Curriculum Vitae
Academic Qualifications and Positions
Since 10/2022
University Professor (W3) of Social and Cultural Anthropology focusing on mobility studies and human-human as well as human-environment relations, Institute for Social and Cultural Anthropology, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg.
02/2021 - 09/2022
University Professor (W2 temp.) of Psychological Anthropology focusing on migration, psyche, and ageing, Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology, Freie Universität Berlin (FU Berlin).
10/2011 - 01/2021
Postdoctoral Research Associate with teaching and supervision duties in the Anthropology of Emotions Research Area, Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology, FU Berlin.
08/2003 - 06/2009
Doctoral Studies and DPhil with Rigorosum in Social and Cultural Anthropology, Heidelberg University.
10/1995 - 07/2003
Master Studies in Social and Cultural Anthropology and European Art History and Magistra Artium in Social and Cultural Anthropology, Heidelberg University.
Grants, Awards, Nominations, Scholarships, Fellowships
07/2023 - 06/2027
Co-principal investigator in the Collaborative Research Center (CRC 1171) Affective Societies: Dynamics of Social Co-existence in Mobile Worlds (based at FU Berlin); subproject D03 (with PD Dr. med. Thi Minh Tam Ta and PD Dr. med. Eric Hahn, Charité Berlin, Campus Benjamin Franklin): Mobilizing Carescapes: Affizierungsweisen multipler Krisen in der psychosozialen Gesundheitsversorgung; subproject Ö (with Prof. Dr. Doris Kolesch, Theater Studies, FU Berlin, and Prof. Dr. Margreth Lünenborg, Media and Communication Studies, FU Berlin): Projektbiographien: Affective Archive
https://www.sfb-affective-societies.de .
03/2022
Successful nomination of Prof. Dr. Robert Desjarlais (Anthropology Faculty,bSarah Lawrence College, USA) for the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation's Humboldt Research Award with academic visits to Germany (February-July 2023/February-July 2024).
11/2021
2021 Stirling Award for the Best Published Work in Psychological Anthropology (with Edda Willamowski) for the co-published article The Power of Shared Embodiment. Renegotiating Non/belonging and In/exclusion in an Ephemeral Community of Care (published in: Culture, Medicine, and Psychiatry 2020, 44/4), awarded by the Society for Psychological Anthropology (SPA) of the American Anthropological Association (AAA)
https://spa.americananthro.org/prizes/stirling-award/ .
07/2019 - 06/2023
Co-principal investigator in the CRC 1171 Affective Societies: Dynamics of Social Co-existence in Mobile Worlds; subproject A02 (with PD Dr. med. Thi Minh Tam Ta and PD Dr. med. Eric Hahn, Charité Berlin, Campus Benjamin Franklin): Affekte und Institutionalisierungsprozesse in Vietnamesischen Carescapes Berlins.
03/2016 - 01/2019
Research fellow of the 2nd UBIAS Intercontinental Academy: On Human Dignity, Center for Interdisciplinary Research, Bielefeld University, and Institute for Advanced Studies, Hebrew University, Israel.
07/2015 - 06/2019
Co-principal investigator in the CRC 1171 Affective Societies: Dynamics of Social Co-existence in Mobile Worlds; subproject A02 (with PD Dr. med. Thi Minh Tam Ta and PD Dr. med. Eric Hahn, Charité Berlin, Campus Benjamin Franklin): Affektive Anstrengungen der Migration: Süd- und nordvietnamesische Lebenswelten im getrennten und wiedervereinten Berlin.
10/2014 - 09/2019
“Young ZiF” research fellow at the Center for Interdisciplinary Research, Bielefeld University.
01/2010 - 09/2011
Postdoctoral fellowship of the Max Planck International Research Network on Aging (MaxNetAging), Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research in Rostock, and Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Halle/Saale.
07/2008 - 06/2009
Doctoral fellowship of the interdisciplinary research project Menschenbild und Menschenwürde, Marsilius-Kolleg, Heidelberg University.
06/2008
Research grant by the Society for Endangered Languages (GBS) to compile a Bosmun-Tok Pisin-English Dictionary.
02 - 07/2008
Visiting lecturer at Divine Word University, Madang, Papua New Guinea, as part of a project funded by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) on Subject-related Partnerships with Universities in Developing Countries (Heidelberg-Madang) and participation in the development of a Cultural Anthropology Curriculum in the Department for PNG Studies.
04/2006
Visiting researcher on behalf of Prof. Dr. Jürg Wassmann (Heidelberg University) at Divine Word University, Madang, to initiate a DAAD funded project.
08/2004 - 07/2006
Doctoral scholarship by the Volkswagen-Foundation as part of the research project Person, Space and Memory in the Contemporary Pacific.
Ethnographic and Interdisciplinary Research Experience
Since 07/2015
Long-term ethnographic, collaborative, and interdisciplinary research in Vietnamese life-worlds in Germany and Vietnam (ongoing).
08/2004 - 08/2010
Repeated ethnographic fieldwork stays at the Lower Ramu River as well as in coastal areas of Madang Province, Papua New Guinea (total of 23 months).
Further Academic Functions
04/2024 - 03/2028
Member of Review Board 1.16 Social and Cultural Anthropology, Non-European Cultures, Jewish Studies and Religious Studies of the German Research Foundation (DFG).
2024
Chair of the selection committee of the Stirling Award for the BestPublished Work in Psychological Anthropology, Society for Psychological Anthropology (SPA), American Anthropological Association (AAA).
Since 05/2023
Editorial Board Member of the Journal Anthropological Forum.
https://www.tandfonline.com/journals/canf20 .
Since 04/2023
Representative for International Students and Academics on behalf the Senate of the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg.
Since 11/2022
Mentor of the UNIBUND Mentoring Program (Halle – Jena – Leipzig) for Female Postdoctoral Scholars.
10/2022 - 09/2024
Head of the Institute for Social and Cultural Anthropology, Martin Luther University Halle Wittenberg.
Since 01/2022
Member of the selection committee of the Stirling Award for the Best Published Work in Psychological Anthropology, Society for Psychological Anthropology (SPA), American Anthropological Association (AAA).
2021 - 2022
Head of the Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology, FU Berlin and Vice Director and principal investigator of the Graduate School of East Asian Studies (GEAS), FU Berlin.
2021 - 2022
Founding member of the Working Group Decolonization of Teaching at the Institute for Social and Cultural Anthropology, FU Berlin; member of the Diversity Working Group at the Department of Political and Social Sciences, FU Berlin, and member of the Sub-working Group Sensitization for Diversity in Teaching as well as Decentralized Contact Person for Diversity in the Diversity Network of the Diversity Governance Structure of FU Berlin.
2021 - 2022
Member of the self steering committee Cultural Heritage (SSC CH), Una Europa, FU Berlin.
2020 - 2022
Co-responsibility for the Digitalization of Teaching at the Institute for Socialand Cultural Anthropology, FU Berlin, in the course of the Covid-19-relatedconversion to digital teaching.
Since 2018
PhD reviewer and examiner with participation rights and duties of a part-time university lecturer.
2017 - 2022
Member of the commission for the allocation of gender equality funds, including for student projects and the Visiting Professorship for Gender and Diversity Research at the Department of Political and Social Sciences, FU Berlin.
2017 - 2019
Member of the departmental council of the Department of Political and Social Sciences, FU Berlin.
2013 - 2022
Member of the joint commission of the Graduate School of East Asian Studies (GEAS), FU Berlin.
2012 - 2021
Member of doctoral, appointment and hiring committees, the Institute Council, the joint commission of the Bachelor’s program in Social and Cultural Anthropology, FU Berlin, and collaboration in the revision of the BA and MA study programs and examination regulations.
2009 and 2010
Support of and exchange with Dr. Anastasia Sai and Dr. Mark Solon (Divine Word University, Papua New Guinea) during their stays at the Institute for Anthropology at Heidelberg University (as part of a DAAD-funded project, see above).
Reviewer for Scientific Journals and Funding Programs
Anthropological Forum
Anthropos: International Journal for Ethnology and Linguistics
Ethnos: Journal of Anthropology
Food and Foodways: Explorations in the History and Culture of Human Nourishment
InterDisciplines: Journal of History and Sociology
IQAS - International Quarterly for Asian Studies
Journal de la Societé des Océanistes (JSO)
Journal for Historical Social Research
Journal of Vietnamese Studies (JVS)
Oceania
Sociologus (SOC): Journal for Social Anthropology
SSM - Mental Health
Zeitschrift für Ethnologie (ZfE) / Journal of Social and Cultural Anthropology (JSCA)
Alexander von Humboldt Foundation
Center for Interdisciplinary Research (ZiF) at Bielefeld University
Elsa Neumann Scholarship of the State of Berlin
German Research Foundation (DFG)
Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF)