities in the Middle East. Domination, Self-Empowerment, Accommodation. In the series "Social, Economic and Political Studies of the Middle East and Asia". Leiden: Brill.

2011b. Introduction: Domination, Self-empowerment, Accommodation, in Anh Nga Longva and Anne Sofie Roald (eds) Religious Minorities in the Middle East. Domination, Self-Empowerment, Accommodation. In the series "Social, Economic and Political Studies of the Middle East and Asia". Leiden: Brill.

2005. Neither autocracy nor democracy but ethnocracy: Citizens, expatriates, and the socio-political regime in Kuwait, in Monarchies and Nations - Globalisation and Identity in the Arab States of the Gulf. Paul Dresch and James Piscatori (eds). London: I.B.Tauris, pp. 114-135.

2000. Citizenship in the Gulf States: Conceptualization and Practice, in Citizenship and the State in the Middle East. N.A. Butenschön, U.Davis, and M. Hassassian (eds). Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, pp. 179-200.

1992. Etnisk organisering blant vietnamesiske flyktninger, i Felleskap til besvær? Om nyere innvandring til Norge. Long Litt Woon (ed.). Oslo: Universitetsforlaget, pp. 54-66.

Articles in journals
2006. Nationalism in pre-modern guise: The discourse on hadhar and badu in Kuwait. International Journal of Middle East Studies, 38 (2): 171-187.

2003a. Nordmenn, høflighet og kunsten å omgås fremmede. Norsk Antropologisk Tidskrift, 14(1): 16-25.

2003b. The trouble with difference: Gender, ethnicity, and Norwegian social democracy. The Multicultural Challenge. Comparative Social Research, 22: 154-176

2002. The apostasy law in Kuwait and the liberal predicament. Cultural Dynamics, 14 (3): 257-282.

2001. Når hverdagslivet blir feltarbeid: fra erfaring til antropologisk kunnskap. Norsk Antropologisk Tidskrift, 12 (1-2): 85-93.

1995. Citizenship, identity and the question of supreme loyalty: the
case of Kuwait". Forum for Development Studies, 2: 197-219

1993. Kuwaiti women at a crossroads: Privileged development and the constraints of ethnic stratification. International Journal of Middle East Studies, 25 (3): 443-456.

Book reviews, shorter debate pieces
2003. Reforms in Bahrain: Democratization or the strengthening of
autocracy through liberalization? Babylon, 1: 52-59.

2002. "Sand i maskineriet: makt og demokrati i det flerkulturelle Norge" (book review). Norsk Antropologisk Tidskrift, 4: 250-252.

1999. Keeping migrants in check. MERIP (Middle East Research and Information Project): 211.

 

Completed projects:

1987-1994: Kuwait and its migrant workers

1994 - 2002: Development without tears, democracy without meaning? A comparison between Kuwait and Bahrain (Norwegian Research Council).

2002 - 2005: The city and the public sphere in the Middle East (Social Science Research Council)

2005 - 2008: Contrasting identity politics: the Maronite and the Greek Orthodox communities in Lebanon (Global Moments in the Levant- program).

2003-2010: The state and the challenge of primordial loyalties (Challenging the State-progam).

2009-2011: Memory and experience of protection among Maronites and Greek Orthodox in Lebanon (Power and Powerlessness-program. UiB, CMI, IREMAM)


On-going projects:
2003 -  : Confessional identity and knowledge production in Lebanon

2012-  : Terms of reference and address and notions of personhood among Vietnamese.