ERC Starting Grant (2024-2029)

Tessa Diphoorn is the PI of the research project 'Making Sense of Communities of Arms' (ARMIES) that is funded through a Starting Grant of the European Research Council. This project is a comparative analysis of the ways in which firearms produce diverse communities in Brazil, Germany, and South Africa. 

AGOPOL (2021-2023)

Tessa Diphoorn was part of a large international project that focuses on Algorithmic Governance and Cultures of Policing (AGOPOL). In this project, she analysed the role that algorithmic governance plays in the private security industry in South Africa. 

NWO Veni research (2017-2021):

Tessa Diphoorn was the main applicant of an NWO-funded (Veni) research project: 'Policing the Police in Kenya: Analysing state authority from within'. The research project focuses on police oversight and state authority in Kenya and aims to develop an innovative approach to analysing the state by focusing on intrastate interactions.

Post-doctoral research (2014-2016):

Tessa Diphoorn participated as a post-doctoral researcher in a comparative analysis of public-private assemblages in Kenya, Jamaica, and Israel at the Department of Geography, Planning, and International Development Studies (GPIO), University of Amsterdam.

PhD research (2007-2013):

Tessa Diphoorn conducted an ethnographic analysis of armed response officers in Durban, South Africa. Dissertation, "Twilight Policing. Private Security in Durban, South Africa', defended on October 4, 2013 - Department of Cultural Anthropology, Utrecht University.

Masters research (2005-2006):

 It’s all about who says what”. A discursive analysis of child recruitment in Sri Lanka. Supervisor: Prof. dr. Georg Frerks - Centre of Conflict Studies, Utrecht University.

Bachelor research (2005):

Local reconciliation efforts in San Jose de Chacaya, Guatemala. Supervisor: Dr. W. Hoobergen - Department of Cultural Anthropology, Utrecht University.