Burkhard Schnepel - Curriculum Vitae
PERSONAL DATA
Name: Burkhard Schnepel
Date of birth: 29.09.1954
Marital status: married
Nationality: German
CURRENT POSITIONS
Professor of Social Anthropology, Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg
Acting Director of the Centre for Interdisciplinary Area Studies, MLU
Member of the Faculty Council at the Faculty of Philosophy I, MLU
Fellow of the Max-Planck Society
Member of the Academic Senate of the Martin-Luther-University
RESEARCH FOCI
a) Thematic
History of Anthropological Thought; Divine Kingship; Ritual Theory; Personhood/Fools; Cultures in Motion; Village Theatre; Liminal Times and Spaces; Anthropology of the Night; Anthropology of Tourism, The Politics and Cult of Cultural Heritage; Connectivity in Motion
b) Regional
East Africa (especially Southern Sudan); India (especially Orissa); Indian Diaspora; Indian Ocean Societies (especially Mauritius)
ACADEMIC QUALIFICATIONS
January 1982
Magister Artium in Social Anthropology, Free University, Berlin
June 1983
Diploma (M. Phil. Qualifying) in Social Anthropology, Oxford University
May 1987
Doctor of Philosophy, Oxford University
June 1996
Habilitation, South Asia Institute, Heidelberg
ACADEMIC CAREER
October 1976
Matriculated at the Free University, Berlin, in Social Anthropology, Sociology and Religious Studies
January - April 1980
Fieldwork in Southern Sudan
January 1982
Master of Arts (with distinction)
January - May 1982
Fieldwork in Southern Sudan.
October 1982 - June 1983
Graduate student at Wolfson College, Oxford University, Institute of Social Anthropology.
July 1983
Diploma in Social Anthropology (M. Phil. Qualifying)
Oct. 1983 - May 87
Research student, Oxford University, Institute of Social Anthropology.
May 1987
Doctor of Philosophy. Supervisor: Dr. R. G. Lienhardt. External Examiner:Prof. Dr. Ernest Gellner, Cambridge
Oct. 1988 - Aug. 1989
Lecturer at the Free University, Berlin, Institute of Ethnology
Oct. 1989 - Mar. 1990
Fieldwork in Orissa, India
Apr. 1990 - Aug. 1990
Lecturer at the Free University, Berlin, Institute of Ethnology
Dec. 1990 - Jan. 93
Fieldwork in Orissa and Researcher at the South Asia Institute in Heidelberg
Jan. 1993 - May 96
Lecturer at the South Asia Institute, University of Heidelberg.
June 1996
Habilitation, Venia Legendi in Social Anthropology, University of Heidelberg
Oct. 1996 - Sept. 1997 Acting Professor, University of Heidelberg
Oct. 1998
Professor of Social Anthropology (tenure), Institute of Historical Ethnology,
March 2002
Johann-Wolfgang-Goethe-University, Frankfurt
since April 2002
Founding Professor (C3), Institute for Social Anthropology (Institut für Ethnologie), Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg
FELLOWSHIPS/VISITING PROFESSOR
1982 - 1983
Research Fellow of the German Academic Exchange Service (for Oxford)
1983 - 1984
Wolfson College Fees Scholarship, Oxford
August 1989
Visiting Fellow at the Dept. d’Ethnologie, Nanterre Université, Paris X
May - June 1995
Visiting Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Social Anthropology, Gothenburg, Sweden
1990 - 1993
Fellow of the Alexander-von-Humboldt Foundation
May 1993 - May 96
Fellow of the German Research Foundation
Oct. 1997 - Sept. 98
Fellow of the German Research Foundation
June 2006
Visiting Professor at the École des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris
Since 2007
Director of the «Centre for Interdisciplinary Area Studies»
Sept. 2010 - August 2014
Dean of the Philosophical Faculty of the Martin-Luther-University
Since Oct. 2013
MPI Fellow
Since Nov. 2015
Member of the Expert Committee on the Indian Ocean of the Foreign Office Germany
RESEARCH PROJECTS
Jan. 1998
Six-year research programme (“priority programme”) sponsored by the German Research Foundation on ‘Contested Centres: Construction and Change of Socio-cultural Identities in Orissa’ (including around 25 different projects, starting in 99) (jointly with H. Kulke)
May 1999 - Apr. 2001
Head of a project on ‘Performative Constructions of Identities among Subaltern Groups in South Orissa’. (This included 2 research assistants)
June 1999 - Dec. 2001
Head of a project on ‘Village Theatre in Orissa and Nepal’. (This included 2 research assistants and was part of the German Research Foundation’s priority programme on ‘Theatre as a Cultural Model’).
July 2002 - June 2004
Head of a project on ‘Female Identity Construction in Orissa’ (2 research assistants); funded by the German Research Foundation
May 2004 - Dec. 2006
Head of a project on ‘Contested Identities in Mauritius’ (1 research assistant); funded by the Fritz-Thyssen Foundation.
Oct. 2008 - Sept. 2012
Head of a project on “After the Survivors: Holocaust Tourism in Berlin and Jerusalem”; funded by German Israeli Foundation (Principal researchers: Dr. J. Feldman, Israel, and Dr. Anja Peleikis, Berlin)
Since October 2013
MPI-Fellowship-Program: “Connectivity in Motion: Port Cities of the Indian Ocean”
FIELDWORK
in Sudan: January - April 1980; January - May 1982
in Orissa: October 1989 - March 90; December 1990 - November 1992; February - March 1995; February - April 1997; November - December 1997; March - April 1998; March - April 1999; September -October 1999; September 2001; February - March 2004
in Mauritius: September - October 2002; February - March 2003; September - October 2003; March - April 2004; February - March 2005; December - January 2005/6; February 2007; September-October 2010; February-March 2012; February-March 2014, February-March 2016, February-March 2016, February-March 2018