Septembre 2026 à Juin 2027
La résidence de Giacomo Mantovan s'inscrit dans le cadre des résidences FIAS.
Giacomo Mantovan holds a PhD in Social Anthropology from EHESS and is a researcher at the Centre for Research in Anthropology (CRIA) at ISCTE-IUL in Lisbon. He has been a visiting researcher at Stanford University and the University of Edinburgh, as well as a researcher at the International Institute for Asian Studies.
An anthropologist specialising in social conflicts and political activism, his research focuses on experiences of participation in armed and non-armed movements. His work explores life trajectories, the memory of conflicts, and narratives of defeat and exile. He also examines how institutions shape individuals and give rise to new social groups and political subjectivities through mechanisms of coercion, discipline and normalisation, as well as through collective narratives, nationalist imaginaries and moral frameworks.
After studying these questions in the context of the Sri Lankan civil war and the Tamil diaspora, his research has recently turned towards oceanic environments. Through the study of environmental conflicts related to overfishing and forms of care for non-human living beings, he explores how marine environments contribute to the co-production of forms of activism and political engagement.
Edge of the Blue: Conflict, Ecologies, and the Making of Oceanic Worlds
This project focuses on the maritime campaigns of Sea Shepherd, an environmental NGO known for its use of direct action to protect endangered marine species and combat illegal fishing. Based on ethnographic research conducted aboard Sea Shepherd vessels, it examines encounters and conflicts with illegal fishing actors, as well as the interactions with and forms of care developed towards non-human forms of life at sea.
The project explores how the marine environment—including maritime law, non-human animals, sea poachers, and the vessel itself—shapes activists’ experiences and influences their forms of engagement, collective practices, and political subjectivities. It also examines the organisation of activism at sea by looking at the differentiation of roles, training processes, and forms of collective work. These practices unfold within a legal and political context marked by uncertainty, in which the boundaries between legality and illegality remain fluid and shape both organisational strategies and everyday actions.
Rather than considering the sea as a mere backdrop to political action, the project shows that oceanic environments actively contribute to the co-production of forms of activism and political engagement. Organisations operating at sea must adapt to an unstable multispecies environment characterised by material forces, non-human actors, and shifting legal regimes. In this context, political action emerges from the interplay between environmental conditions, legal ambiguities, and activist practices.
Mantovan, Giacomo, 2026, The Afterlives of Tamil Tigers. Fighters’ Memory of War and Survival, NewYork/Oxford, Berghahn Books.
Mantovan, Giacomo, 2025, “‘The Great Heroes’ Day is much holier for us than religion’: The commemoration of martyrs in post-war Tamil communities”, Religion,
Mantovan, Giacomo, 2023, “Becoming a Fearless Tiger: The Social Conditions for the Production of LTTE Fighters”, Conflict and Society 9 (1), p. 37–54.
Mantovan, Giacomo and Guyot, Lola 2023, “‘Un dieu ne peut pas mourir’. Enjeux des divergences dans les récits sur la défaite des LTTE”, Critique Internationale 101(4), p. 77–98.
Mantovan, Giacomo, and Baussant, Michèle. (eds), 2022, “One Thousand and One Defeats: An Anthropology of the Vanquished”, Condition humaine/Conditions politiques. Revue internationale d’anthropologie du Politique 4.
Mantovan, Giacomo, 2018, “A ‘Tactical’ Use of Collective History: The Construction and Certification of Truth in Life Accounts for Sri Lankan Tamil Asylum Application in France”, Contemporary South Asia, 26 (2), p. 221-237.
