Professional Affiliation

PhD Candidate, University of Michigan Ann Arbor

Expert Bio

Elana Resnick is a PhD Candidate at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor and will be a Weatherhead Fellow at the School for Advanced Research, Santa Fe for the 2014-2015 academic year.  Elana has published in the Anthropology of East Europe Review and Collaborative Anthropologies on previous fieldwork in Bulgaria.  She is currently writing her dissertation on waste management in Bulgaria, based on three years of intensive ethnographic research funded by Fulbright-Hays, the Wenner-Gren Foundation, the American Research Center in Sofia, the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and Andrew Mellon Foundation/Council for European Studies.

Wilson Center Project

"Waste, Work and Transformation in an Expanding European Union"

Project Summary

Through analyses of waste management in Bulgaria, this research explores European integration, new environmental policies, and their impact on Europe’s poorest citizens: the Roma. Ethnographic data shows that market expansion and environmental sustainability efforts come into direct conflict with EU-incentivized Roma integration policy in serious and unexpected ways. This work shows how EU policy affects people on the ground, from Romani garbage workers to NGO leaders and consultants to local politicians.

Major Publications

“The Unintentional Activist: Questions of Action, Activism, and Accountability” in Collaborative Anthropologies, Volume 3 (December 2010)

“Transnational Affiliations, Local Articulations: Consumption and Romani Publics in Bulgaria” in Anthropology of East Europe Review, 27 (2) (Fall 2009)