Since June 2016, Nora Horisberger is a PhD in the DFG funded DELTA project in the department of Social and Cultural Anthropology at University of Cologne. Her research focuses on the Parnaíba Delta in Brazil.

Nora previously studied biology and social anthropology at the University of Neuchâtel (CH). In October 2015, Nora completed her master’s degree in “Environment: Dynamics of Territories and Society” with a specialization in environmental anthropology at the National Museum of Natural History in Paris. For her master thesis, she conducted ethnographic fieldwork in riverine villages in the Maranhão Lowlands, Northeast of Brazil. Her research focused on the relationship between ribeirinhos and the fluctuating dynamics of their environment. 

On one hand, the GSSC helps me to build up a larger network. I met interesting people working in related areas – including my second supervisor - at the GSSC conferences and other events they organized. On the other hand, for the organization of our own project workshops we got financial support as well as organizational advices. 

This PhD project explores the relationship between delta dwellers (Portuguese-speaking peasants of mixed descent) and the more-than-human world in the Parnaíba Delta in Brazil. The Parnaíba Delta is a complex amphibious river-land-sea interface. Everyday life is marked by continuous and sometimes highly volatile changes of the landscape. For instance, through movements of water (tides, rain, river) but also sand, sediments and silt, new land appears in some parts, while in other part it is washed away, temporarily flooded or buried by sand. My dissertation project, inspired in particular by approaches of multispecies ethnography and rhythmanalysis, explores, through ethnographic fieldwork, delta dweller’s practices and narratives around hydrosociality, belonging and creativity. The project deals critically with approaches that regard landscapes as a passive and stable background. Instead, non-human beings (e.g. plants, fish, crustaceans) and matter (e.g. water, sand, and silt) are seen as active participants who co-shape social worlds. On one hand, the project focusses on how delta dwellers attend to these rhythms, for instance through an adjustment of activities, and how they co-shape rhythms through their practices. On the other hand, it explores how hydrosocial change is experienced in a highly fluctuating environment and how this relates to space and time perception. For instance, it addresses the question of how the constant wiping out of traces of past activities relates to social memory and identity of delta dwellers.