Biography

Ivana Bajic-Hajdukovic received her Ph.D. in Social Anthropology from University College London in 2008. Her thesis, titled “Belgrade Parents and their Migrant Children” examined the effects of massive out-migration from urban Serbia on family relationships since the fall of Yugoslavia in the early 1990s. More particularly the project was focused on three material culture genres: home interiors of parents and their emigrant adult children, exchange of gifts, food and remittances, and communication. The result of this research is a valuable insight into a less visible side of migration, that is the impact of migration on parents left behind.
Contrary to much of the existing literature on remittances, this research showed that remittances can seriously hinder relationships between close family members, such as parents and children. Consequently, it also pointed out that not enough is known about the social effects of remittances and that a more integrated dialogue between social sciences and policy makers working in the field of migration and remittances is needed.
Ivana has been a teaching assistant and a research associate at the Department of Anthropology at University College London between October 2007 and June 2009. During this period she has been co-teaching Introduction to Social Anthropology, Introduction to Material Culture, and an Individual Studies course which involved helping students with their final year dissertations.
A chapter in an edited book published by Berg, Oxford, is scheduled to come out in October 2009. At the moment an article on remittances is being reviewed for publication in the Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute. In addition to this Ivana is currently working on a book manuscript with a working title “Death of Motherhood: The Parental Cost of Their Children’s Migration”.