Professor Sonja Van Wichelen
PhD University of Amsterdam
Professor of Anthropology and Sociology
Deputy-Director Sydney Southeast Asia Centre
Sonja van Wichelen is Professor of Anthropology and Sociology in the School of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Sydney. Her research takes place on the cross-disciplinary node of law, life, and science in a globalizing world. At the moment she is working on the postcolonial politics of bioscience governance in Southeast Asia, with a particular focus on Indonesia. A graduate of Utrecht University (BA, MA) and the University of Amsterdam (PhD), she held postdoctoral positions in the Center for Cultural Sociology at Yale University (2007-2009), the Pembroke Center at Brown University (2009-2010), and the Institute for Culture and Society at the University of Western Sydney (2010-2014) before joining the University of Sydney in 2015. She also held a visiting appointment with the Center for the Study of Law and Society at the University of California-Berkeley (Fall 2017) and was a Member with the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton (2020-2021). Sonja is convenor of the Biopolitics of Science Research Network, research leader of the BioHumanity Theme, and member of the Sydney Southeast Asia Centre, the Charles Perkins Centre, and the Sydney Centre for Healthy Societies. She published four books, is co-editor of the Palgrave MacMillan Biolegalities Book Series, and on the editorial boards of Science, Technology, & Human Values, The Sociological Review, and Catalyst: Feminism, Theory, Technoscience.
Sonja's general research interests include postcolonial science studies, legal anthropology, and the sociology of globalization. A common thread throughout her work is seeing how "things" are made to circulate across borders and the role of institutions and publics in brokering these flows. Previous projects focused on cross-border reproductive technologies (including adoption and surrogacy), global migration, and transnational religion, and were spread over four fieldwork sites: the United States, the Netherlands, Indonesia, and Australia.
More recently, Sonja is focusing on three new areas that traverse the fields of science and technology studies and the anthropology of law. With her long-time collaborator, Marc de Leeuw, she is further developing the concept of biolegality, which examines the constitutive relation between biology and law in the formation of knowledge and sociality. Her second area of research is concerned with the changing forms of bioscience governance (including the circulation of its materials and information) in an era of "postgenomic" research. Sonja's third research foci brings questions of biolegality and bioscience governance to bear on North-South relations. Looking at Southeast Asia (and Indonesia in particular), she examines the postcolonial and regional politics of bioscientific exchange.
Past Teaching:
Socio-Legal Theory (SLSS2606)
Social Sciences and Social Change (SSPS4101)
Nature and Society (SCLG3607)
Science, Technology and Social Change (SCLG2610)
Supervision:
Sonja van Wichelen supervises PhD, MA, and Honours students. She welcomes graduate students interested in science and technology studies, biotechnology and reproduction, global sociology, and the anthropology of law.
PhD students
- Rachel Yang, Tracking Technologies and Disease Modelling in Hong Kong
- Andrew McLachlan, Resilience in Action: Mental Health in Schools
- Sanjana Bhardwaj, Social Memory and Indian Identity in Australia
- Polina Smiragina, The Invisibility of Male Victims of Human Trafficking: Causes and Consequences (completed 2021)
- Rafaella Rapone, Identity and Inter-Generational Transmission of Culture within the Italian Diaspora (completed 2021)
- Sohoon Lee, Women between the Laws: Migrant Women, Precarity and Social Reproduction in South Korea (Completed 2017)
- Elsa Koleth, Haunted Borders: Temporary Migration and the Recalibration of Racialised Belonging in Australia (Completed 2017).
Master students
- Charlotte Hock, The Human Rights of Assisted Dying
- Zsuzsanna Ihar, Crude Cosmos: World-Making in Azerbaijan’s Former Extraction Zones (completed 2021)
- Melissa Stewart, Modern Slavery in Australia: Culture, Diplomacy and Gender (Completed 2018)
- Elsher Lawson-Boyd, Eating the same thing? A comparative ontological analysis of food in Australia (Completed 2018)
Honours Students
- Morag Kelly, The Neoliberal Governance of Mental Disability in Australia
- Alexandra Smith,Fatiqued Conditions: A Study of People with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS)
- Sun Liangyu, Chinese Sojourners, Food Practices, and Cultural Identity in Australia (completed 2020)
- Elizabeth Bottomley, Discourses of ‘the child’ in the formation of national policies on Indigenous Australians (Completed 2019)
- Zaina Ahmed, Oral Contraceptives and Subjectivity: A Study of User Experience and Decision-Making (Completed 2017)
- Emma Shinozaki-Langridge, Posthuman Subjectivities and Embodiment in Narcolepsy: The Limits of Consciousness, Relational Complexity and Bodily Agency (Completed 2016)
- Natalie Leung, Transnational Lives, Transnational Identities: The Migratory Experiences of Highly Educated, Skilled Hong Kong Women in Australia (Completed 2016)
2020; Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia (ASSA) Workshop Grant, The Social Sciences of Epidemic Disease Modelling
2019; Sydney Southeast Asia Centre (SSEAC) Workshop Grant, Health Justice in the Age of Precision Medicine, University of Sydney
2018-2019; Sydney Research Accelerator Fellowship (SOAR), Biolegalities in Asia, University of Sydney.
2018; FASS Strategic Research Theme, BioHumanity Project, University of Sydney Faculty grant.
2017; Pop-Up Research Lab Grant, Sydney Social Sciences and Humanities Advanced Research Centre (SSSHARC), University of Sydney.
2017; India Development Fund, University of Sydney.
2017; Faculty Research Support Scheme (FRSS), Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of Sydney.
2017; Global Partnership with National Taiwan University.
2016; Symposium Grant, “Biopolitics of Epigenetics”, School of Political and Social Sciences, University of Sydney.
2016; Reading Group Scheme, Sydney Social Sciences and Humanities Advanced Research Centre (SSSHARC), University of Sydney.
2014-2018; Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA), Australian Research Council, “The Changing Rights to Family Life in Australia: Biomedicine and Legal Governance in Globalization.
2014; Research Development Grant from the Philosophy Research Initiative, “New Spirits of Humanitarianism”, University of Western Sydney (with Jessica Whyte)
2014; Research Training Scheme Grant, “New Spirits of Humanitarianism”, University of Western Sydney (with Jessica Whyte)
2012; Humanities Faculty Grant for the international workshop “Place-Making in the Asian Century”, Hong Kong Baptist University (with Yiu-Fai Chow and Jeroen De Kloet)
2011; Internal Research Seed Grant, University of Western Sydney, “Moral Economies of Transnational Adoption: Markets and Children in Comparative Perspective”
2009-2010; Nancy L. Buc Postdoctoral Fellowship, Brown University, “The Cultural Pragmatics of Global Adoption: Markets, Adoptee-Bodies, and Transnational Ethics”
2007-2009; Postdoctoral Fellowship, Center for Cultural Sociology, Yale University
2007; Rubicon Award, Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO), “The Politics of Adoption: Social Dimensions of Adoption Practices in Comparative Perspective”
| Project title | Research student |
|---|---|
| Islam and Electoral Politics in Indonesia: The New Relation between Islamic Boarding Schools (Pesantren) and Political Parties during 2020 Indonesian Local Elections. | Miftah MIFTAHUDDIN |
| An Ethnography on the Lived Experiences of Myanmar Women Migrants in Malaysia. | Marcus Phillip PAUL |
| Decolonizing Indigenous: Struggling Over Cultural Economic Access Toward Political Recognition | Hery PRASETYO |
Selected publications
(Palgrave Macmillan, 2024)
(Palgrave Macmillan, 2020)
(Rutgers University Press, 2019)
(Routledge, 2010)
(Palgrave Macmillan, 2009)
Publications
Books
- Van Wichelen, S., de Leeuw, M. (2024). Biolegality: A Critical Introduction. Singapore: Palgrave Macmillan. [More Information]
- Van Wichelen, S. (2019). Legitimating Life: Adoption in the Age of Globalization and Biotechnology. New Jersey: Rutgers University Press. [More Information]
- Van Wichelen, S. (2010). Religion, Politics, and Gender in Indonesia: Disputing the Muslim Body. London: Routledge.
Edited Books
- de Leeuw, M., Van Wichelen, S. (2020). Personhood in the Age of Biolegality: Brave New Law. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan. [More Information]
- Firat, B., De Mul, S., Van Wichelen, S. (2009). Commitment and Complicity in Cultural Theory and Practice. London and New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
- Braidotti, R., Vonk, E., Van Wichelen, S. (2000). The Making of European Women's Studies. ATHENA: Utrecht.
Book Chapters
- Van Wichelen, S. (2023). Nawoord: Het Ongedaan Maken Van Moderne Adoptie. In Candaele, C., Cawayu, A., Wthaeckx, S. (Eds.), Voorbij Transnationale Adoptie, (pp. 335-338). Brussels: Academic and Scientific Publishers.
- Van Wichelen, S., de Leeuw, M. (2022). Foreword in Vanessa Lemm and Miquel Vatter. The Viral Politics of COVID-19 Nature, Home, and Planetary Health. London and New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
- de Leeuw, M., Van Wichelen, S. (2020). Brave New Law: Personhood in the Age of Biolegality. In Marc de Leeuw, Sonja Van Wichelin (Eds.), Personhood in the Age of Biolegality: Brave New Law, (pp. 1-17). Cham: Palgrave Macmillan. [More Information]
Journals
- Van Wichelen, S. (2024). Of Bridges, Translations, and Practical Necessities. Science, Technology and Human Values. [More Information]
- Van Wichelen, S. (2023). After biosovereignty: The material transfer agreement as technology of relations. Social Studies of Science, 53(4), 599-621. [More Information]
- Nelson, A., Thompson, C., Van Wichelen, S., Rohde, J., Barkan, J., Sims, C. (2023). Introduction: Science and the State. Public Culture, 35(3), 279-288. [More Information]
Edited Journals
- Van Wichelen, S., Rohde, J., Graizbord, D., Sims, C., Barkan, J. (2023). Science and the State. Public Culture, 35(3 (101)). [More Information]
- Van Wichelen, S., Keaney, J. (2022). Reproduction in the Postgenomic Age. Science, Technology and Human Values, Special Issue 47(6).
- Chow, Y., Van Wichelen, S., de Kloet, J. (2015). Introduction: At Home in Asia: Place-making, Belonging and Citizenship in the Asian Century. International Journal of Cultural Studies, 19.
Other
- Van Wichelen, S., de Leeuw, M. (2023), After Dobbs: Biolegalities of Fetal Personhood, The Institute Letter, Fall, Institute for Advanced Study.
- Van Wichelen, S., Mahbuba, F. (2018), Muslim Women: Contemporary Debates, in Mark Woodward and Ronald Lukens-Bull (eds) Handbook of Contemporary Islam and Muslim Lives. Springer..
- Van Wichelen, S. (2017), Book Review, Suspect Families: DNA Analysis, Family Reunification and Immigration Policies (Thomas Lemke, Torsten Heinemann, Helen Ilpo, Ursula Naue, and Martin G. Weiss, Farnham: Ashgate Publishing) Sociological Review 65(4): 907-909..
2024
- Van Wichelen, S., de Leeuw, M. (2024). Biolegality: A Critical Introduction. Singapore: Palgrave Macmillan. [More Information]
- Van Wichelen, S. (2024). Of Bridges, Translations, and Practical Necessities. Science, Technology and Human Values. [More Information]
2023
- Van Wichelen, S. (2023). After biosovereignty: The material transfer agreement as technology of relations. Social Studies of Science, 53(4), 599-621. [More Information]
- Van Wichelen, S., de Leeuw, M. (2023), After Dobbs: Biolegalities of Fetal Personhood, The Institute Letter, Fall, Institute for Advanced Study.
- Nelson, A., Thompson, C., Van Wichelen, S., Rohde, J., Barkan, J., Sims, C. (2023). Introduction: Science and the State. Public Culture, 35(3), 279-288. [More Information]
2022
- Van Wichelen, S., de Leeuw, M. (2022). Biolegality: How Biology and Law Redefine Sociality. Annual Review of Anthropology, 51, 383-399. [More Information]
- Lin, C., Chen, Y., Wang, C., Conley Wright, A., Spencer, M., Van Wichelen, S. (2022). Changing nature of adoption and need for post-adoption services: Intercountry adoption practice in Taiwan and Australia. International Social Work, Online first. [More Information]
- Van Wichelen, S., de Leeuw, M. (2022). Foreword in Vanessa Lemm and Miquel Vatter. The Viral Politics of COVID-19 Nature, Home, and Planetary Health. London and New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
2021
- Stoddart, J., Conley Wright, A., Spencer, M., Van Wichelen, S. (2021). 'I'm the centre part of a Venn diagram': Belonging and identity for Taiwanese-Australian intercountry adoptees. Adoption and Fostering, 45(1), 71-89. [More Information]
- Van Wichelen, S. (2021). Governing surrogacy in the age of biotechnology: the shifting biolegalities of parenthood. Horizontes Antropologicos, 27(61), 85-111. [More Information]
- Conley Wright, A., Van Wichelen, S., Spencer, M., Chen, Y., Lin, C., Wang, C. (2021). Narrating connection in intercountry adoption: Complexities of openness in Taiwan-Australia adoptions. International Journal of Social Welfare, 30, 305-315. [More Information]
2020
- de Leeuw, M., Van Wichelen, S. (2020). Brave New Law: Personhood in the Age of Biolegality. In Marc de Leeuw, Sonja Van Wichelin (Eds.), Personhood in the Age of Biolegality: Brave New Law, (pp. 1-17). Cham: Palgrave Macmillan. [More Information]
- de Leeuw, M., Van Wichelen, S. (2020). Legal Personhood in Postgenomic Times: Plasticity, Rights, and Relationality. In Marc de Leeuw, Sonja Van Wichelin (Eds.), Personhood in the Age of Biolegality: Brave New Law, (pp. 55-72). Cham: Palgrave Macmillan. [More Information]
- Van Wichelen, S. (2020). More-than-Human Biopolitics. In Sherryl Vint (Eds.), After the Human: Culture, Theory and Criticism in the 21st Century, (pp. 161-176). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. [More Information]
2019
- Van Wichelen, S. (2019). Legitimating Life: Adoption in the Age of Globalization and Biotechnology. New Jersey: Rutgers University Press. [More Information]
- Van Wichelen, S. (2019). Moving Children through Private International Law: Institutions and the Enactment of Ethics. Law & Society Review, 53(3), 671-705. [More Information]
- Van Wichelen, S. (2019). Private International Law and Cross-border Surrogacy: The Role of Analogy. In Vera Mackie, Nicola Marks, Sarah Ferber (Eds.), The Reproductive Industry: Intimate Experiences and Global Processes, (pp. 109-124). Lanham: Lexington Books.
2018
- Van Wichelen, S., Mahbuba, F. (2018), Muslim Women: Contemporary Debates, in Mark Woodward and Ronald Lukens-Bull (eds) Handbook of Contemporary Islam and Muslim Lives. Springer..
2017
- Van Wichelen, S. (2017), Book Review, Suspect Families: DNA Analysis, Family Reunification and Immigration Policies (Thomas Lemke, Torsten Heinemann, Helen Ilpo, Ursula Naue, and Martin G. Weiss, Farnham: Ashgate Publishing) Sociological Review 65(4): 907-909..
- Van Wichelen, S. (2017). Reproducing the Border: Kinship Legalities in the Bioeconomy. In Vincenzo Pavone, Joanna Goven (Eds.), Bioeconomies: Life, Technology, and Capital in the 21st Century, (pp. 207-225). Cham: Palgrave Macmillan. [More Information]
2016
- Van Wichelen, S. (2016). Changing Rights to Family Life: Biolegalities in the Globalization of Reproduction. Socio-Legal Review, 12(1), 26-50.
- Chao, Y., Van Wichelen, S., de Kloet, J. (2016). Introduction: At home in Asia? Place-making, belonging and citizenship in the Asian Century. International Journal of Cultural Studies, 19(3), 243-256. [More Information]
- Van Wichelen, S. (2016). Postgenomics and Biolegitimacy: Legitimation Work in Transnational Surrogacy. Australian Feminist Studies, 31(88), 172-186. [More Information]
2015
- Van Wichelen, S., de Leeuw, M. (2015), Encyclopedia entry, "Netherlands", The Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Race, Ethnicity, and Nationalism, edited by John Stone, Rutledge Dennis, Polly Rizova and Anthony Smith, Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell..
- Chow, Y., Van Wichelen, S., de Kloet, J. (2015). Introduction: At Home in Asia: Place-making, Belonging and Citizenship in the Asian Century. International Journal of Cultural Studies, 19.
- Van Wichelen, S. (2015). Negotiating Polygamy: Islam, Gender, and Feminism in Indonesia. In Huma Ahmed-Ghosh (Eds.), Asian Muslim Women: Globalization and Local Realities, (pp. 225-245). New York: State University of New York Press.
2014
- de Leeuw, M., Van Wichelen, S. (2014). Institutionalizing the Muslim Other: Naar Nederland and the Violence of Culturalism. In Philomena Essed, Isabel Hoving (Eds.), Dutch Racism, (pp. 337-354). Amsterdam: Rodopi. [More Information]
- Van Wichelen, S. (2014). Medicine as Moral Technology: Somatic Economies and the Making Up of Adoptees. Medical Anthropology: Cross Cultural Studies in Health and Illness, 33(2), 109-127. [More Information]
- de Leeuw, M., Van Wichelen, S. (2014). Postcolonial Frictions: Globalization, 'Integration', and Cultural Citizenship. In S. Ponzanesi (Eds.), Postcolonial Conflict Zones: Gender, Globalization and Violence, (pp. 145-160). London and New York: Routledge.
2013
- Van Wichelen, S. (2013), Book Review, Indonesian Islam in a New Era: How Women Negotiate Their Muslim Identities (Susan Blackburn, Bianca J. Smith, Siti Syamsiyatun, Monash University Press, 2012), The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology, 13(3): 303-305.
- Van Wichelen, S. (2013), What Chance for International Surrogacy Laws?, ABC The Drum, 21 October 2014.
2012
- de Leeuw, M., Van Wichelen, S. (2012). Civilizing Migrants: Integration, Culture, and Citizenship. European Journal of Cultural Studies, 15(2), 195-210. [More Information]
- Van Wichelen, S. (2012). The Body and the Veil. In Bryan S. Turner (Eds.), Routledge Handbook of Body Studies, (pp. 206-216). Abingdon, UK: Routledge.
2011
- Van Wichelen, S. (2011), Book Review, Blue-Ribbon Babies and Labors of Love: Race, Class, and Gender in U.S. Adoption (Christine Ward Gailey, University of Texas Press, 2010), Political and Legal Anthropology Review, 34(1): 201-204..
- Van Wichelen, S. (2011), Book Review, The Road to Evergreen: Adoption, Attachment Therapy, and the Promise of Family’ Special Issue on Science, Power and Ethics, Horizontes Antropologicos, 17(35): 423-426..
2010
- Van Wichelen, S. (2010). Religion, Politics, and Gender in Indonesia: Disputing the Muslim Body. London: Routledge.
- Van Wichelen, S. (2010). Silence, Absence, Loss: Chineseness in Post-Authoritarian Indonesia. Thamyris/Intersecting: place, sex and race, 20, 237-252.
2009
- Firat, B., De Mul, S., Van Wichelen, S. (2009). Commitment and Complicity in Cultural Theory and Practice. London and New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
- Van Wichelen, S. (2009). Commitment or Commitment-Kitsch? Rethinking the 'Woman Question', Agency, and Feminist Politics. In Begum Ozden Firat, Sarah de Mul, Sonja van Wichelen (Eds.), Commitment and Complicity in Cultural Theory and Practice, (pp. 55-80). London and New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
- Van Wichelen, S. (2009). Formations of Public Piety: New Veiling, the Body, and the Citizen-Subject in Contemporary Indonesia. In Bryan S. Turner and Zheng Yangwen (Eds.), The Body in Asia, (pp. 75-94). Oxford and New York: Berghahn Books.
2008
- de Leeuw, M., Van Wichelen, S. (2008). The Cultural Politics of Dutchness. Lo Squaderno, , 51-53.
- de Leeuw, M., Van Wichelen, S. (2008). Transformations of ‘Dutchness’: From Happy Multiculturalism to the Crisis of Dutch Liberalism. In Gerard Delanty, Paul Jones and Ruth Wodak (Eds.), Identity, Belonging, and Migration, (pp. 261-278). Liverpool: Liverpool University Press. [More Information]
- de Leeuw, M., Van Wichelen, S. (2008). Translated into Slovenian: Preoblikovanje 'nizozemskosti': od srecnega multikulturalizma do krize nizozemskega liberalizma. In K.V. Horvat (Eds.), The Future of Intercultural Dialogue in Europe: Views from the In-Between. Ljubljana: Faculty of Arts. [More Information]
2007
- Van Wichelen, S. (2007). Gendering Muslimness: New Bodies in Urban Jakarta. In C. Aitchison, M. Kwan, and P. Hopkins (Eds.), Geographies of Muslim Identities: Representations of Diaspora, Gender and Belongin, (pp. 93-108). Aldergate: Ashgate.
2006
- Van Wichelen, S. (2006). Contesting Megawati: The Mediation of Islam and Nation in Times of Political Transition. Westminster Papers in Communication and Culture, 3(2), 41-49.
- Van Wichelen, S., de Leeuw, M. (2006). Ein neuer Zivilisationsdiskurs? Der Film Submission, Ayaan Hirsi Ali und der 'Krieg gegen den Terror' in den Niederlanden. Feministischen Studien, 24(1), 126-143.
- Van Wichelen, S. (2006). Islam, gender, and violent representation in the Netherlands. In H. Mamzer (Eds.), Forms of Violence in Contemporary Culture. Poznan: Adam Mickiewicz University Press.
2005
- de Leeuw, M., Van Wichelen, S. (2005). 'Please Go Wake Up!': Submission, Hirsi Ali, and the "War on Terror" in the Netherlands. Feminist Media Studies, 5(3), 325-340.
- Van Wichelen, S. (2005). My Dance Immoral? Alhamdulillah No! Dangdut Music and Gender Politics in Contemporary Indonesia. In M.E. Franklin (Eds.), Resounding International Relations: On Music, Culture and Politics, (pp. 161-178). New York and London: Palgrave Macmillan. [More Information]
2003
- Van Wichelen, S. (2003). Between Authenticity and Narrative Identity. Nice Boy. Jakarta: Cemara6Galeri.
2000
- Van Wichelen, S., Braidotti, R., Vonk, E. (2000). Introduction. In R. Braidotti, E. Vonk and S. van Wichelen (Eds.), The Making of European Womens Studies. ATHENA: Utrecht.
- Braidotti, R., Vonk, E., Van Wichelen, S. (2000). The Making of European Women's Studies. ATHENA: Utrecht.
Selected Grants
2024
- Advancing Science Communication for Planetary Health, Van Wichelen S, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (Federal)/Australia-Indonesia Institute
2020
- The Social Sciences of Epidemic Disease Modelling, Van Wichelen S, Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia/Workshop Grant
