Pereira, MA Matthieu
Matthieu Pereira is a PhD researcher at KITLV-Leiden University (2015). His PhD research examines the politics of indigeneity in Malaysia and Indonesia from a comparative perspective and with the approach of legal and political anthropology. It focuses on the different scales and forms of politics (between global activism and the margins of civil society) and the re/shaping of legal consciousness through the globalisation of human rights.
Matthieu studied Sociology and Anthropology at the University of Göttingen, Germany and the University of Metz, France where he received his bachelor degree (2011). He obtained his Maîtrise degree (2013) in Social and Cultural Anthropology at the University of Strasbourg, France and his MA cum laude (2014) in Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology at the University of Leiden. For his MA thesis, entitled Indigeneity and Resistance Practices: The Sedulur Sikep (Samin people) of Central Java he conducted fieldwork in Indonesia. The thesis focused on the struggle of the Sedulur Sikep in contemporary Pati and Kudus, who are largely understudied since the 1980’s. The study examined resistance practices (against a cement plant project, and state development programmes) and the discourses and politics involved therein.
Matthieu also has experience with Malaysia where he lived more than a year. Next to his study Matthieu did a 6 months internship (funded by the European Union’s Leonardo da Vinci programme – 2012) for an NGO based in Lisbon, Portugal and working towards the development of active citizenship by the means of informal education.