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Identity Sovereignty

Bart Klem

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Welcome

and thank you for visiting.

My work

is focused on question of political order amidst and after civil war. My main interest lies with societies that strive to become sovereign and independent, but which are not recognised as such. Much of my work concerns the Tamil nationalist movement in Sri Lanka, but I have also started working on the de facto state the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (see project page).

I currently work as an associate professor at the School of Global Studies, Gothenburg University (more under about). You may also find me on Researchgate and Orcid.

Book on Tamil nationalism

My book “Performing Sovereign Aspirations: Tamil Insurgency and Postwar Transition in Sri Lanka” is coming out with Cambridge University Press.

It adopts a performative perspective to grapple with the analytical and normative tensions and contradictions around separatism. Find more details here.

A visual snapshot of Northern Sri Lanka

This is short film about a theatre festival in Jaffna, Sri Lanka, was shot in 2003, a time of an unstable ceasefire. It no longer really reflects my current work, but it provides an illustration of hopes for reconciliation, ethnic diversity and lingering nationalism.

For the Dutch version (“Kinderspel”) please click here.