I am an anthro-ethnologist with a strong interest in political, economic and organizational anthropology.

I am currently leading the ERC CONSPIRATIONS project exploring conflicts over conspiracy theories in Europe. In CONSPIRATIONS across six European countries we analyze why some people endorse conspiracy theories and why others fear their consequences and design initiatives to push back against the 'post-truth' era. Rather than focussing exclusively on organizations and individuals who produce and endorse conspiracy theories, CONSPIRATIONS also pays attention to the worlds of those who oppose them: organisations dedicated to countering misinformation, policy makers and NGOs.

I am also leading a Nordforsk-NORDREN project where together with colleagues from eight Nordic universities we are examining the preparedness of the Nordic societies to disinformation threats.

In the CHANSE REDACT project, together with colleagues from the UK, Germany, Estonia and Croatia we analyse how digitalisation shapes the form, content and consequences of conspiracy theories.

In addition to researching conflicts over truth, I am also strongly interested in global political economy and democratic participation and the world of NGOs.  I am an author of Institutionalised Dreams: the art of managing foreign aid (Begrhahahn, 2020) where I analyse the moral economy of foreign aid industry and examine the processes that shape Official Development Assistance structures in Eastern Europe. This book is based on extensive fieldwork among Polish aid actors and research conducted in South Sudan and Poland. Building on my extensive knowledge of Polish aid industry and its involvement in Ukraine, most recently I led a Forum on Russian’s Invasion of Ukraine that appeared in Social Anthropology Journal.

In Lund I am involved in several network initiatives: such as Humanities in War and Conflict, Dicit: Disinformation, Conspiracy Theories, and Infrastructures of Information, as well as CONNOR network dedicated to the studies of conspiracy theories in the Nordic countries.

Prior to coming to Lund University, I was a Senior Research Fellow at the Slovak Academy of Sciences, Institute for Sociology (2020-2023) and an Associate Professor at Maynooth University in Ireland (2016-2020), where I also hold individual Maria Curie-Sklodowska Fellowship (2014-2016).

Education:

PhD, Anthropology, University of Cambridge, 2012

MA, Etnology, University of Warsaw, 2005
MA, Anthropology, Lund University 2003