Guido SPRENGER Institute of Anthropology Heidelberg University Albert-Überle-Str. 3-5 69120 Heidelberg Tel.: ++ 49 (0) 6221 – 54 2221 Email: sprenger@eth.uni-heidelberg.de Home: Bergstr. 32 69151 Neckargemünd Germany Born: June 5th 1967, Mettmann, Germany Marital status: married, two children Academic status: Professor, Doctor Research interests: Southeast Asia, esp. Laos, Religion and Ritual, Exchange, Human-Environment Relationships, Ethnic Identity, Social Structure, Gender and Sexuality Professoral October 2010 to Full professor, Institute of Anthropology, positions now University of Heidelberg. Acting director from Winter term 2011 to Summer term 2013, Winter 2014/2015, 2016/17) September 2007 Juniorprofessor, Institute of Ethnology, – Sept. 2010 University of Münster, Germany Postdoctoral July 2004 – Postdoctoral Fellow, Institute of Ethnology, Position August 2007 Academia Sinica, Taipei Ph.D. Spring 2004 Thesis “The men who cut the money tree. Concepts of exchange and society among the Rmeet of Takheung, Laos” (in German) (“Die Männer, die den Geldbaum fällten. Konzepte von Austausch und Gesellschaft bei den Rmeet von Takheung, Laos”), mark summa cum laude (very good) Received the Research Award 2004 of the Frobenius Institute for Cultural Research, Frankfurt/Main. Publication supported by German Research Council. Work January 2000 – Member of the Research Group Cultural experience March 2003 Diversity and the Construction of Polity in Southeast Asia: Continuity, Discontinuity, and Transformation (FOR 362), supported by the German Research Council, at the University of Münster January 1997 - Computer coverage at the municipal library Oct. 1999 of Gronau, Germany 1997 - 1999 Commissioned lecturer at the University Münster May 1993 - July Administrative assistant at the Institute of 1994, April 1995 Ethnologie, M.A. Exam Münster (tasks: librarian, – Sept.1996 student information, among others) October 24th M.A., mark 1 (= very good) 1996 Thesis: Sexuality and Culture in Melanesia: a critical analysis of Malinowski’s „The sexual life of savages“ according to recent anthropological theories on sexuality (in German) Studies October 1988 - Social Anthropology October Wilhelms-Universität 1996 minors: Political Sciences and History August 1994 - Anthropology March 1995 Rijksuniversiteit Leiden, the Netherlands, in and at Westfälische Münster, Germany, Indonesian the framework of the ERASMUS program. Publications MONOGRAPHS 2006 Die Männer, die den Geldbaum fällten: Konzepte von Austausch und Gesellschaft bei den Rmeet von Takheung, Laos. (The men who cut the money tree: Concepts of exchange and society among the Rmeet of Takheung, Laos) Berlin: LitVerlag. 1997 Erotik und Kultur in Melanesien: eine kritische Analyse von Malinowskis "The sexual life of savages". (Erotics and culture in Melanesia: a critical analysis of Malinowski’s „The sexual life of savages“) Münster/Hamburg: LitVerl. at EDITED VOLUMES 2016 (with L. Prager, M. Prager) Parts and Wholes: Essays on social morphology, cosmology and exchange in honour of Josephus D.M. Platenkamp. Berlin: LitVerlag 2016 (with Kaj Århem) Animism in Southeast Asia. Oxon: Routledge. 1999 (with Kai U. Jürgens and Till Kniola) Monography Asmus Tietchens. Münster/Bochum: AufAbwegen (Revised and expanded 2nd edition 2006). ARTICLES IN PEER-REVIEWED JOURNALS Accepted Structured and unstructured misunderstandings: Thoughts towards an anthropological theory of misunderstanding. Civilisations. Accepted Communicated into being: Systems theory and the shifting of ontological status. Anthropological Theory. 2016a The connectivity of ethnic displays: New codes for identity in northern Laos. Asian Ethnicity. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14631369.2016.1148428 2016b (with Olivier Evrard (1st author), Oliver Pryce and Chanthaphilith Chiemsisouraj) Of myths and metallurgy: Archaeological and ethnological approaches to iron upland production in ninth century AD North-West Laos. Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 47,1: 109-140. 2014 Kosmologische Zoogamie: Zur Ehe zwischen Menschen und Tieren. (Cosmological Zoogamy: On the marriage of human and animals.) Paideuma 60: 25-44. 2013 Transcultural communication and social order: Comparisons in upland Southeast Asia. In: Special Issue, ed. by Meenaxi Barkataki-Ruscheweyh and Andrea Lauser. Asian Ethnology, 72,2: 299-319. 2011 Differentiated Origins: Trajectories of transcultural knowledge in Laos and beyond. Sojourn 26,2: 224-247. 2010 From power to value: ranked titles in an egalitarian society, Laos. Journal of Asian Studies 69,2: 403-425. 2009a Invisible Blood: Self-censorship and the public in uplander ritual, Laos. Asian Journal of Social Science 37, 6: 935-951. 2009b Die Pflege der Spaltung: Die Institutionalisierung von Dissoziation in der Moderne und bei den Schamanen der Rmeet, Laos. (Cultivating the split: The institutionalization of dissociation in modernity and among Rmeet shamans, Laos) Curare 32,1: 64-77. 2008 The problem of wholeness: Upland Southeast Asian cosmologies in transition. Zeitschrift für Ethnologie 133, 1: 7594. 2006a Out of the ashes: Swidden cultivation in Highland Laos. Anthropology today 22,4: 9-13. 2006b Bone transfers: Incomplete replacement in Rmeet ritual exchange. Taiwan Journal of Anthropology 4,1: 79-111. 2006c The end of rituals: A dialogue of theory and ethnography in Laos. Paideuma 52: 51-72. 2005 The way of the buffaloes: Trade and sacrifice in Northern Laos. Ethnology 44, 4: 291-312. BOOK CHAPTERS AND OTHER CONTRIBUTIONS Forthcoming Can animism save the world? In Ernst Halbmayer/Eveline Dürr (eds.) Toward an anthropology of life in the anthropocene. Forthcoming Der Traum in der Ethnologie. In Alfred Krovoza/Christine Walde (Hgg.): Traum und Schlaf: Ein interdisziplinäres Handbuch. Stuttgart: Metzler. Forthcoming Reconnecting the ancestors: Buddhism and animism on the (2017) Boloven Plateau, Laos. In: Michel Picard (ed.): Confronting local traditions and world religions. Basingstoke: Palgrave. In Press Piglets are buffaloes: Buddhification and the reduction of (2017) sacrifice on the Boloven Plateau. In: Vatthana Pholsena/Vanina Bouté (eds.) Changing lives in Laos: Society, Politics, and Culture in a post-Socialist State. Singapore: National University of Singapore Press, 281-300. 2016 Rituale in Roben? Ethnologische Betrachtungen über Juristen. In: Ute Mager (ed.): Die Rechtswissenschaft aus der Sicht ihrer Nachbardisziplinen: Ansprachen an die Absolventen der Juristischen Fakultät der Universität Heidelberg 2013 und 2014 (Miscellanea Juridica Heidelbergensis; 6), 45-59. Heidelberg: Jedermann. 2016 (with Boike Rehbein) Religion and differentiation: three Southeast Asian configurations. In: Peter J. Bräunlein, Michael Dickhardt, Andrea Lauser (eds.): Configurations of religion – a debate. A DORISEA network discussion opened by Boike Rehbein and Guido Sprenger. DORISEA Working Paper series, No. 24, special issue. 2016 Comment on Konstantinos Retsikas: The other side of the gift: Soliciting in Java. Heidelberg Ethnology Occasional Papers Series. http://journals.ub.uniheidelberg.de/index.php/hdethn/article/view/29971/23622 2016 Production is exchange: Gift-giving between humans and nonhumans In: L. Prager, M. Prager, G. Sprenger (eds.): Parts and Wholes: Essays on social morphology, cosmology and exchange in honour of Josephus D.M. Platenkamp, 247-263. Berlin: LitVerlag 2016 The Birth of Strangers: Exo- and Endosociality in Rmeet Birth Rituals, Laos. In: Gabriele Alex/Karin Polit (eds.) Childbirth and its ac-companying rituals, 16-36. Heidelberg: Draupadi. 2016 Graded Personhood: Human and non-human actors in the Southeast Asian uplands. In: Guido Sprenger/Kaj Århem (eds.): Animism in Southeast Asia, 73-90. London: Routledge. 2016 Dimensions of animism in Southeast Asia. In: Guido Sprenger/ Kaj Århem (eds.): Animism in Southeast Asia, 31-51. London: Routledge. 2015 The rank of people and the rank of things: Perspectives from social anthropology. In: Jörg Peltzer (ed.) Rank and Order: The Formation of Aristocratic Elites in Western and Central Europe, 500-1500, 39-58. Ostfildern: Thorbecke. 2015 Idiome von Zentrum und Peripherie: Transkulturalität in einer asiatischen Grenzregion. (Idioms of center and periphery: transculturality Ernst/Florian in an Freitag Asian (Ed.): border region) Transkulturelle In: Jutta Dynamiken: Aktanten – Prozesse – Theorien,227-254. Bielefeld: Transcript. 2015 Animism. In: Jesudas Athyal (ed.): Encyclopedia of Religion in Southeast Asia, 7-10. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO. 2015 Uplanders. In: Jesudas Athyal (ed.): Encyclopedia of Religion in Southeast Asia, 335-337. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO. 2014a Unser Phantom Leitkultur. In: Ursula Bertels (Hrsg.): Einwanderungsland Deutschland: Wie kann Integration aus ethnologischer Sicht gelingen?, 53-65. Münster: Waxmann. 2014b Where the dead go to the market: market and ritual as social systems in upland Southeast Asia. In Volker Gottowik (ed.): The Magic of Modernity: Dynamics of Religion in Southeast Asia, 75-90. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press. 2013 Invisible Blood: Ritual as Information Processing in Laos. In Alexander Horstmann/Thomas Reuter (eds.): Faith in the Future: Understanding the Revitalization of Religions and Cultural Traditions in Asia. Leiden: Brill: 157-176. 2012 Haben Rituale Grenzen? (Do rituals have boundaries?) Comment on: Burckhard Dücker: Rituale. Erwägen Wissen Ethik 23,2: 226-22 2011a Büffelschwarm und Mückenhorde – warum klingt das falsch? Wie Menschen Tiere eingemeinden. (A swarm of buffaloes and a horde of gnats – why does it sound odd? How humans socialize animals.) In Birgitta Huse/Irmgard Hellmann de Manrique/Ursula Bertels (Hrsg.): Menschen und Tiere weltweit: Einblicke in besondere Beziehungen weltweit. Münster: Waxmann, 19-28. 2011b Rituelle Knabenbesamung: Der Spiegel der Fremde. In Wunibald Müller/Myriam Wijlens (hrsg.): Aus dem Dunkel ans Licht: Fakten und Konsequenzen des sexuellen Missbrauchs für Kirche und Gesellschaft. Münsterschwarzach: Vier-TürmeVerlag, 90-94. 2011c (with Silke Meyer) Der Blick der Kultur- und Sozialanthropologie: Sehen als Körpertechnik zwischen Wahrnehmung und Deutung. (The gaze of cultural and social anthropology: seeing as a technique oft he body between perception and interpretation.) In Silke Meyer, Armin Owzar (Eds.): Disziplinen der Anthropologie. Münster: Waxmann, 197-220. 2010 Sharing dreams: Involvement in the Other’s cosmology; in Anne Sig-frid Grønseth/Dona Lee Davis (eds.): Mutuality and Empathy: Self and Other in the Ethnographic Encounter. Oxon: Sean Kingston, 49-68. 2008 Do the Rmeet have clans? In Michel Lorrillard/Yves Goudineau (eds.): Recherches nouvelles sur le Laos. Paris: Ècole française de l’Extrême-Orient, 559-578. 2007 From kettledrums to coins: Social transformation and the flow of valuables in Northern Laos. In François Robinne/Mandy Sadan (eds.): Social Dynamics in the Highlands of Southeast Asia: Reconsidering Political Systems of Highland Burma by E.R. Leach. Leiden: Brill, 161-186. 2006 Political periphery, cosmological center: the reproduction of Rmeet socio-cosmic order and the Laos-Thailand border; in Alexander Horstmann/Reed Wadley (eds.): Centering the margin: Agency and Narrative in Southeast Asian borderlands. New York/Oxford: Berghahn: 65-92. 2005 Ethnologie der Alex/Sabine Sexualität: Klocke-Daffa eine Einführung, (hrsg.): Sex in and Gabriele the body: Ethnologische Perspektiven. Bielefeld: Transcript: 11-40. 2004 Encompassment and its discontents: Rmeet and lowland Lao relationships; in Gerd Baumann/André Gingrich (eds.): Grammars of identity/alterity: a structural approach. New York/Oxford: Berghahn: 173-191. 2000 Die Trobriander gegen Sigmund Freud: Traumdeutung und das Konzept der Person bei den Melanesiern und den Modernen. kea 13: 21-44. 1999 Zwei Ohren hat der Kopf: die Struktur und das Unbekannte in Asmus Tietchens’ Musik/Two ears each head has: structure and the unknown in the music of Asmus Tietchens (english/german.). In 1999a: 55-107 (Neufassung 2006). 1997 Erotik, Status und Magie bei den Trobriandern in PapuaNeuguinea. In K. Lutter (u.a.) (hrsg.): Vom altjavanischen Tempel bis zum Internet. Köln: Fachschaft Malaiologie: 130143. REVIEWS AND REVIEW ESSAY 2015 Hjorleifur Jonsson: Slow Anthropology: negotiating difference with the Iu Mien. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2014. Journal of Anthropological Research 71,3: 452-453. 2015 Deborah Tooker: Space and the Production of cultural difference among the Akha prior to globalization: channeling the flow of life. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2012. Sojourn: Journal of social issues in Southeast Asia 30,2: 576-578. 2014 Review Essay: On the edge of the sacred forest. Sarinda Singh, Natural potency and political power; Forests and state authority in contemporary Laos. Michael R. Dove, The banana tree at the gate; A history of marginal peoples and global markets in Borneo. Michael R. Dove, Perry E. Sajise, Amity A. Doolittle (eds.), Beyond the sacred forest; Complicating conservation in Southeast Asia. Bijdragen tot de taal-, land- en volkenkunde 170: 355-364. 2012 Alber, Erdmute, Bettina Beer, Julia Pauli, Michael Schnegg: (hrsg.): Verwandtschaft heute. Positionen, Ergebnisse und Perspektiven. Berlin: Reimer, 2010. Zeitschrift für Ethnologie 137: 265-266. 2012 Peter J. Bräunlein Passion/Pasyon. Rituale des Schmerzes im europäischen und philippinischen Christentum. München: Wilhelm Fink, 2010. Anthropos 106: 641-642. 2010 Grant Evans: The Last Century of Lao Royalty: A Documentary History. Chiang Mai: Silkworm Books, 2009. Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde 166,4: 511-512. 2010 James C. Scott: The art of not being governed: An anarchist history of upland Southeast Asia. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press, 2009. Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde 166,2/3: 363-365. 2010 Sigrun Preissing: Tauschen – Schenken – Geld? Ökonomische und gesellschaftliche Gegenentwürfe. Berlin: Reimer, 2009. Zeitschrift für Ethnologie 135: 171-172. 2009 Sara L. M. Davis: Song and Silence: Ethnic Revival on China’s Southwest borders, 2004. New York: Columbia University Press. Aseanie 22: 193-4. 2008 Maren Tomforde: The Hmong Mountains: Cultural Spatiality of the Hmong in Northern Thailand. Münster: LitVerlag, 2006. Zeitschrift für Ethnologie 133,2: 340-1. 2005 Carol Ireson-Doolittle/Geraldine Moreno-Black: The Lao: Gender, Power, and Livelihood. Boulder/Oxford: Westview Press, 2004. Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde 161, 4: 560-1. 2004 Grant Evans (ed.): Laos: Culture and Society. Chiang Mai: Silkworm Press, 1999. Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde 160, 4: 610-612. I also published essays and reviews on pop fringe music in Auf Abwegen magazine, as well as short prose. Teaching experience My current teaching load is 9 hrs. per week per semester (4 to 5 courses). My teaching load as a junior professor (2007-2010) was 4 hrs. per week per semester. Before that, I taught select courses at Tsinghua National University, Taiwan, (2005) and at the University of Münster (1997-2003). I am teaching in both English and German. Specifically, my master courses in the past three years were in English. Selection of courses (26-32 clock hours each): Lecture Series Introduction to Social Anthropology (BA) Heidelberg Winter 11/12, Summer 12, Winter 12/13, Winter 13/14, Summer 16 Introduction to Social Structure and Kinship (BA) Heidelberg Summer 11, Summer 13, Summer 14 Translocal Relations (MA, in English) Münster, Summer 10 Anthropological Concepts of Society. Münster (BA) Summer 08, Winter 08/09, Summer 09 Topical and regional courses Buddhism in Southeast Asia (BA) Heidelberg, Summer 15 Anarchists and Animists in Upland Southeast Asia (BA) Heidelberg, Winter 14/15 Human-environment relations as gift exchange (MA), Heidelberg, Summer 15 Peripheral Sexualities (BA), Heidelberg, Summer 14 Towards an anthropology of misunderstanding. (MA), Heidelberg, Winter 12/13, Summer 16 New directions in gift exchange (MA), Heidelberg, Winter 13/14 Theories of ethnic identity (MA), Heidelberg, Summer 2011 Spirits, animals and exchange (MA), Heidelberg, Summer 2012 Anthropology of Exchange (BA), Heidelberg, Winter 10/11 Anthropology of Sexuality (BA), Heidelberg, Winter 11/12 Anthropology of Dreaming (BA), Heidelberg, Summer 12 The Life of Things (BA/MA, interdisciplinary seminar with Prof. Dr. Diamantis Panagiotopoulos, Institute of Archaeology) Heidelberg, Summer 12 Death in Southeast Asia (BA) Heidelberg, Winter 12/13 ‘Zomia’: The Anthropology of a Mountain Region in Southeast Asia. (BA) Heidelberg, Winter 10/11 Anthropology of Kinship (MA, in collaboration with Dr. James Wilkerson), Tsinghua National University, Xinzhu, Taiwan, Spring 05 Ethnic Minorities in Laos (in collaboration with C.Postert M.A.), Münster, Winter 02/03 Indigenous political systems in Oceania. Münster, Winter 98/99 Methods Courses Exchange and sharing: Research on alternative forms of the economy I. (BA) Heidelberg, Summer 16 Research Methods in the Anthropology of Kinship (BA), Heidelberg, Winter 10/11 Anthropological Research Methods (BA), Münster, Summer 2011 PhD Supervision Completed: Eva Sevenig 2016 A multiethnic village: dynamics of social morphology and transcultural communication in Baan Hadnaleng, Laos Ongoing: Frauke Mörike: “Working Misunderstandings in the Organizational System An Ethnography across three Offices of a Multinational Professional Servicing Firm in Mumbai, India” Marco Lazzarotti: “Telling Stories Makes the World: Place and Narration in a Taiwanese Catholic Village” Carmen Grimm: „Der Wert der Alten: Multiple Wissensmodelle und Praktiken der Repräsentation in der Entwicklungszusammenarbeit Deutschland/Peru“ Elizabeth Rauchholz: “Transcultural Value Transfers as Perceived by South Korean NGO/NPO volunteers in multinational teams in the United Kingdom” Freya Morigerowsky: "Death, Peace, and the Transfer of Substance among Wooi, Papua” FUNDING ACQUIRED (SELECTION) Scientific Network: “Plural Ecologies in Conflict: Anthropological Perspectives on Southeast Asia”, 2016-2019 Funded by German Research Council, 60.915 € Support for preparation of an application for a special research focus: “Limits of Self-Regulation” with Christiane Schwieren (Alfred-Weber-Institute of Economics, Heidelberg University) and Andreas Voss (Psychological Institute, Heidelberg University). Funded Research Council, Field of Focus 4: Regulation and Self-Regulation, Individuals and Organisations. 55.000 € Network of Competence Dynamics of Religion in Southeast Asia, (DORISEA) funded by the Federal Ministry for Education and Research, coordinated at the University of Göttingen. 2011-2014 (www.dorisea.org) - Supervision of Doctoral Project: Ritual Dynamics in Upland Southeast Asia (0,5 E 13) 117.600 € + Research expenses Funding acquired for the Institute of Ethnology, University of Münster: 440.402 € German-French Research Group „Local Traditions and World Religions“, 2011-2014. Funded by the German Research Council and the Agence National de la Recherche. - My research project: “Modern Animism: The Emergence of ‘Spirit Religion‘ in Laos”. Research expenses „Die rituelle Konstruktion von Khmerness“. (The ritual construction of Khmerness) Doctoral Research Project, funded by the German Research Council (Co-applicant, main applicant Prof. Vincent Houben, HU Berlin), 2011-2015. Wissenschaftliches Netzwerk: Zwischen Synkretismus und Orthodoxie: Zur religiösen Dynamik Südostasiens (Mitantragsteller) Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, 2007 - 2009 32.500 € International Conference Between China and Southeast Asia: Social order, identity and interethnic communication. 30. 8. – 1. 9. 2010, University of Münster. Funded by the Fritz-Thyssen-Foundation: 10.000 € Funding by the Internationalization Fund, University of Münster: 3,500 € Fieldwork March 2000 - May 2001 (15 months): Laos, Rmeet, ritual, social structure March - May 2002: Laos, Rmeet, influence of the nation state, mythology January – March, October – November 2005 (4 months): Laos, Rmeet, trade, labour migration, social transformation and interethnic relations January-February 2007 (6 weeks): Fieldwork, Laos, Thailand, Rmeet, labour migration, social transformation. February 2009 (2 weeks): Laos, Rmeet, oral traditions, with Olivier Evrard. July – August 2011 (6 weeks): Northern Laos, Southern Laos (Jru’/Laven), religious identity July – September 2012 (2 months), August 2013, March/April 2014 (4 weeks each): Southern Laos (Jru’/Loven), relations between local tradition and Buddhism February to April 2016 (7 weeks): Northern and Southern Laos. Humanenvironment relations, Buddhification Conferences and Conference Panels Legacies and futures of animism in the Anthropocene. Panel submitted to the conference of the European Association of Social Anthropologists, Milano, July 2016 (with Scott Simon, Univ. of Ontario). International Conference: Meaningful Destruction and Contingent Preservation. Heidelberg University (in collaboration with Prof. Diamantis Panagiotopoulos, Institute of Classical Archaeology). 4. – 5. July, 2014. International Workshop: Modern Gift Exchange. Heidelberg University, 12. – 13. July 2013. Funded by the Research Council, Field of Focus 4: Regulation and Self-Regulation, Individuals and Organisations. Kulturerbe zwischen Zentren und Peripherien in Südostasien. (Cultural Heritage between Centres and Peripheries in Southeast Asia) Panel of the Regional Group Southeast Asia. Conference of the German Anthropological Association. 2. - 5. October 2013. Challenging Classifications of Religion in Southeast Asia. EUROSEAS Conference, Lisbon, 3. – 5. July 2013, with Benjamin Baumann. Towards an anthropology misunderstanding. 12. Conference of the European Association of Social Anthropologists, Nanterre, 10. – 13. July 2012 (with Thomas G. Kirsch) Identität und kulturelle Kreativität in Südostasien. Panel of the Regional Group Southeast Asia. Conference of the German Anthropological Association, Vienna 16. 9. 2011 International Conference: Between China and Southeast Asia: Social order, identity and interethnic communication. 30. 8. – 1. 9. 2010, University of Münster. Funded by the Fritz-Thyssen-Foundation Laos and its Boundaries. 31. Deutscher Orientalistentag, Marburg, 21. 9. 2010 Animism in Southeast Asia: persistence, transformation and renewal. EUROSEAS Conference, Gothenborg, 26. – 28. 8. 2010 (with Kaj Ảrhem) Innen und Außen in Südostasien. Panel of the Regional Group Southeast Asia. Conference of the German Anthropological Association, Frankfurt am Main, 1. 10. 2009 (with Kirsten Endres) Relations that Money can buy: Negotiating Mutualities and Asymmetries in local and translocal Social Fields. Conference of the European Association of Social Anthropologists, Ljubljana, 26. – 29. 8. 2008 (with Heike Drotbohm) Conference Papers and Talks (selection) (* Invited, ** Public) * Buddhism and its others: Local comparisons of ritual and religion in Laos. Comparative Approaches to Ritual in Mainland SE Asia: Emergence or Resurgence? Workshop organized by Peter Jackson and Benedicte Brac de la Perrière, CASE, EHESS, Paris, Oct, 14th 2016 * The Language of Life and Death: Soul, body and life-cycle in Northern Laos. Age and Aging, Workshop at Université de Montpellier, Oct. 7th 2016 * The comparison of structures and the comparison of systems: a metacomparative comment Comparing culture(s). Workshop organized by Michael Schnegg and Edward Lowe, Hamburg, 27. – 29. 5. 2016 * Spirits and systems: the shape of hierarchies and the distribution of responsibility in Southeast Asia and „Western modernity“ Hierarchy, egalitarianism and responsibility. Conference organized by Joel Robbins and Anastasia Piliavsky, Cambridge, 13. – 14. 5. 2016 The state, Buddhism, and local ontologies in Southern Laos. 5th Southeast Asian Studies Symposium, Oxford, 14. – 15. 4. 2016 Is nature to culture like inside to outside in Southeast Asia? Southeast Asian Studies in Asia Conference, Kyoto, December 12th–13th, 2015 * Can animism save the world? Conference of the German Anthropological Association, Marburg September 30th – October 3rd, 2015, Plenary session Buddhism and coffee: Spirit ecologies and the transformation of locality in southern Laos. European Southeast Asian Studies Conference, Vienna, August 11th–16th, 2015. ** Das verlorene Buch: Schrift in Gesellschaften ohne Schrift (The lost book: Writing in societies without a script) Academic Lunch Break Lecture Series, Peterskirche, Heidelberg, July 1st, 2015 Non-humans as effects of social systems: Arranging the marriage of Latour and Luhmann Workshop: Animate Encounters. Anthropological association, Dec 3rd Annual – 7th, Meeting of the American 2014, Washington DC * Religion, differentiation and power. (with Boike Rehbein) Keynote speech, DORISEA conference “Kaleidoscopes of Religion: Southeast Asia and beyond”, 23rd January, 2015, HU Berlin Re-connecting the ancestors: Buddhism and animism on the Boloven Plateau, Laos. Academia Sinica, Taipei, August 18th, 2014; HU Berlin, June 25th 2015 Production is exchange: A Maussian perspective on post-human economies. European Association of Social Anthropologists Conference, Tallinn, July 31st, 2014. ** Rituale in Roben? Ethnologische Beobachtungen über Juristen. (Rituals in Robes? Anthropological observations on lawyers) Celebratory speech at the exam celebrations of the Faculty of Law, Heidelberg University, 25. July 2014. The bodies of the spirits and the hunger of the beasts. Reconceiving ritual constituencies through destruction and decay. Conference Meaningful Destruction and Contingent Preservation. Heidelberg University, 4. – 5. July 2014. Idiome von Zentrum und Peripherie im südostasiatischen Hochland (Idioms of Center and Periphery in the Southeast Asian uplands) Zentrum für Ostasienstudien, Goethe-Universität, Frankfurt am Main, 28. 1. 2014 The gift as an open question. Workshop Modern Gift Exchange, Heidelberg University, 12. – 13. Juli 2013 A critique of spirits European Southeast Asian Studies Conference, Lisbon, 3. – 5. July 2013 ** Kosmologische Zoogamie: Zur Heirat von Menschen und Tieren. (Cosmological Zoogamy: On the marriage of humans and animals.) Inaugural lecture, Heidelberg University, 19. 6. 2013 * Der Wert von Gaben und Gütern: Tausch, Ritual, Markt. (The value of Gifts and Commodities: Exchange, Ritual, Market) Paper presented at the Graduate School „Value and Equivalent“, GoetheUniversity Frankfurt, 6. 6. 2013 * Animismus in Südostasien. Institute of Anthropology, Univ. Zurich, 18. 3. 2013, also: University of Marburg, University of Freiburg, Humboldt University Berlin Application lecture at the Institute of Social Anthropology, University of Hamburg, 6. 7. 2013 (shortlisted) ** Mäntel und Masken: Wie wir jemand anderes werden – und wir selbst. (Coats and Masks: How we can become someone else – and ourselves.) Curtain-raiser talk at the Kinderuni (Children’s University), Heidelberg, 8. 3. 2013 * Die Rückkehr des Animismus. Aktuelle Ansätze zur Mensch-UmweltBeziehung in der Ethnologie. (The Return of Animism: Current Approaches to Human-Environment-Relations in Anthropology) In the Series „Heidelberg Bridge“, Heidelberg Centre of the Environment. Heidelberg University, 12. 11. 2012 The Connectivity of Folklorized Culture: New Codes for Identity in Northern Laos. Conference of the Asian Borderlands Research Network, University of Singapore, 11. 10. 2012 Fear and Loathing in the Laotian Highlands. Conference of the European Paris/Nanterre, 11. 7. 2012 Association of Social Anthropologists, * Idiome von Zentrum und Peripherie: Transkulturalität in einer asiatischen Grenzregion. (Idioms of Centre and Periphery: Transculturality in an Asian Border region) Talk in the Series: „Transcultural dynamics“, University of Mainz, Campus Germersheim, 22. 5. 2012 * Goods and ethnic difference. Conference "Post-socialist bazaars: Markets and Diversities in ex-COMECON countries", Max-Planck-Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity, Göttingen, 23. – 24. 2. 2012 ** Suche nach Freiheit. (Searching for Freedom) Public lecture at the Museum für Völkerkunde Heidelberg, 2. 2. 2012. * Perspectives on Zomia: Social and cultural relationality in the Asian uplands. Conference: Performing Identity: Ethnicity and Ethno-nationalism in the Southeast Asian Borderland Region of North-east India. Göttingen, 15. 12. 2011. * Anarchisten und Animisten. Zur Selektion soziokosmischer Beziehungen im südostasiatischen Hochland. Dept. of Anthropology, University of Tübingen, 15. 11. 2011, Institute of Anthropology, University of Göttingen, 6. 12. 2011 * Modern und nicht-modern träumen. Ethnologische Perspektiven. (Dreaming, modern and non-modern: Perspectives from Social Anthropology) Annual Doctoral Students Retreat, Study Foundation Villigst, 26. 11. 2011 Freedom from what? Anarchy and Freedom in Zomia. Conference of the Finnish Anthropological Society, Helsinki, 6. 10. 2011 * Animism, the Ontological Turn and the Anthropology of Religion. College of Religious Studies, Mahidol University, Bangkok, 3. 8. 2011 * Techniken für Geister: Ethnotopographien des Wissens im Hochland Südostasiens. University of Zurich, 5. 4. 2011. ** Die Lust am Tausch. Liebe und Erotik aus ethnologischer Sicht. (Desiring Exchange: Love and Eroticism from an Anthropological Perspective) Talk in the Lecture Series „Liebes-Erklärungen. Interdisziplinäre Annäherungen an ein unfassbares Gefühl“ (Explanations of Love) 3. 5. 2010; University of Münster * Models of sociality and intercultural communication in Upland Southeast Asia. Internationale Konferenz “Centrality viewed from the Borders: Comparisons in the ‘Asia Massif’, from the Himalaya to Mainland Southeast Asia”, Maison française d’Oxford, Oxford, 12. - 13. 11. 2009 ** Zu Tisch mit den Geistern: Was ein Ethnologe in Laos, Südostasien, erforscht. (for children) Kinder-Uni (Children’s University), Universität Münster, 16. 10. 2009, and Kinder-Uni, Heidelberg University, 10. 3. 2013 “The Sexual Life of Primitive Peoples”. German sexology and social anthropology before the Third Reich. Conference of the German Anthropological Association, Frankfurt a.M., 30. 09. 2009 ** „Finger weg Feldforschung. von („Keep den the Mädchen!“ hands Sexualität off the und Women!“ ethnologische Sexuality and anthropological field research) Lecture Series „UniArt Münster 2008: Sex“, Münster Arkaden, 4. 12. 2008 Die Institutionalisierung von Dissoziation in Moderne und Schamanismus. 2. Conference of Transcultural Psychiatry in the German-speaking world. Vienna 29. 9. 2008, and 21. Conference of the AG Ethnomedizin, Remscheid, 6.12. 2008 Ethnicity: a systems theory approach. 10. EASA-Konferenz, Ljubljana, 28. 8. 2008 Trachten, Sprachen, Rituale: Soziale Reproduktion und die Codierung ethnischer Differenz in Festland-Südostasien. Conference of the German Anthropological Association, Halle, 2. 10. 2007 * Separation and Communication in Rmeet exchange, Laos. Cnference “Imagined Centres and diverse peripheries”, Institute of Ethnology, Academia Sinica, Taipei. 11. 12. 2006 * The problem of wholeness: Highland Southeast Asian cosmologies in transition. Center of Asia and Pacific Area Studies (CAPAS), Academia Sinica, Taipei, 27. 9. 2006 The brothers of the king: Kinship, state and history in Northern Laos. 9. EASA-Conference, Bristol, 20. 9. 2006 * Bone transfers: Marriage, death and exchange among the Rmeet, Laos. Colloquium of the Institute of Ethnology, Free University Berlin, 2. 1. 2006 When the Dead go to the Market: incorporating the stranger and excorporating the self in Rmeet-lowland relationships. International Symposium Integrating the stranger, Leiden, The Netherlands, 11.-13. 12. 2002 Geldwirtschaft und Kosmologie bei den Rmeet, Nordlaos. (Money economy and cosmology among the Rmeet, Northern Laos). Annual Conference of the German Anthropological Association, Göttingen 7. - 10. 10. 2001 Erotik als Austausch (Erotics as exchange). Annual Conference of the German Anthropological Association, Frankfurt, 10. 9. 1997 Linguistic competence German (native speaker) English (very good) French (reading) Dutch (basics) Lao (basics to good) Rmeet (Mon-Khmer language, Northern Lao highlands, fluent) Memberships and other activities German Anthropological Association European Association of Social Anthropologists Finnish Anthropological Association 2009 - 2013: Spokesperson of the Regional Group Southeast Asia in the German Anthropological Association Co-Editor of Series: „Comparative Anthropological Studies in Society, Cosmology and Politics“, LitVerlag, Berlin Ad Hoc Reviewer for KITLV Press, The Australian Journal of Anthropology, The Journal of Asian Studies, The Journal of Asian Studies, Sociologus, Curare, Asian Ethnicity, Amsterdam University Press, Journal of Contemporary Religion, HAU: The Journal of Ethnographic Research. Conception and Organisation of an interdisciplinary lecture series: „Tauschen, teilen, tricksen: Andere Formen des Wirtschaftens“, (Exchanging, sharing, cheating: other forms of the economy) Heidelberg University, Winter 2015-2016 Design and application of Master program „Social Anthropology“, University of Münster Member of Network „Religious Dynamics in Southeast Asia”, funded by the German Research Council, 2007-2010 ERASMUS-Guest lecturer, University of Pardubice, Czech Republic, 5. – 9. 10. 2009 Oct./Nov. 1998 „Grenzgänger/Bilder des Fremden“ („Crossing borders: the image of the Other“) in Cooperation with Dr. Michael Prager and CinemaFilmtheater Münster; selection of movies, programme, introductory talks 5. – 23. Nov. 2002 „Das Sichtbare und das Unsichtbare: Die Arbeit der Ethnologen“ („The visible and the invisible: The work of anthropologists“). Exhibition of photographs (with Gabriele Alex), Superior Court Münster. Administrative Tasks: Head of the Examinaton Commission, Anthropology, Heidelberg University, since 2011 Head of Application Commission, BA Anthropology, Heidelberg University, since 2011 Acting Director of the Institute of Anthropology, 2011-2013, Winter 2014/15 Head of the Quality Management Fund Commission, Anthropology, Heidelberg University, 2014-2016 Member of the Research Council, Field of Focus 4: Regulation and SelfRegulation, (a funding commission encompassing three faculties), Heidelberg University, since 2012 Member of the Doctoral Commission, Faculty of Behavioural and Cultural Studies, Heidelberg University, since 2013