Peter Zabielskis

Southeast Asia and Malaysia, overseas Chinese, civil society, anthropology of space, place, art, architecture and urban development, heritage preservation, religion

Peter Zabielskis is Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Macau, where he teaches courses in cultural anthropology, theory, the environment, and the anthropology of art. His research interests include material culture, art, architecture, religion, heritage, and the urban built environment in Macau and Southeast Asia, especially Penang and Malaysia. Recent publications include studies of civil society, heritage theory and urban development in Penang and Macau, the anthropology of village festivals in Leizhou, China, the pressures of development and change experienced by a small Chinese temple in Macau, and the coediting of Penang and Its Networks of Knowledge (2017) and Professors Under Siege: Corporatization and Commercialization of Higher Education in Greater (forthcoming 2018). Other projects include theorizing the material culture of magic and trance in Chinese folk religion and a comparison of past, present and future transformations in the meaning and use of public urban space in Macau and São Paulo, Brazil.