Research interests

Visual Anthropology, Museum Studies, Decolonial Archival Practice, Material Culture, Affect Theory, Autoethnography, Exhibition as a Method.

Regional specialisation

Naqab/Negev (Bedouin diaspora), Switzerland, Europe.

Short bio

Saada Elabed studied social and cultural anthropology at the University of Zurich (BA) and visual anthropology at the University of Manchester (MA). From 2020 to 2026, she worked as an assistant, lecturer and junior curator at the Ethnographic Museum and at the Institute for Social Anthropology and Cultural Studies (ISEK). In this role, she directed the Regard Bleu Ethnographic Film Festival and taught on the Visual Anthropology programme. Her PhD project, which began in 2023, examines museum collections as ‘time capsules’. Using the example of Naqab Bedouin embroidery, she is investigating how objects convey knowledge, memory and resilience across generations and borders, and how decolonial curation can help to fill gaps in the archives.

Exhibitions

• 2023-2024: Workpieces? 5 Questions on Negev Bedouin Embroideries from their Descendants’ View. Ethnographic Museum, University of Zurich.

Current research projects

• PhD Project: Resilience in Naqab Bedouin Embroidery. On the Significance of Museum Objects as Time Capsules - an Autoethnographic Exhibition Research.

Publications

• Elabed, Saada. 2026. If There Is Noise in the Archive, Will There Be Disruption in the Structure? Thoughts on the Intervention ‘Rumble in the Archive’ Launched by the Ethnographic Museum UZH. ZANTHRO Comment no. 16. University Zurich.
• Regard Bleu Ethnographic Film Festival. 2020-2026. Festival Programme (curatorial publications). Völkerkundemuseum, University of Zurich.

Filmfestival

• 2020-2026: Director Regard Bleu Ethnographic Film Festival.

In the media

• Elabed, Saada and Mörike, Tobias. 2026. Beduinische Textilien als Zeitdokumente. Public lecture, Weltmuseum Wien, Vienna 28. April.
• Royal Anthropological Institute. RAI Film Festival 2025. Jury member, London, UK, 2025.
• Ethnocineca International Film Festival. Award for Excellence. Jury member, 16. Ethnocineca, Vienna, 2022.