Contact details
Email:  t.g.diphoorn@uu.nl
Phone: +31302531949

Q1: What is your background and how did you come to this project?
I’m a political anthropologist, which means I’m interested in how power works in everyday life, especially around security, violence, and policing. Most of my research has been based in South Africa and Kenya, where I’ve spent years studying private security and police (mis)conduct. Along the way, I found myself spending a lot of time with people — mostly men — who carry firearms every single day. What started to fascinate me was not just what they did with their guns, but how they related to them: the attachments, routines, and meanings that formed around these powerful objects. I wanted to better understand what our relationships with firearms say about us, as individuals, and the societies we live in. One question led to another, an idea turned into a proposal, and eventually into a funded project, and so here we are.

Q2: What kind of questions drive your research?
At the most basic level, I want to better understand our relationship to firearms, as individuals and as communities. I find myself simultaneously repelled by and fascinated with this lethal object, and I’m curious about the emotions, stories, and experiences that firearms evoke and put into motion. More broadly, my work is driven by a desire to uncover the humanness in topics we often find disturbing or devastating. This doesn’t mean depoliticising or downplaying violence. Rather, it’s about taking seriously the people, practices, and meanings that exist around these phenomena, and asking what they reveal about power and belonging in contemporary life.

Q3: What are your 3 most essential fieldwork items?
My husband and our two kids 😊 I don’t often get to take them with me to the field, but seeing the world through their eyes is probably the most valuable learning experience I have. More practically speaking: my phone, my memory, and cash, because fieldwork always involves the unexpected.