Research interests

Justin Malachowski is a post-doctoral scholar at the Institute for Sociology and Cultural Organization at Leuphana University. He earned a PhD in Social Anthropology from the University of California, Davis, in 2022. His research interests include arts, media, ethnographic film, development, and the family. His work focuses on how international development, as one of the primary sources of funding for the arts in the Global South, shapes and responds to trends in contemporary art globally. Malachowski has conducted long-term ethnographic research in Tunisia, spanning nearly ten years, which examines the formation of a contemporary public art scene following the country's 2011 revolution and its impact on the lives of those involved. Currently, he is researching the role of cultural development in North Africa and the dynamics of a discourse on arts from the Global South in Contemporary art networks in Europe. In addition to his academic work, Justin Malachowski has also worked as a practicing artist and curator. His recent publications include “Staging Arts in the Historic City: Development Funding, Social Media Images, and Tunisia's Contemporary Public Art Scene,” published in the Journal of City and Society in 2022, and “My Cigarette Wife and Other Queer Tales of Kinship from Tunisia’s Contemporary Public Art Scene,” published in the Journal of Contemporary Ethnography.