Professional experience

 

Since 2003

   Coordinator of the Siberian Studies Centre
2000-2002   Department for Sociology and Anthropology, University of Aberdeen (Aberdeen, UK )
Research assistant (half time) of Prof. Tim Ingold for the EU-funded scientific project SPICE
1998-2000   Department for Sociology and Anthropology, University of Aberdeen (Aberdeen, UK)
Research assistant (full time) of Prof. Tim Ingold for the EU-funded scientific project TUNDRA

 

Education

 

1997-2004   PhD studies, academic supervisor: Dr. Piers Vitebsky, Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge Dissertation “What it Means to Be a Herdsman: the practice and image of reindeer husbandry among the Komi of Northern Russia”
 1993-1997   Humboldt Universität zu Berlin
Mongolian Studies, completed first section (Grundstudium)
 1988-1996   Freie Universität Berlin
Diploma in Geography with Social Anthropology and History

 

 

Field research experience and training in the Russian Federation

 

Since 2005   Multiple short visits to the city of Novosibirsk and the surroundings
1998-2005   Fieldwork trips (2 to 12 months each) to the Komi Republic and Nenets Autonomous Okrug (Northern Urals)
1994   Internship, Gesellschaft f. Technische Zusammenarbeit (German Technical Cooperation, GTZ, now: German Agency for International Cooperation, GIZ) in Halbstadt (Altai)
1993, 1995   Short visits to the Evenk Autonomous Okrug (Central Siberia)

 

 

Teaching experience

 

2009-2011  

External supervisor for PhD and MA theses in Halle and Aberdeen

Summer

term 2008

  

With Aimar Ventsel (Tartu University)
“Anthropological Engagements with Siberia”, Department of Communication Studies, RSU Rīgas Stradiņa universitāte, Riga

Winter term

2006-2007

  

With Deema Kaneff und Brian Donahoe (then MPI)
“Development, Inequality and States in Transformation”,
Institute for Social and Cultural Anthropology, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg

Summer

term 2006

   With Brian Donahoe (then MPI)
“Key Issues in Land Use: anthropological debates on nature, landscape, the environment, and property”,
Institute for Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology, University of Warsaw

 

Editorial activities

 

Since 2005   Associate Editor of the journal Sibirica (published by Berghahn)
Since 2008   Member of the scientific board of the journal Etnografia Polska
Since   2006   Member of the scientific board of the journal Études mongoles et sibériennes, centrasiatiques et tibetaines
Reviewer for Inner Asia, Journal for Rural Studies, Landscape Research

 

 

Organisation of workshops and conferences (2008-2011)

 

Oct. 2009         

With Wieland Hintzsche (Halle) and others:
“Deutsch-Russische Begegnungen 2009: Wissenschaftsgeschichtlicher Kontext der Sibirienforschung zu Zeiten von G. W. Steller und J. G. Gmelin“ [German-Russian Encounters 2009: Research on Siberia in the times of G. W. Steller and J. G. Gmelin], Francke Foundations Halle
Nov. 2008       

With Wieland Hintzsche (Halle) and others:
“Deutsch-Russische Begegnungen 2008: Sprachstudien während der russischen Sibirienexpeditionen im 18. Jahrhundert” [German-Russian Encounters 2008: Language studies as part of Russian expeditions in Siberia in the course of the 18th century], Francke Foundations Halle
May 2008  

With Olga Povoroznyuk (Moscow) and Virginie Vaté (Paris):
“Gender Shift in Northern Communities of Russia”
(financially supported by the Wenner-Gren Foundation) in Cesvaine, Latvia
March 2008  

With Piers Vitebsky (Cambridge):
“Heading North, Heading South: Arctic social-sciences research in a global dialogue” (financially supported by the European Science Foundation), Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Halle

 

 

Presentations and conference contributions (2011)

 

July 2011      “From SO36 to Herd Number Nine: How people structure space and express local identities through numbers”. Conference on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of Prof. Günther Schlee, Halle (12 July)
June 2011         

With Ludek Broz (Prague)
“Changing Habits of Travelling in Siberia”. Seventh International Congress of Arctic Social Sciences (ICASS VII). Akureyri, Iceland (24 June)  
April 2011  

“Die indigenen Völker im Hohen Norden Russlands: Landnutzung – Umweltprobleme – politische Repräsentation” [Indigenous Peoples in the Far North of Russia: land use – environmental problems – political representation]. Geographical Society, Halle (12 April)
Febr. 2011   “Usloviia i ogranicheniia raznoobraziia stilei zhizni v Sibiri: vvedenie” [Conditions and Limitations of Lifestyle Plurality in Siberia: Introduction.] “Mnogoobrazie zhiznennykh stilei na Severe Rossii, Sibiri i na Dal’nem Vostoke” [Lifestyle diversity in the Far North, Siberia, and the Far East of Russia]. Conference at Novosibirsk State University (11 February)  
Febr. 2011   “Spatial Cognition and Socialist Enclosure: The Tunguska experience”. Workshop on ”Nomadic and Indigenous Spaces: Productions and cognitions” (within the framework of SFB 586), University Leipzig (4 February)  

 

 

Functions in scientific committees and as external reviewer

 

2006-2012

  

 

Elected representative of the scientific staff of the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology to the Humanities Section in the Max Planck Society (in this function also member of search committees)
Since 2008   German representative in the “Social and Human Working Group” of the International Arctic Science Committee (IASC), member of the German Commission for IASC
2007-2008  

Member of the German Commission for the International Polar Year (IPY)
2006-2009  

Member of the Scientific Board of the BOREAS programme of the European Science Foundation (ESF)

External reviewer for the German Research Foundation (DGF), European Research Council (ERC) and the US-American National Science Foundation (NSF)

 

 

Memberships in scientific organisations

 

Since 2008   

  

 

Member of the German Society of Polar Research (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Polarforschung, DGP)
Since 2006   Member of the International Arctic Social Sciences Association (IASSA)
Since 2004   Member of the German Anthropological Association (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Völkerkunde, DGV), refounder of the regional chapter Circumpolar areas and Siberia

 

 

Participation in third-party funded projects

 

2011-2012   Co-applicant of the pilot project “Brainscapes” (directed by Prof. Günther Schlee and Prof. Robert Turner), supported by the Max Planck Society (MaxNet Cognition)
2008-2012   Documentation of the sub-project E8 “New Technologies in the Tundra“ (directed by Prof. Günther Schlee) in the Collaborative Research Centre 586 “Difference and Integration”

 

Language Skills

 

German (mother tongue)
English and Russian (fluent)
French, Komi, Mongolian, Polish
(level of proficiency depending on the location)

 

Specific Software Knowledge

 

MaxQDA, SPSS