I received my Ph.D. in sociocultural anthropology from Yale University and my Habilitation (second doctoral degree required for promotion in the German academic system) from the Free University, Berlin, Germany. My research, publications, and teaching are centered on the anthropology of religion, political anthropology, Islam in Africa, gender studies, media studies, and public culture. I also bring to my research and teaching a strong background in critical theory, social theory, and the anthropology of social organization. I have extensive field research experience in West Africa, particularly in urban and rural Mali. I recently embarked on a new research project in Uganda that investigates how Muslims position themselves as a religious minority in local and national contexts, and how in this process, they structure their relations to Christians in public arenas.

Dissertations Supervised

Work in Progress

Manon Diederich, M.A.
Longing to Become - On Gendered Identities and Mobilities between Senegal, Gambia and China (funded by a.r.t.e.s.)

Carolin Maevis, M.A.
Mobility, Media and Morality. Translocal Extensions of an Islamic Revival Movement – Paris and Bamako

Christoph Matthiä, M.A.
Mediality and Local Creativity in the Negotiation of Social-Ecological Resilience, Collapse and Reorganisation (Part of the Sub Project of the DFG FOR 1501)

Nelli Morkel, M.A.
Being Hui in Yunnan, China: Media practices, qingzhen, space and negotiating Sino-Muslim identities and authenticities (Part of the DFG funded project: Media-related configurations of translocal social spaces by West African Migrants in Europe)

Nicole Wagner, M.A.
Charismatic religious Leaders as Navigators in Socio-Ecological Crisis in the Lake Naivasha Region, Kenya (Part of the Sub Project of the DFG FOR 1501)

Completed

Simone Pfeifer, M.A.
Media, Gender, Generations: Translocal Networking and Media Spaces of Senegalese in Berlin and Dakar (DFG funded project: Media-related configurations of translocal social spaces by West African Migrants in Europe)

Souleymane Diallo, M.A.
Exile and Belonging: Constructing and Contesting Ethnicity among Tuareg Refugees in Niger (DAAD funded and part of the DFG funded project: Media-related configurations of translocal social spaces by West African Migrants in Europe)