Curriculum Vitae

Education and Career

2020 - 
Professor of Social Anthropology, Arba Minch University, Ethiopia

2019 - 
Emeritus Director at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology

since 2002
Honorary Professor for Social Anthropology at the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Faculty of Philosophy I

since 2001
Honorary Professor for Social Anthropology at Leipzig University, Faculty of History, Arts and Oriental Studies

1999 - 2019
Director at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology and Scientific Member of the Max Planck Society
Head of the Department 'Integration and Conflict'

1986 - 1999
Professor for Social Anthropology at the Faculty of Sociology at Bielefeld University. Fieldwork in Kenya and in the Sudan

02.07.1986
Habilitation, University of Bayreuth
Habilitation thesis is published as Identities on the move: clanship and pastoralism in northern Kenya, Manchester University Press (1989), St. Martin's Press, New York (1989) und Gideon S. Were Press, Nairobi (1994)

1980 - 1986
Lecturer of Ethnology and Social Anthropology at University of Bayreuth.

1978 - 1980
Field research in Northern Kenya on "interethnic clan relations", financed by the German Research Foundation (DFG)

March 1977
Ph.D at the University of Hamburg

1975/1976
Interruption of studies to conduct fieldwork in Kenya. This fieldwork lead to the Ph.D Thesis: Das Glaubens- und Sozialsystem der Rendille

1970 - 1977
Student at the University of Hamburg (subjects: social anthropology, linguistics, and Romance languages)

Language abilities

European languages
German (mother tongue)
English, French (publications in both languages)
Italian
Spanish
Latin (reading knowledge)

African local languages
Rendille (fluent)
Boran-Oromo (fluent)
Somali (moderate knowledge)

Working languages
Swahili (fluent)
Arabic (colloquial)
Fulfulde (basic knowledge of structure)

Editorial Activities and Editorial Board Memberships

Editor of the Series Integration and Conflict Studies, Berghahn Books, Oxford, New York
Editor of  Zeitschrift für Ethnologie (ZfE) (1999 - 2011)
Member of Editorial Board/Consulting Editor of Nomadic Peoples (since 1995)
EIDOS-series, Routledge

Peer reviews for Africa - Journal of the International African Institute, International Sociology, Current Anthropology, Journal of African History, as well as Zeitschrift für Soziologie

Activities in Academic Self-Administration related to Research and Research Fundings

since 2014
Spokesperson of the International Max Planck Research School on Retaliation, Mediation and Punishment (REMEP)

2008-2013
Deputy Spokesperson of the International Max Planck Research School on Retaliation, Mediation and Punishment (REMEP)
Member of the group of spokespersons for the Research Cluster on Gesellschaft und Kultur in Bewegung

2005
Member of the evaluation team of the Research Initiative on Geisteswissenschaften im gesellschaftlichen Dialog financed by the German Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF)

2004 - 2005
Member of the evaluation team of the Research Initiative on Dokumentation bedrohter Sprachen (DOBES) of the Volkswagen Foundation (VolkswagenStiftung)

2003 - 2007
Chair of the German Anthropological Association (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Völkerkunde)

1994 - 1995
Dean of the Faculty for Sociology, Bielefeld University and Co-host & co-organizer XIII. World Congress of Sociology on 'Umstrittene Grenzen - Solidaritäten im Wandel', Bielefeld, Germany

1992 - 1997
Spokesperson of the Graduate programme Markt, Staat, Ethnizität, Bielefeld University

1991
Deputy Spokesperson Graduate programme Markt, Staat, Ethnizität, Bielefeld University

1991 - 1993
Member of the evaluation team of Gewaltförmige Konflikte in Entwicklungsregion financed by the German Research Foundation

1991
Member of the evaluation team of SFB 268 Kulturentwicklung und Sprachgeschichte im Naturraum westafrikanische Savanne, Frankfurt.

1983 - 1986
Founding member of the SFB 214, Kulturelle Identität in Afrika, Bayreuth.

Activities in Development Cooperation and Political Consulting

2004 - 2007
Backstopping of the Conflict Analysis and Conflict Resolution component of the Improvement of Farming Systems in Bay and Bakool, Somalia project, for the European Union and GtZ International Services

2004
Expert to the TACIS programme of the European Union to Conflict monitoring in Russia (Promotion of Tolerance and Improving Interethnic Relations, Russia (TACIS/EAWARN)

2002 - 2003
Expert assisting the Commission on Property Rights der Somalia Peace and Reconciliation Conference, Eldoret, later Nairobi, Kenya, for the IGAD, sponsored by the GtZ

2002
Contriubution to a workshop on Early Warning and Conflict Prevention by the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD, a regional organisation comprising Sudan, Eritrea, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya and Somalia)

1986 - 1989
Applied research for and contributions to the Kenya Range Management Handbook of the Ministry of Livestock Development, Republic of Kenya, and the Gesellschaft für technische Zusammenarbeit (GtZ)

Memberships in Advisory Boards and Committee Work

2011-2016
Member of the scientific advisory board of the german foundation for peace research (Deutsche Stiftung Friedensforschung - DSF)

since 2007
Member of the Steering Committee of the South Omo Research Centre (SORC), Jinka, Ethiopia - South Omo Museum and Research Center (SORC)

2006-2018
Member of the scientific advisory board at the Zentrum für Entwicklungsforschung (ZeF) at the University of Bonn

2006 - 2009
Member of the scientific advisory board of Staatlichen Ethnographischen Sammlungen Sachsens (SES)

2005-2006
Member of the scientific advisory board of the Mediterranean Ethnological Summer Symposium (MESS)

Memberships in Professional Associations

African Studies Association (ASA)

Vereinigung von Afrikanisten in Deutschland e. V. (VAD)

Deutsche Gesellschaft für Sozial- und Kulturanthropologie (vormals Deutsche Gesellschaft für Völkerkunde) e. V.

European Association of Social Anthropologists (EASA)

Studienwerk Sudan e.V.

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