Selected Scholarly Presentations
Revisiting repatriates. About getting old(er) ‘back home’
Conference of The International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences (IUAES), Dubrovnik, May 2016
Krio ideologies of descent in current nation-state context
Annual Meeting of the African Studies Association (ASA), San Diego, November 2015
Towards liberating African Studies from the ‘triangular bias’: African-Asian interaction and exchange as a new research frontier
Conference “Africa-Asia: A New Axis of Knowledge”, Accra, September 2015
Creoles of Asia in processes of inclusion and exclusion: The example of the Betawi and Peranakan in Jakarta, Indonesia
Asian Conference on Arts and Humanities (ACAH), Osaka, April 2015
Mixed heritage and connectivity as constituents of Jakartan identity: Betawi, Peranakan, Indo
Conference: Connectivity in Motion: New Studies on the Indian Ocean World, MPI for Social Anthropology, Halle/S., October 2014
Creolization versus Pidginization: Why conceptual differentiation matters when trying to understand postcolonial diversity in terms of language and identity
Fifth Conference of the Research Group IC_UGC, MPI for Social Anthropology, Topic: "Creole Languages and Postcolonial Diversity in Comparative Perspective", Halle/S., October 2014
Creoles of Asia in processes of inclusion and exclusion: The example of the Betawi and Peranakan in Jakarta, Indonesia
Conference “Eurasians”, University of Leiden, March 2014
Krio ideologies of descent in current public discourse and performance
Panel organized by the Research Group IC_UGC: Travelling models of policy making in contemporary Upper Guinea Coast societies, Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association (AAA), Chicago, November 2013
The research program of the research group “Integration and Conflict along the Upper Guinea Coast” at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology (Halle/S., Germany)
Northwestern University (NWU), Evanston, Program of African Studies (PAS), November 2013
How size and scale affects Sierra Leone’s post-war condition
Annual Retreat, Research Group IC_UGC, Düsseldorf, July 2013
Repatriates revisited: How it feels to get old(er) ‘back home’ … and where is home anyway?
Conference “Migration and Well-being: Research Frontiers”, organized by The International Sociological Association (ISA)/Research Committee on Sociology of Migration. Tel Aviv University, January 2013.
Towards liberating African Studies from the ‘triangular bias’: African-Asian interaction and exchange as a new research frontier
Annual Meeting of the African Studies Association (ASA), Theme 2012: Research Frontiers in the Study of Africa, Philadelphia, November 2012
Bodies of circulation: Juxtaposing migration and adoption
Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association (AAA), San Francisco, November 2012 (discussant)
Transcending traditional tropes: Conceptualizing politics and policies in twenty-first century Upper Guinea Coast (with Christian K. Højbjerg)
Fourth Conference of the Research Group IC_UGC, MPI for Social Anthropology, Topic: "Transcending Traditional Toropes: Conceptualizing Politics and Policies in Twenty-First Century Upper Guinea Coas", Halle/S., September 2012
North-South dimensions in the construction of anthropological theory
Annual Retreat, Research Group IC_UGC, Düsseldorf, February 2012
Smallness matters in Sierra Leone
Conference “Small Countries”, organized by Ulf Hannerz (Stockholm) Andre Gingrich (Vienna) and Thomas H. Eriksen (Oslo), Landskrona, Sweden, May 2012
Coming of age and getting old(er) “back home”: Repatriates revisited
Conference of the Social Sciences History Association (SSHA), Boston, November 2011
Creole identity in postcolonial Indonesia
Conference “Asian Identities: Trends in a Globalized World” University of Bangkok, Bangkok, Thailand, February 2011
The Upper Guinea Coast in transnational perspective
Third Conference of the Research Group IC_UGC, Topic: “The Upper Guinea Coast in Transnational Perspective”, MPI for Social Anthropology, Halle/S., December 2010
On the role of performances in the construction of identity and belonging
First annual conference of the Centre for Area Studies (CAS) at the University of Leipzig. Panel: “Whose culture? Migrations and mutations of performance”, Leipzig, October 2010
Out of hiding? Strategies of empowering the past in the reconstruction of Krio identity (Sierra Leone)
Biannual conference of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Völkerkunde (DGV) (hereinafter German Anthropological Association), Frankfurt/M., September 2009
The Pidgin factor of creoleness or: Postcolonial pidginization beats colonial creolization University of Heidelberg, Conference “Conceptualizing Cultural Hybridization: A Transdiciplinary Approach”, September 2009
Über das Verhältnis ethnischer, religiöser und lokaler Identifikationen in Prozessen der Indigenisierung: Beispiele aus Indonesien und Sierra Leone
University of Zurich, May 2009
Towards a more comprehensive and comparative approach in the study of migrant children
Interdisciplinary Workshop “Changing Childhood in a Changing Europe” / Section “Immigration and Migration”, European Science Foundation / SCH and SCSS, European University Nicosia, Cyprus, February 2009
Krio identity in postwar Sierra Leone
Second Conference of the Research Group IC_UGC, Topic: “Margins, Diasporas, Networks: The Upper Guinea Coast and the Making of the Atlantic”, co-organized by the MPI for Social Anthropology and the Institute for Social Sciences in Lisbon (ICS), Lisbon, December 2008
The North-South politics of knowledge in the production of contemporary anthropological theory
Department of Social Anthropology, University of Capetown (UCT), December 2008
Beyond the ‘C-word’.
Conference “Multiculturalism, Conflict and Belonging”, Mansfield College, Oxford University, September 2008.
Pidginization as historical creolization’s contemporary outcome
Conference of the European Association of Social Anthropology, Ljubljana, August 2008
Postcolonial creolization beats colonial creolization
Department of Social Anthropology, McGill University, Montreal, May 2008.
Comparative perspectives on postcolonial nation-building and concepts of nationhood in Africa
Biannual conference of the German Anthropological Association, Halle/S. October 2007
Creole identity and postcolonial nation-building. Examples from Indonesia and Sierra Leone
Departamento Antropologia, Universidade Brasilia (DAN), September 2007
‘Out of Africa’ or ‘back home’? Expat children in Germany
University of Trier, Conference “Topologien des Reisens”, Juni 2007
Die modernen Bedeutungen traditioneller Geheimgesellschaften in Sierra Leone
Institut für Afrikanistik, University of Leipzig, December 2006
Creole populations’ roles in the creation of transethnic and national Identity: The cases of the Krio (Sierra Leone) and the Betawi (Indonesia)
Intercongress of the International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences (IUAES), “Transcending Postcolonial Conditions: Towards Alternative Modernities”, University of Cape Town, December 2006
Integration and conflict as dimensions of cultural tradition, social dynamics and historical experience
Workshop of the Research Network “Travelling Models and Narratives in Conflict, Conflict Prevention and Resolution” (funded by the Volkswagen Foundation), University of Stellenbosch, November 2006
Settlers in processes of nation-building: Examples from Sierra Leone and Indonesia
105th Annual Meeting of the American Association of Anthropology (AAA), San José, USA, November 2006
Creolization as ethnogenesis
Institute of Social Sciences, University of Lisbon, November 2006.
What’s alternative about alternative modernities?
University of Indiana, Bloomington, November 2006
From ‘Expat Brat’ in Africa to ‘Third Culture Kid’in Germany: About children’s ‘return’ to a foreign home
9th Bi-annual conference of the European Association of Social Anthropology (EASA), Bristol, September 2006
Social and political dynamics of creole concepts of culture and identity
University of Stellenbosch, Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology, March 2006
Experiences of (re-)migration to Germany and some remarks about the “TCK” issue
Conference of the Social Sciences History Association (SSHA), Amsterdam, March 2006
‘Orang Betawi’: Construction and transformation of a creole notion of Jakartan identity
4th International Symposium of Journal Antropologi Indonesia, Jakarta, July 2005
About the politicization of identity in Jakarta
Research Colloquium, Institute for Social Anthropology, University of Halle-Wittenberg, Halle/S., June 2005
Comparing creole ethnographies of historicity in (post)colonial settler societies: The cases of the Krio (Freetown/Sierra Leone) and the Betawi (Jakarta / Indonesia)
27th Annual and International Conference of the African Studies Association of Australasia and the Pacific (AFSAAP), Perth, November 2004
Zum Verhältnis ethnischer, urbaner und nationaler Identität in Jakarta
Anthropological Colloquium, Institute for Social Anthropology, University of Leipzig, June 2004
Wenn deutsche Kinder 'heim'kehren: Erfahrungen der Remigration nach Deutschland
Bi-annual conference of the German Anthropological Association, Hamburg, October 2003
Creolization in context: Historical, social and political dimensions of intercultural and interethnic processes in Jakarta
MPI for Social Anthropology, Halle/S., July 2003
Creole communities as agents of national and state identity: The Orang Betawi of Jakarta
Conference of the American Anthropological Association (AAA), New Orleans, November 2002
Repräsentationen von Modernität und Traditionalität in Jakarta: Die Wahl der ‘None Jakarta’ (Miss Jakarta)
Bi-annual conference of the German Anthropological Association, Göttingen, October 2001
About studying Social Anthropology in Germany
Universitas Indonesia, Jakarta, June 2001
Migrants in Germany
Universitas Indonesia, Jakarta, June 2001
What about 'tribalism' in Germany? Is there an ethnic divide between the East and the West in post-wall Germany?
Universitas Indonesia, Jakarta, June 2001
Orang Betawi, Orang Jakarta, Orang Indonesia: Konstruktion und Transformation ethnischen und transethnischen Gemeinwesens in Jakarta
Wissenschaftszentrum NRW/Science Center NRW, Düsseldorf, February 1999
Kreolität im Vergleich: Krio vs. Betawi
Institute for Social Anthropology, University of Heidelberg, June 1998
Representations of ethnicity and intercultural processes in Jakarta
Bi-annual conference of the German Anthropological Association, Frankfurt/M., October 1997
Kulturelle Kreolisierung als Konzept alternativer Modernen
Institute of Sociology, University of Bielefeld, October 1997
Creole languages as languages of ethnic and national identification
Conference of the Union of Africanists in Germany (VAD), Humboldt-University of Berlin, September 1996
Urbanität in Jakarta: Konzepte kultureller Synthese und Transformation
Institute of Social Anthropology, University of Münster, May 1996
Writing in the field
Institute of Social Anthropology, University of Bayreuth, December 1995
Nationale Identität im Spannungsfeld ethnischer und transethnischer Zuordnung
Institute of African and Asian Studies, Humboldt-University of Berlin, November 1995
Ethnic and transethnic concepts of identity and intercultural relations in Sierra Leone
Institute of Sociology, University of Bielefeld, October 1995
The Ojeh- and Odelay-Societies in Freetown, Sierra Leone: Secret societies as institutions of interethnic contact and transethnic identity in the urban context
Bi-annual conference of the German Anthropological Association, Vienna, September 1995
Kulturelle und ethnische Identität im Licht ethnologischer Symbolforschung
Institute of Social Psychology, University of Münster, April 1995
Ethnologische Forschung in Krisengebieten
Institute of Social Anthropology, University of Cologne, February 1995
Nischenkultur im Lebenslauf von Ostberlinern
Institute of Social Psychology, University of Münster, November 1994
Kreolen zwischen Sklaven- und Eliteideologie und -Kultur
Institute of Social Anthropology, University of Bayreuth, November 1994
Zu den Hintergründen des Konfliktes in Sierra Leone
Bi-annual conference of the German Anthropological Association, Leipzig, October 1993
Varianten kreolischer Identität in Sierra Leone
Bi-annual conference of the German Anthropological Association, Munich, October 1991