Roman Szorad, MA
Researcher

Roman Szorad, MA
Researcher

Roman studied Social and Cultural Anthropology at the University of Vienna and Sociology at Charles University, Prague. His master’s thesis explored state forestry through historically informed ethnographic fieldwork in rural Slovakia. The work shed light on mutually entangled processes of de- and re-valuation of state foresters’ work and, simultaneously, on different value forms re-negotiated within and beyond present-day forest politics. Roman is a PhD candidate in the doc.funds project  “The Dynamics of Change and Logics of Transformation: State, Society, and Economy at Critical Junctures”.

Research Interests:

  • Anthropology of the State
  • Care
  • Values and Moralities
  • Socio-Economic Inequalities and Difference
  • "Post"-Socialist Transformations

Current Research Project:

Transforming the State through Social Work in Burgas, Bulgaria

Roman's PhD project ethnographically investigates social work practices and relations with the aim of understanding (relational) state transformations in Burgas, Bulgaria. It focuses primarily on social workers-in-training within both state and non-state domains to explore learned expertise as a situated, contested practice, leading to particular re-productions of "the state" as a relational and processual entity. Morally-laden negotiations of deservingness, needs and obligations as central elements of the social services provision for state citizens are crucial to grasp these "transformative" processes and their broader consequences. Relatedly, the production of difference and exclusion (rather than solely positive inclusion) through such care practices is observed to gain nuanced insights into possible non-linear state constellations.