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What inspires an anthropologist? For years, Dr. Tessa Diphoorn analysed private security in South Africa, studying the complex dynamic between security, authority and violence. She recently joined the Dutch podcast series “Het nachtkastje van…”, in which Studium Generale asked her what object inspires her in her research projects. 

In the , she talks about how the book In search of respect by Philippe Bourgois acted as a prime source of inspiration. For this evocative ethnography, Bourgois spend years with a Puerto Rican community in New York, looking into a world of drug addiction and violence. The book inspired Dr. Tessa Diphoorn during her research in South Africa: in a context of violence, what do people do to escape? Whom do people grant the power to protect them? To create a safe environment for them? In the podcast, she explains how she became very intrigued with those questions during her ethnographic research, in a similar way as Bourgois ‘became part’ of his research environment. In the podcast she discusses how In search of respect inspired her in so many ways. 

Similar questions are discussed on October 6, when Dr. Tessa Diphoorn speaks at the Studium Generale lecture . This talk is part of the lecture series “9/11: 20 years later” and is organised in collaboration with the Contesting Governance Research Platform (UU). After the 9/11 attacks, national intelligence and security services received extended powers to fight terrorism. At the same time, the private security industry grew exponentially. Dr. Tessa Diphoorn discusses this growth and how this has changed the way societies deal with the threat of violence, thereby questioning if this has made the world a safer place.