Education and career

Since 1 April 2021: Chair of Development Politics, University of Passau.

April 2020 – September 2020: Professor for Japanese Studies (Japanologie), Institute of Asian and Oriental Studies, University of Tübingen (Interim Professor).

Focus in research and teaching: COVID-19 in Japan and East Asia, Social Media, Development Discourses in Japan und East Asia (Belt-and-Road Initiative, Health Silkroad), Neue Right und Fascism

May 2014 – April 2018: Professor of Political Sciene and Development Studies, Institute of Development Studies, University of Vienna, (Endowment Chair funded by the Austrian Deve­lop­ment Agency (ADA)).

November 2010 – May 2013: Professor of Cultural and Social Development Studies Institute of Development Studies, University of Vienna.

May 2008 – October 2010: Assistant Professor (Akademischer Rat) at the Department of Political Science, Institute of Social Science, University of Hildesheim.

October 2002 – September 2007: Assistant Professor (Wissenschaftlicher Assistent C1) at the Department of Southeast Asian Studies, Institut of Oriental and Asian Studies, University of Bonn.

2000: PhD at the University of Tübingen.

Research Focus

• Digitalisation, Social Media and Political Mobilisation
• Authoritarism, Populism, Fascism in Globaler Perspective
• Social Movement / Gender, Ethnicity, Indigeneity in Sozialen Movements
• The Inpact of China in Asien and Europe (Belt and Road Initiative)
• Critical State THeory of the Global South 
• New Constitutionalism / Law and Development
• Alternative Development Paradigms / Post-Development
• Social Policy / Wefare States / Covid-19, Biopolitics and Citizenship
• Language Policy

Regional Focus: Mainland Southeast Asia (Thailand, Myanmar), East Asia (China, Japan, Mongolia), Bhutan.

Fellowships and colsulting activities

Juni 2019 – October 2019: Fellowship at the International Institute for Asian Studies (IIAS), Leiden, Niederlande.

Mai 2019: Research Fellow at the Palacký University of Olomouc, Project "Sinophone Borderlands – Interaction at the Edges".

März – Mai 2019: Consultancy for the Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung, Berlin, Center for International Dialogue and Cooperation (ZID).

February – March 2018: Visiting Professor at the Jigme Singye Wangchuk School of Law, Thimphu Bhutan.

May 2013 – April 2014: Senior Research Fellow at the Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal–, Land- en Volken­kunde (KITLV) [Royal Netherlands Institute of South­east Asian and Caribbean Studies] Leiden, Netherlands.

2013 – 2015: Guest Lecturer at Yangon Uni­ver­sity and Concultancy in Myanmar/Burma for the Higher-Educa­tion-Support Program of the Open Society Foundation (Budapest)

December 2007 – May 2008: Guest Lecturer at the faculty of political sciences at Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok.

1997 – 2002: Trainer for Intercultural Communication and Intercultural Management Mana­­ge­ment at the Carl Duisberg Centre, Köln, Language Teacher and Translator (free-lance) for Japanese and Thai at the Foreign Ministry, Bonn.

August 2000 – March 2001: Guest Researcher (招聘研究員) at the National Language Research Institute (国立国語研究所) Tokyo.