Prof. Dr. Gregor Dobler
Professor
+49 761 2033582
gregor.dobler[@]ska.uni-freiburg.de
Office: 01007 (Werthmannstraße 10)
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Academic Career
- 2019–2022: Head of the DFG Collaborative Research Centre 1015: Otium
- 09/2019–02/2020 and 10/2022–09/2023: Parental leave
- 2018/19: Visiting Scholar at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton
- Since October 2010: Professor at the Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Freiburg
- 2002–2010: Senior Lecturer at the Institute for Social Anthropology, University of Basel, Switzerland
- 2001–2002: Lecturer at the Institute for Social Anthropology, University of Bayreuth
- 2000–2001: Lecturer at the Chair of Religious Studies, University of Bayreuth
- 1996–2002: PhD in Anthropology on consumption patterns and material culture on the Ile d’Ouessant (Bretagne/ France), 1800–2000. Scholarship from the Cusanuswerk; collegiate in the Graduate School Intercultural Relations in Africa, Bayreuth
- 1991–1996: Studies in Anthropology, Political Science, and Anthropology of Europe at Freiburg, Berlin, and Bayreuth
Committees & Memberships
Membershipsd
- Member of the Executive Committee of ABORNE (African Borderlands Research Network) and of the Advisory Board of ERC Project AFRIGOS
- Member of the Editorial Advisory Board of Africa
- Member of the Editorial Board of Anthropology Southern Africa
- Member of the Advisory Board of the Journal of Namibian Studies
- Member of the Frankreichzentrum at the University of Freiburg
- Member of the Joint France Commission at the University of Freiburg
Committee Activities
- Co-Director, Freiburg Institute for Basic Income Studies (FRIBIS)
- Co-Director, Africa Center for Transregional Research, University of Freiburg
Peer Review Activities
- Reviewer of research proposals and programs for institutions such as: Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, DAAD, DFG, FCT Portugal, FWO Flanders, European Science Foundation, Romanian Research Assessment 2011, Swiss National Science Foundation, Czech Academy of Sciences
- Peer Reviewer for journals including Africa, African Affairs, Africa Spectrum, Body and Society, China Quarterly, Critical African Studies, Forum for Development Studies, International Migration Review, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, Journal of Modern African Studies, ROAPE, Social Anthropology, Sociologus, Urban Studies
My research most often focuses on economic and political anthropology, with some forays into religious topics. I have done long-term fieldwork in Southern Africa (Namibia, Zambia) und in rural France, always combining ethnography with archival work to gain a longer-time perspective on societal issues. Among other topics, I have written on work, otium and productivity; on national borders and their role in people’s everyday lives; on inequality in global economic relations; and on the changes China’s stronger role brings for Southern African societies.
Regional Focus
- Southern Africa: Research in Namibia (since 2004) on history, economic anthropology and political anthropology
- Europe: Research in Western France (since 1996) on consumption, economic anthropology, and witchcraft
Thematic Focus
- Anthropological Theory and Methods: Qualitative social-science-oriented anthropology, anthropology of the body, interdisciplinary relations
- Political Anthropology: Border studies, state and statehood, anthropology of power and domination
- Economic Anthropology: Anthropology of labor and leisure, trade, consumption and lifestyles, international economic relations and their local impacts
- Culture and Religion: Witchcraft, possession and other religious experiences; otiose leisure
Page under construction
Monographs and Edited Volumes
A complete list of publications can be found here.
- Dobler, Gregor. 2014: Traders and Trade in colonial Ovamboland, 1925–1990. Elite Formation and the Politics of Consumption under Indirect Rule and Apartheid. Basel: Basel Africa Bibliographies.
- (Reviews: Africa 85 (4), 2015; Journal of African History 57 (1); Journal of Southern African Studies 42 (2), 2016; Journal of Namibian Studies 17 (2015), Afrika Süd 1/2016.)
- Dobler, Gregor. 2004: Bedürfnisse und der Umgang mit Dingen. Eine historische Ethnographie der Insel Ouessant, Bretagne, 1800–2000. Berlin: Reimer.
- Dobler, Gregor / Tilman Kasten (ed.) 2023: Muße und Mußeforschung. Ein Kompendium. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck.
- (Mit Einleitung und vier eigenen Aufsätzen.)
- Dobler, Gregor / Peter Philip Riedl (ed.) 2017: Muße und Gesellschaft. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck.
- Dobler, Gregor and Ulf Vierke. 2005: Aufblicke. Fotografien von John Liebenberg. Bayreuth.
Journal Articles and Book Chapters
- Dobler, Gregor / Rita Kesselring. 2019: Swiss extractivism: Switzerland’s role in Zambia’s copper sector. Journal of Modern African Studies 57 (2): 223–245.
- Dobler, Gregor. 2017: China in Namibia, 1990 to 2015: How a new actor changes the dynamics of political economy. Review of African Political Economy 44 (153): 449–465.
- Dobler, Gregor. 2016: ‘Work and Rhythm’ revisited: Rhythms and experience in Northern Namibian peasant work. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 22 (4): 864–883.
- Dobler, Gregor. 2016: The green, the grey and the blue: a typology of cross-border actors in Africa. Journal of Modern African Studies 54 (1): 145–169.
- Dobler, Gregor. 2015: Fatal Words. Restudying Jeanne Favret-Saada. Anthropology of this Century 13.
- Dobler, Gregor. 2009: Oshikango: the dynamics of growth and regulation in a Northern Namibian boom town. Journal of Southern African Studies 35 (1): 115–131.
- Dobler, Gregor. 2009: Chinese shops and the formation of a Chinese expatriate community in Namibia. China Quarterly 199: 707–727.
- Dobler, Gregor. 2008: From Scotch Whisky to Chinese Sneakers. International commodity flows and trade networks in Oshikango, Namibia. Africa 78 (3): 410–432.
Transfer and Applied Publications
- AEGIS-Brill Series in African Studies (with Manuel Ramos). 32 volumes to date.
- Palgrave Series in African Borderlands Studies (with Innocent Moyo and Olivier Walther). 6 volumes to date.
- Otium. Studien zur Theorie und Kulturgeschichte der Muße (Mohr Siebeck Verlag, Tübingen; with Elisabeth Cheauré, Monika Fludernik, Hans Hubert, Peter Philipp Riedl). 28 volumes to date.
Winter semester 2025/26:
- Wissenschaftsgeschichte und Theoriebildung (Lecture)
- Einführung in die Politikanthropologie
- Kolloquium
Summer semester 2025:
- Research Sabbatical
Winter semester 2024/25:
- Einführung in die Wirtschaftsanthropologie: Ethnographie des globalen Kapitalismus
- Fotografie und Zeichnen als ethnographische Methode
- Theoretical Foundations of Social and Cultural Anthropology (Master seminar)
- Wissenschaftsgeschichte I (Lecture)
Summer semester 2024:
- Einführung in die Religionsethnologie: Praktiken, Zugehörigkeiten, Ideen
- Ethnologie staatlicher Grenzen (BaWü-Seminar)
- Kolloquium
Winter semester 2023/2024:
- Wissenschaftsgeschichte I (Lecture)
- Sozialethnologie: Erben und die soziale Reproduktion von Gesellschaft
- Ethnologische Kultur- und Gesellschaftstheorien in der Diskussion
- Masterseminar
Summer semester 2022
- Ethnologie auf der VAD 2022 (Freiburg)
- Forschungsdesign und Methoden
- Forschungskolloquium / Masterkolloquium
- Mentorat
Winter semester 2021/22
- Wissenschaftsgeschichte I (Lecture)
- Sozialethnologie
- Lektüre ethnologischer Texte
- Masterseminar
Sommer semester 2021
- Politikethnologie (Lecture)
- Dinge und der Umgang mit Dingen
- Kolloquium
- Mentorat zum Studienprojekt/ Auslandsstudium
Winter semester 2020/21
- Kolloquium für Examenskanditat*innen – Aktuelle Themen der Forschung
- Masterseminar
- Themenfelder der Anthropologie (Lecture)
- Ethnographien des globalen Kapitalismus – Seminar zur Wirtschaftsethnologie
- Wissenschaftsgeschichte I: Wissenschaftsgeschichte der Ethnologie bis 1960 (Lecture)
Summer semester 2020
- Forschungsdesign und -methode
- Mentorat
- Regionalseminar Namibia
- Wissenschaftsgeschichte II (Lecture)
Summer semester 2019
- Forschungskolloquium
Summer semester 2018
- Einführung in die Politikethnologie (Lecture)
- Ethnologie und Politik (Tandem – Seminar)
- Schreiben ethnologischer Texte
- Masterkolloquium
- Wissenschaftsgeschichte I (Lecture)
- Kolloquium für Examenskandidat*innen
- Aktuelle Ansätze der ethnologischen Forschung II (Masterseminar)
- Ethnologische Theoriebildung (Masterseminar)
- Wissenschaftsgeschichte II (Vorlesung)
- Fotografie und Zeichnung als ethnographische Methoden; Möglichkeiten, Grenzen und Techniken (Seminar)
- Landfragen in China und Afrika (Tandem- Seminar zur Wirtschaftsethnologie)
- Ethnologie auf der European Conference on African Studies (Hauptseminar)
- Masterkolloquium
- Erbe und Erben in der Ethnologie (Seminar)
- Ethnologie der Grenze (Masterseminar)
- Lektürekurs (Master)
- Kolloquium für ExamenskandidatInnen
- Wissenschaftsgeschichte II (Lecture)
- Sterben und Tod in der Ethnologie
- Entwicklung – Karriere und Kritik eines Konzepts (BW-Seminar)
- Forschungsdesign und -methode
- Einführung in die Ethnologie (Lecture)
- Sambischer Copperbelt (Seminar)
- Kolloquium für ExamenskanditatInnen – Aktuelle Themen der Forschung (Kolloquium)
- Ethnologische Kultur- und Gesellschaftstheorien (Masterseminar)
- Ethnologie der Arbeit (Masterseminar)
Summer semester 2015 and Winter semester 2014/15
- Research Sabbatical
- Wissenschaftsgeschichte II (Lecture)
- Kolloquium für ExamenskanditatInnen – Aktuelle Themen der Forschung (Kolloquium)
- Mentorium (Mentorium)