Institute for the Science of Religion

Team

Research

Areas of interest

  • The anthropology of development (particularly with respect to modernity, infrastructure/materiality and global connections)
  • Method and theory in the social sciences (particularly with respect to anthropology and sociology)
  • The anthropology of Islam, Islam and ethnicity in Asia (particularly with respect to South and Central Asia), transnational networks

 

PhD Thesis

Azan on the Moon. Entangling Modernities along Tajikistan’s Pamir Highway

Curriculum Vitae

Education 

03/2013 PhD in Central Asian Studies, University of Bern (Switzerland) (summa cum laude)
(Faculty prize 2013 for the best PhD of the Philosophical-Historical Faculty of the University of Bern, Switzerland)
2008-2013 PhD programme in Central Asian Studies, University of Bern (Switzerland)
2007 Persian language studies at the University of Isfahan (Iran)
2006-2007 MA studies at the University of Bamberg (Germany): Turkic Studies, Persian Studies
03/2006 Mag.phil (MA) in the Science of Religion, University of Vienna (Austria) (distinction)
2001-2006 Mag.phil (MA) studies at the University of Vienna Austria): Science of Religion, Oriental Studies, Social Anthropology

 

Academic employment

since 2014 Postdoctoral assistant at the Institute for the Science of Religion and Central Asian Studies, University of Bern (Switzerland)
2013 Research fellow at the Central Asian Studies Institute (CASI), American University of Central Asia, Bishkek (Kyrgyzstan)
2013 Postdoctoral assistant at the Institute for the Science of Religion and Central Asian Studies, University of Bern (Switzerland)
2011 Erasmus-lecturer at the Masaryk University Brno (Czech Republic)
2010 Visiting research fellow at the Social Research Center, American University of Central Asia, Bishkek (Kyrgyzstan)
2008-2013 Doctoral assistant at the Institute for the Science of Religion and Central Asian Studies, University of Bern (Switzerland)

 

Other employment

since 2013 Board member of the “Central Eurasian Scholars and Media Initiative” (CESMI)
since 2011 Editor of the BBC / CESMI blog format “My Take On…”
2012-2013 President of the “Central Eurasian Scholars and Media Initiative” (CESMI)
2007-2008 Community Development Coordinator with Project Sino (Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute / Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation), Dushanbe (Tajikistan)

Publications

Selected publications           

Monograph

  • 2007. Islam und Kirgisen on Tour: Die Rezeption “nomadischer Religion” und ihre Wirkung. [Islam and Kyrgyz on Tour: The Perception of “Nomadic Religion” and Its Effect] Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.

Book chapter

  • 2011. “Kyrgyz – Muslim – Central Asian? Recent Approaches to the Study of Kyrgyz Culture in Kyrgyzstan.” In: Stephan Conermann and Michael Kemper (eds.). The Heritage of Soviet Oriental Studies. London and New York: Routledge, 291–305.

Articles in peer-reviewed journals

  • 2014. “Where Empires Meet: Orientalism and Marginality at the Former Russo-British Frontier.” Etudes de lettres 2-3, 179–196.
  • 2014. “The Road Not Taken: Enabling and Limiting Mobility in the Eastern Pamirs.” Internationales Asienforum/International Quarterly for Asian Studies 45 (1-2), 153–170.     
  • 2013. “‘The state starts from the family’: Peace and Harmony in the Eastern Pamirs.” Central Asian Survey 32(4), 462–474.
  • 2012. “Making Kyrgyz Spaces: Local History as Spatial Practice in Murghab (Tajikistan).” Central Asian Survey 31(3), 251–264.
  • 2011. “Paving the Way: Ismaili Genealogy and Mobility along Tajikistan’s Pamir Highway”. Journal of Persianate Studies 4, 171–188.