Curriculum Vitae
Education & Career
2009
Head of Research Group, Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Department II - Resilience and Transformation in Eurasia
2008
Visiting Fellow, Centre for the History and Culture of East Central Europe (GWZO), University of Leipzig
2007-09
Senior research fellow and lecturer, Historical Institute, Greifswald University
2006-07
Professor for East European History, Historical Institute, Greifswald University
2006
Senior research fellow and lecturer, Historical Institute, Greifswald University
2005-06
Senior research fellow, Centre for the History and Culture of East Central Europe (GWZO), University of Leipzig
2004-05
Lecturer in East-European History, Center for Higher Studies (ZHS) and Institute for Slavic Studies, University of Leipzig
2004
Long-Term Observer to parliamentary elections (Kazakhstan) and to presidential elections (Russian Federation) on behalf of OSCE ODIHR and the MfA of Germany
2003
Long-Term Observer to parliamentary elections (Russian Federation) and Short-Term Observer to presidential elections (Armenia, Azerbaijan) on behalf of OSCE ODIHR and the MfA of Germany
2002
International Polling Station Supervisor to municipal election (Kosovo) on behalf of OSCE ODIHR and the MfA of Germany
2000-10
Senior lecturer for East-European History (Privatdozent), Faculty of Historical and Cultural Sciences, Free University of Berlin
2000
Habilitation and venia legendi for East-European History, Faculty of Historical and Cultural Sciences, Free University of Berlin (thesis title: State and Nationalities in Russia. The Process of Integration of the Buryats and Kalmyks, 1822-1925; public lecture: The Origin of the Eastern Slavs and the Beginnings of the Kievan State in Postsoviet Retrospective)
1999
Assistant to the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office on the Conflict dealt with by the OSCE Minsk Conference, as seconded by the German MFA
1995-98
Lecturer in East-European History, Free University of Berlin and Humboldt‑University of Berlin
1993-96
Research fellow, Dept. for History and Culture, East-European Institute, Free University of Berlin
1991
PhD in Social Anthropology with “summa cum laude” (thesis title: Ethnohistorical Research on the Mongolian Peoples: Socio-political Organization of the Kalmyks (Oyrats) and processes of acculturation from the 17th to the middle of the 19th century), Free University of Berlin
1986
MA in Social Anthropology with a thesis on the History of the Buryat Social Organization from the 17th to the 19th centuries, Free University of Berlin
1979-86
Studies in Social Anthropology, East-European History, Slavistics and Americanistics, Free University of Berlin
1973-77
Humanistic Grammar School, Mönchengladbach
1966-73
Grammar School for Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Mönchengladbach
1962-66
Primary School, Mönchengladbach
Research Projects
2009
Dealing with Nationalities in Eurasia: How Russian and Chinese Agencies Managed Ethnic Diversity in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries. Project of the research group “Historical Anthropology in Eurasia“ at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology (Department II - Socialist and Postsocialist Eurasia)
2009-11
The Rus‘ and the Desht-i-Qipchag: Regesta on the History of Slavia Asiatica (580-1480). Part of the German Research Association’s (DFG) special track program Integration an Disintegration of Cultures in Europe’s Middle Ages
2006-09
Cultural Appropriation und Alienation of a European Frontier Zone. The Kievan Rus‘ and the Steppe (880-1380). Part of the German Research Association’s (DFG) special track program Integration an Disintegration of Cultures in Europe’s Middle Ages
2005-06
Ethnopolitical Conflicts in the Northern Black Sea Region. Memory, Violence and the Politics of History in the Postsoviet Space. German Foundation for Peace Research (DSF)
1993-96
Policies of Russification and Sovietisation in Central Asia and Siberia. German Research Association (DFG)
1987
Archive and library research at the Institute of Ethnography (USSR Academy of Sciences) and the Historical State Archive in Leningrad. Free University of Berlin Scholarship
Archive Research, Field Work & Policy Advice
2006
Russian Federation (Northern Caucasia, Krasnodar Region, Adygeja Republic)
2004
Kazakhstan (Kostanay Province), Russian Federation (Volgograd Region)
2003
Russian Federation (Volgograd Region, Kalmyk Republic), Azerbaijan, Armenia
2002
Kosovo
1999
Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan
1997
Russian Federation (Kalmyk Republic)
1994
Russian Federation (St. Petersburg, Moscow, Buryat Republic, Kalmyk Republic)
1993
Russian Federation (St. Petersburg)
1992
USA (Chicago, Washington DC)
1987
Soviet Union (St. Petersburg, Moscow)
1984
Soviet Union (Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan)
Languages
German (native), English (fluent), Russian (fluent), Ukrainian (basic), French (moderate), Latin
Grants & Awards
1997
DFG habilitation grant
1993-94
Postdoctoral exchange scholarship between the Free University of Berlin and the State University of Leningrad
1987-90
NaFöG PhD grant from the Free University of Berlin
1987
Postgraduate exchange scholarship between the Free University of Berlin and the State University of Leningrad
Professional Bodies
2010
German Anthropological Association (GAA)
2006-08
ODIHR’s Panel of Experts on Freedom of Religion or Belief
2005
Moldova Institute Leipzig
2002
Societas Uralo-Altaica Göttingen
1998
German Association of East-European-Historians
Academic-Related Activities
Reviewer for grant applications:
ACQUIN, Alexander von Humboldt Stiftung, Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Gerda Henkel Stiftung, Schweizerischer Nationalfonds
Supervision of master theses and doctoral dissertations at the universities of Berlin, Leipzig and Halle
Teaching
(Undergraduate courses and graduate classes in East-European History)
Free University of Berlin, 1995-98, 2000-03
Humboldt University of Berlin, 1996
University of Leipzig, 2004-05
Greifswald University, 2006-07
Editorial Boards
since 2012
Editorial Board Member: History and Anthropology, Routledge
since 2010
Editor-in-Chief: Eurasian Studies Library (ESL), Brill Publishers
since 1992
Editor-in-Chief: Gesellschaften und Staaten im Epochenwandel (GSE), Peter Lang Verlag