Team > Dr. Nasima Selim
Dr. Nasima Selim
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
Social and Cultural Anthropology
Dr. Nasima Selim is is an interdisciplinary scholar trained in medicine, public health and anthropology. She is a breathworker, writer, researcher, and educator currently working as a postdoctoral research associate of anthropology at the University of Bayreuth and a visiting researcher at the James P Grant School of Public Health, Brac University. Her work intersects critical global and planetary health, medical, environmental, and public anthropology, and the anthropology of Islam.
Dr. Selim’s breathing-related publications include her recent book Breathing Hearts: Sufism, Healing, and Anti-Muslim Racism in Germany (Berghahn, 2024), The Politics of Breathing Troubles in Covid-19 (Medicine Anthropology Theory, 2022), and Companions of Breath for Planetary Health (Resilience, forthcoming). Her current research project is titled "Breathability: The Politics and Poetics of Respiration in/across South Asia and Western Europe”. She has offered lecture performances about breathing in Berlin (“Who has the Right to Breathe? Companions of Breath – A Tale of Two Trees” at Savvy Contemporary, 2022; “Sufi Breathwork and the Sounds of Islam” at Martin-Gropius Bau, 2023).
Dr. Selim is a founding member of the Bangladesh Mental Health Network, a lifetime member of the Public Health Association of Bangladesh, a founding member of the working group Public Anthropology, a member of the working groups Anti-Racism and Medical Anthropology of the German Anthropological Association, and a member of the European Association of Social Anthropologists.
Instagram @nasima_selim Personal website: https://nasimaselim.com/
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
Social and Cultural Anthropology
CURRENT RESEARCH PROJECT
Breathability in Dhaka: The Politics of Respiration and Biosocial Justice in South Asia
RESEARCH/TEACHING INTERESTS
- Medical Anthropology and Global Health
- Public and Applied Anthropology
- Politics and Poetics of Breathing
- Anthropology of Islam and Sufism
- Postsecular and Postcolonial Theory
- Ethnographic Methods and Creative Writing
REGIONAL INTERESTS
South Asia (India and Bangladesh) and Western Europe (Germany and the Netherlands)
FORTHCOMING PUBLICATIONS
- Selim, Nasima. “Breathing Hearts: Sufism, Healing, and Anti-Muslim Racism in Berlin.” New York: Berghahn, forthcoming.
- Selim, Nasima. "The Companions of Breath for Planetary Health: Vegetal Lessons from Plants and the Botanical City." Resilience: A Journal of the Environmental Humanities, forthcoming.
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
Social and Cultural Anthropology
Publications
2022
Selim, Nasima
The Politics of Breathing Troubles in COVID-19 : Pandemic Inequalities and the Right to Breathe ...
in Medicine Anthropology Theory volume 9 (2022) issue 3. - page 1-15
doi:10.17157/mat.9.3.5750 ...
2021
Selim, Nasima
Pandemic Affects, Planetary Specters, and the Precarious Everyday : Encountering COVID-19 as a ...
in Medizinethnologie : Körper, Gesundheit und Heilung in einer globalisierten Welt
11. Februar 2021
https://www.medizinethnologie.net/pandemic-affects ...
Willen, Sarah S.; Selim, Nasima; Mendenhall, Emily; Magaña Lopez, Miriam; Chowdhury, Shahanoor Akter; Dilger, Hansjörg
Flourishing : migration and health in social context
in BMJ Global Health volume 6 (2021) issue Suppl 1
doi:10.1136/bmjgh-2021-005108 ...
2020
Selim, Nasima; Albrecht, Judith
In Solidarity with #BlackLivesMatter and Call for Dismantling Structural Racism in Germany : Pu ...
in Public Anthropologist
21. Juni 2020
https://publicanthropologist.cmi.no/2020/06/21/in- ...
Kasmani, Omar; Selim, Nasima; Dilger, Hansjörg; Mattes, Dominik
Introduction : Elsewhere Affects and the Politics of Engagement across Religious Life-Worlds
in Religion and Society volume 11 (2020) issue 1. - page 92-104
doi:10.3167/arrs.2020.110107 ...
Selim, Nasima
Learning the Elsewhere of "Inner Space" : The Affective Pedagogy of Post-Secular Sufi Healing i ...
in Religion and Society volume 11 (2020) issue 1. - page 105-119
doi:10.3167/arrs.2020.110108 ...
Selim, Nasima
Letter from the (un)seen virus : (post)humanist perspective in corona times
in Social Anthropology volume 28 (2020) issue 2. - page 353-355
doi:10.1111/1469-8676.12851 ...
Selim, Nasima; Trestikova, Jana; Muhamad, Nazli
Mehr als Deutsch = More than German
in Encounter Begegnung volume 2 (2020) . - page 6-8
2019
Selim, Nasima
reviewed by: Basu, Helene ; Littlewood, Roland ; Steinforth, Arne S. (Eds.): Spirit & Mind : Mental health a ...
in Medicine Anthropology Theory volume 6 (2019) issue 2. - page 138-141
doi:10.17157/mat.6.2.721 ...
2019
Selim, Nasima
Learning the ways of the heart in Berlin : Sufism, anthropology, and the post-secular condition
Berlin, 2019
(dissertation, ,
)
2018
Selim, Nasima
reviewed by: Transfiguring Psychoanalysis and Culture
in Medizinethnologie : Körper, Gesundheit und Heilung in einer globalisierten Welt (2018)
https://www.medizinethnologie.net/psychoanalysis-i ...
reviewed: Kumar, Manasi ; Dhar, Anup ; Mishra, Anurag (Eds.): Psychoanalysis from the Indian Terroir : Emerging Themes in Culture, Family, and Childhood
Stodulka, Thomas; Selim, Nasima; Mattes, Dominik
Affective Scholarship : Doing Anthropology with Epistemic Affects
in Ethos volume 46 (2018) issue 4. - page 519-536
doi:10.1111/etho.12219 ...
Selim, Nasima; Abdalla, Mustafa; Alloulou, Lilas; Halli, Mohamed Alaedden; Holmes, Seth M.; Ibiß, Maria; Jaschke, Gabi; Martín, Johanna Gonçalves
Coming Together in the So-Called Refugee Crisis : A Collaboration Among Refugee Newcomers, Migr ...
in Anthropology in Action volume 25 (2018) issue 3. - page 34-44
doi:10.3167/aia.2018.250304 ...
2017
Dohrn, Kristina; Rutert, Britta; Schühle, Judith; Selim, Nasima; von Vacano, Mechthild
Weaving the World in Conversation with Paul Stoller : From Sensuous Scholarship to Public Anthr ...
in Medizinethnologie : Körper, Gesundheit und Heilung in einer globalisierten Welt
24. April 2017
https://www.medizinethnologie.net/weaving-the-worl ...
Selim, Nasima; Knote, Lotte
An Anthropological Becoming
2016
2015
Selim, Nasima
Healing the City : Sufi Prayers in Berlin's Towers
in Medizinethnologie : Körper, Gesundheit und Heilung in einer globalisierten Welt
26. Mai 2015
https://www.medizinethnologie.net/sufi-prayers-in- ...
Selim, Nasima
Mental health care
Bangladesh Health System Review
Geneva : World Health Organization, 2015. - page 120-122 . - (Health Systems in Transition; 5,3)
https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/2 ...
Selim, Nasima
Sufi Body Practices and Therapeutic Politics in Berlin
Somatisierung des Religiösen : Empirische Studien zum rezenten religiösen Heilungs- und Therapiemarkt
Bremen : Universität Bremen, 2015. - page 237-281 . - (Veröffentlichungen des Instituts für Religionswissenschaft und Religionspädagogik; 7)
https://media.suub.uni-bremen.de/handle/elib/3085
2014
Selim, Nasima
reviewed by: Callan, Alyson: Patients and agents : Mental illness, modernity and Islam in Sylhet, Bangladesh ...
in Medicine Anthropology Theory volume 1 (2014) issue 1. - page 213-214
doi:10.17157/mat.1.1.230 ...
Hasan, Tanvir; Muhaddes, Tisa; Camellia, Suborna; Selim, Nasima; Rashid, Sabina Faiz
Prevalence and Experiences of Intimate Partner Violence Against Women With Disabilities in Bang ...
in Journal of Interpersonal Violence volume 29 (2014) issue 17. - page 3105-3126
doi:10.1177/0886260514534525 ...
Selim, Nasima
What does sitting have to do with the self? Body techniques, personhood and well-being in Vipas ...
Medical Anthropology : Essays and Reflections from an Amsterdam Graduate Programme
Diemen : AMB, 2014. - page 265-282
2011
Selim, Nasima
Doing Body, Doing Mind, Doing Self : Vipassana Meditation in Everyday Life
Amsterdam, 2011. - 104 page
http://amma.socsci.uva.nl/theses/selim.pdf
(master's thesis, ,
)
Selim, Nasima
Friendship (and healing) in the "intersubjectivity of silence" : A case illustration
Roads and boundaries : travels in search of (re)connection
Diemen : AMB, 2011. - page 195-206
Goudet, Sophie M.; Griffiths, Paula L.; Bogin, Barry A.; Selim, Nasima
Impact of flooding on feeding practices of infants and young children in Dhaka, Bangladesh Slum ...
in Maternal & Child Nutrition volume 7 (2011) issue 2. - page 198-214
doi:10.1111/j.1740-8709.2010.00250.x ...
Mann, Anna; Mol, Annemarie; Satalkar, Priya; Savirani, Amalinda; Selim, Nasima; Sur, Malini; Yates-Doerr, Emily
Mixing methods, tasting fingers : Notes on an ethnographic experiment
in HAU : Journal of Ethnographic Theory volume 1 (2011) issue 1. - page 221-243
doi:10.14318/hau1.1.009 ...
2010
Selim, Nasima
Cultural Dimensions of Depression in Bangladesh : A Qualitative Study in Two Villages of Matlab
in Journal of Health, Population and Nutrition volume 28 (2010) issue 1. - page 95-106
doi:10.3329/jhpn.v28i1.4528 ...
2008
Daily health concerns in Kakabo : Anthropological explorations in a Bangladeshi village
publ: van der Geest, Sjaak; Selim, Nasima; Zaman, Shahaduz
Dhaka : James P Grant School of Public Health, BRAC University, 2008
https://pure.uva.nl/ws/files/4304715/66437_306012. ...
van der Geest, Sjaak; Selim, Nasima
Introduction
Daily health concerns in Kakabo : Anthropological explorations in a Bangladeshi village
Dhaka : James P Grant School of Public Health, BRAC University, 2008. - page 11-14
https://pure.uva.nl/ws/files/4304715/66437_306012. ...
Selim, Nasima; Satalkar, Priya
Perceptions of mental illness in a Bangladesh village
in BRAC University Journal volume 5 (2008) issue 1. - page 47-57
http://dspace.bracu.ac.bd/bitstream/handle/10361/4 ...
2006
Choudhury, S. R.; Mullick, M. S. I.; Rahman, S.; Selim, Nasima; Huq, Nafisa
Psychiatric Morbidity in the Cardiac Emergency Set-Up
in Sir Salimullah Medical College Journal volume 14 (2006) issue 2. - page 86-91
2002
Selim, Nasima
The Man who would Marry God : A Case of Schizophrenia with Bizarre Delusion
in Bangladesh Journal of Psychiatry volume 16 (2002) issue 1. - page 48-54
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
Social and Cultural Anthropology
Dr. Nasima Selim
Senior Research Associate
University of Bayreuth
Building: GW II, Room: 00.21
Universitätsstraße 30
D-95447 Bayreuth
Phone: +49 (0)921 / 55-4169
E-mail: nasima.selim@uni-bayreuth.de
Twitter @NasimaSelim, @AGPublicAnthro