Neda Deneva holds a PhD in sociology and social anthropology from the Central European University in Budapest. Her research interests include transnational migration, labour transformations and new work regimes, citizenship and relations with the state, care work, transformations of medical practices in Eastern Europe, maternal and child health.
Neda’s dissertation is an ethnography of Bulgarian Muslims’ migration to Spain. It explores how migrants reconfigure citizenship by everyday acts, claims and struggles within EU regimes of mobility, labour and welfare. As a postdoctoral fellow at the Centre for Liberal Strategies (Sofia) and the International Research Center Work and Human Lifecylce in Global History, re: work at Humboldt University (Berlin) Neda has worked on Roma labour and care migration in the European Union and the implications of the changing meanings and realities of work on access to citizenship rights, and changing generational and care relations. She has also conducted research for international organizations like IOM, UNHCR and bordermonitoring into policy-oriented issues related to third country nationals’ and refugees’ access to integrational measures, the labour market, and health care in Bulgaria.
Her most recent research as a fellow at the Centre for Advanced Studies (Sofia) focuses on the relation between return migration of health professionals and the transformations of medical practices in the field of maternal and child health in Eastern Europe, more particularly on the role of midwives and women in the process of acquiring autonomy and responsibilization.
Currently she holds a two-year postdoctoral fellowship at Babes Bolyai University, Department of Sociology within the project: “RoTECH Strategic Cooperative Networks: Exploring the Cluj information technology networks”. Additionally, in 2018-2019 Neda will hold a postdoctoral fellowship at NEC continuing her research on maternal and child health and transformations of medical practices in Romania. Neda is teaching courses in the field of political sociology, migration and citizenship in the Department of Sociology, and in the field of maternal and child health in the Cluj School of Public Health at Babes Bolyai University.
- Transnational migration
- Labour transformations and new work regimes
- Citizenship and relations with the state
- Care work
- Transformations of medical practices in Eastern Europe
- Maternal and child health
- Bulgarian Muslims and Bulgarian Roma
Peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters:
- 2017. “Flexible Kin-Work, Flexible Migration: Aging Migrants Caught between Productive and Reproductive Labour in the European Union”, in Transnational Aging and Kin-Work, edited by Parin Dossa and Cati Coe. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University
- 2016. Book Review: Kasmir, Sharryn and August Carbonella (eds.) 2014. Blood and fire. Toward a global anthropology of labor. Social Anthropology, 24(2):261-263
- 2015. “Conflicting Meanings and Practices of Work. Bulgarian Roma as Citizens and Migrants” in Situating Migration in Transition: Temporal, Structural, and Conceptual Transformations of Migrations. Sketches from Bulgaria, Sofia: Collective for Social Interventions
- 2012. “Transnational Aging Carers: On Transformation of Kinship and Citizenship in the Context of Migration among Bulgarian Muslims in Spain.” Social Politics: International Studies in Gender, State & Society 19 (1):105–128
- 2010. (in French) “Bulgares musulmans en Espagne: la stratégie du double nom pour contourner la catégorie” [Bulgarian Muslims in Spain: the strategy of the double name for circumventing the category] in Migrations Societe 22 (128):131-144
- 2009. (in Bulgarian) “Mezhdunarodni I vatreshni migratsii: Rolyata na granicite v mobilizatsiata na mrezhi v edno rodopsko selo” [“International and internal migrations: the role of borders in network mobilisations in a Bulgarian Muslim village”] Български Фолклор [Bulgarian Folklore] 2:22-37
- 2008. “On the Margins of Two States: Flexible Self-identification Strategies of Bulgarian Muslims in Spain”, www.migrationonline.cz
- 2006. “The Role of Ethnicity in the Re-construction of the Community: Internal and International Migration in a Bulgarian Muslim Village” pp. 20-24 in Migration Processes in Central and Eastern Europe. Unpacking the Diversity. edited by Alice Szczepanikova, Marek Canek, Jan Grill. Prague: Multicultural Center Prague
Policy reports
- 2017. Migrant Integration Policy Index Health Strand. Country Repot Bulgaria. Co-author with Milen Petrov and Mariya Samuilova, developed within IOM Project “Fostering Health Provision for Migrants, the Roma and other Vulnerable Groups” (EQUI-HEALTH).
- 2015. Мобилни хора срещу статични институции, [Mobile People vs. Static Institutions] съавтор с Майя Грекова, Мила Минева и Петя Кабакчиева, София: Център за либерални стратегии и Фондация РискМонитор
- 2014. Trapped in Europe’s Quagmire: The situation of Asylum Seekers and Refugees in Bulgaria, co-authored with Tsvetelina Hristova, Raia Apostolova, and Mathias Fiedler. Research report for bordermonitoring.eu
- 2014. “Developing future scenarios of demographic, migratory and labour market processes in Bulgaria: Foresight findings” Foresight report in the framework of the project SEEMIG: Managing Migration and its Effects in SEE. Transnational Actions towards Evidence based Strategies.
- 2013. Access to Employment for Beneficiaries of International Protection in Bulgaria, Poland, Romania and Slovakia, author of the Bulgaria Country Report and Cross-country Analysis (co-authored with Dumitrita Holdis), Research report for UNHCR Regional Representation for Central Europe, Budapest
- 2013. “Bulgaria. A Country Case Study” in Migration, Employment, and Labour Market Integration Policies in the European Union, edited by Giuliana Urso and Anke Schuster. Brussels, Belgium: International Organization for Migration
Individual doctoral and postdoctoral fellowship:
- 2018/2020 Babes-Bolyai University, Department of Sociology, Postdoctoral Fellow, Project: “RoTECH Strategic Cooperative Networks: Exploring the Cluj information technology networks” PN-III-P1-1.1-TE-2016-1691
- 2018/2019 New Europe College, Bucharest, Postdoctoral Fellow. Project: “Return Migration of Health Professionals and the Transformation of Medical Practice in the Field of Maternal and Child Health: the case of Romania”
- 2018 Centre for Advanced Studies, Sofia, Postdoctoral Fellow, Project: Return Migration of Health Professionals and the Transformation of Medical Practice in the Field of Maternal and Child Health in Bulgaria
- 2016 Central European University Global Teaching Fellowship, Teaching Fellow
- 2015/2016 IGK Work and Human Lifecycle in Global History (re: work), Humboldt-University, Berlin, Postdoctoral Fellow; project: “Irregular Workers, Irregular Citizens: the Changing Meanings and Practices of Work among Bulgarian Roma in the Context of EU Labour Mobility”
- 2014/2015 Centre for Liberal Strategies, Sofia, Postdoctoral Fellow, Research Projects: “The (Im)Mobility Catch: Mobile People versus Static Institutions”, and “Poverty, Ethnicity and Welfare: a Case Study of Bulgarian Roma Migrants”
- 2010/2011, Erste Stiftung Generations in Dialogue Fellowship for Social Researchers, “Migration and its effects on demographic and economic development in CEE”, Research Fellow, Research project: “Transformations of Care, Transformations of the Family: Bulgarian Muslims between Bulgaria and Spain”
Participation in research projects:
- 2017/2019, Multicultural Center Prague (MKC) and Red House for Culture and Debate Sofia, “Towards shared interests between migrant and local workers”, Researcher, National Report (forthcoming) “All inclusive tourism and migration labour in Bulgaria” and Cross-country report on “Precarity and Social Citizenship”
- 2014, International Organization for Migration, researcher; Project:” Assessment on national policies related to migration health, addition of health strand of MIPEX.” Reseacher, Health strand questionnaire and national report on Bulgaria
- 2014, eu, Researcher, Project: “Recent changes in the conditions for asylum seekers and refugees in Bulgaria: border, detention, registration, accommodation, integration, access to the labour market”
- 2013/2014, SEEMIG: Managing Migration and its Effects in SEE. Transnational Actions towards Evidence based Strategies, Researcher, Report: “Developing future scenarios of demographic, migratory and labour market processes in Bulgaria: Foresight findings”
- 2013, UNHCR Regional Representative for Eastern Europe, Budapest, Project manager and Researcher; Project “Access to Employment in Central European Countries, with a special focus on beneficiaries of international protection in Bulgaria, Poland, Slovakia and Romania”
- 2012, IOM Independent Network of Labour Migration & Integration Experts (LINET), Researcher, Report: “2010-2011 Annual Monitoring Review on Migration, Employment and Labour Market Integration of Migrants and Access to Labour Market Information. Bulgaria”
- 2007/2008, FEDER (European Funds for Regional Development) and Ministerio de Educacio´n y Ciencia de Espana. Project: “Growing older in a context of international migration”, No. SEJ 2005–08415, Researcher, Report: “Ageing migrants among Bulgarian Muslims in Spain”
Political anthropology (opțional licență)
Political sociology (opțional licență)