Dean of the Faculty of Sociology of Bielefeld University
2011-today
Scientific Member of the Senate at German Research Foundation (DFG)
2011-2019
Director, Center for Interdisciplinary Research (ZIF), Bielefeld University
2007-2009
Prorector for Organisational Development, Bielefeld University
2006-2007
Vice Dean of the Faculty of Sociology, Bielefeld University
2004
Offer for a chair at the University of Vienna: declined
2001-today
Full Professor for Social Anthropology, Faculty of Sociology, Bielefeld University
2001
Acting Director of the Center for Development Research, Department for Political and Cultural Change, Visiting Professor (50 %), University of Bonn
2000-2001
Visiting Professor for Social Anthropology (50 %), Faculty of Sociology, Bielefeld University
1999-2001
Senior Research Fellow, Center for Development Research, establishment and management of the Research Programme 'Human Rights and Development'; deputy director, University of Bonn
1998
Employment in Nepal within the first mission of the International Committe of the Red Cross as a translator (Nepali-English; Nepali-French)
1997-2000
Research fellow at the Seminar for Ethnology, University of Zurich
1996
Member of the Working Committee of the Academy of Human Rights, Bern
1994-1997
Scientific collaborator at the Seminar for Ethnology, University of Zurich
1994-1997
Lecturer at the Seminar for Ethnology, University of Zurich
1993-1994
Lecturer at the Seminar for Ethnology, University of Zurich
1992-2002
Founding and board member of the 'SUPRAS' company (Consultants on Culture and Development)
1989-today
Consultant on development for INFRAS and DEZA in the projects: 'Integrated Hill Development Project' (IHDP); 'Lamosangu-Jiri Road Project' (LJRP); 'Rural-Urban Interlinkages: A Challenge for Swiss Development Cooperation'; 'National Conservation Strategy'
1988-1990
Scientific collaborator at the Seminar for Ethnology, University of Zurich
1988-1990
Lecturer at the Seminar for Ethnology, University of Zurich
1986-1987
Lecturer at the Seminar for Ethnology, University of Bern
1984-1986
Scientific collaborator at the Seminar for Ethnology, University of Zurich
1983-1986
Lecturer at the Seminar for Ethnology, University of Zurich
1983-1984
Lecturer at the Institute for Ethnology, University of Bern
Guest lecturers & visiting fellowships abroad
2007
Visiting Fellow at the Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology and Centre for Socio-Legal Studies, University of Oxford
1999
Visiting Professor for Social Anthropology at the Institute of Area Studies (summer term), Tokyo University
1997-1998
Visiting Fellow at the Wolfson College, University of Oxford
1997-1998
Visiting Fellow at the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies, University of Oxford
1992
Implementating a series of seminars with David Gellner, University of Oxford
1992
Visiting Fellow at the Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Oxford
1992
Short term professional staff-member at the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), Kathmandu
1990-1991
Short term professional staff-member at the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), Kathmandu
Aktuelle Forschungsthemen
Sozialanthropologische Perspektiven auf Globalisierungsprozesse
Politische Anthropologie: insbesondere Ethnizität und Demokratisierungsprozesse in sub-nationalen Kontexten
Rechtsethnologie: insbesondere Menschen- und Minderheitenrechte
Anthropology of Home and Belonging
Social anthropological perspectives on globalization
Political anthropology: particularly ethnicity and democratization processes in sub-national contexts
Legal Anthropology: particularly human and minority rights