Karsten Paerregaard

Global Horizons Fellow, SCAS.
Professor Emeritus of Social Anthropology, University of Gothenburg

Karsten Paerregaard received his PhD (1990) and Danish doctoral degree (2009) in Anthropology
from the University of Copenhagen, where he was Associate Professor for a number of years. From
2012 to 2017, Paerregaard was Chair Professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Gothen-
burg, where he worked until 2020. As Professor Emeritus, he continues as an active researcher.
Paerregaard has spent eight years conducting field research in Peru, where he is Honorary Doctor at
the National University of the Center of Peru. Paerregaard has also been Visiting Professor at University
of Florida on two occasions, and in 2010-11 he was Research Fellow at Woodrow Wilson Center,
Washington DC.

Paerregaard’s publications include almost 100 books and articles that mostly deal with three research
themes: culture/rituals, migration/identity and climate change/water management and the multiple ways
in which these intersect. Among his most prominent works is a trilogy of ethnographic monographs
examining Peruvian migration: one describing how Andean people move from Peru’s highlands to its
major cities; another how Peruvians migrate to the US, Spain, Italy, Japan, Argentina and Chile; and a
third how migrants maintain ties to Peru through remittance sending. More recently, Paerregaard has
studied how climate change causes water scarcity and creates social conflicts in Peru. The focus of this
research is on how Andean communities perceive and respond to climate change and how the institutional
setting promulgated by Peru’s new water law shapes the country’s water governance.

At SCAS, Paerregaard will complete a book manuscript that reviews field data from the past 35 years in
Peru and examines how Andean people change their migration practices and remold their culture to adapt
to climate change.


This information is accurate as of the academic year 2020-21.