2010-2016
Managing Director of the "Foreign Languages, Cultures and Societies" group, University of Cologne

Since 2001
Professor (C4) at the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Cologne

2000
Deputy professor of a C3 professorship for social anthropology at the University of Bielefeld

1999-2001
Research associate at the DFG project: "Spatial organization, spatial behavior and spatial cognition in intercultural comparison", University of Göttingen

1996
Habilitation for Cultural and Social Anthropology at the University of Göttingen. Subject of the Habilitationsschrift: "Rural Economy as a Cultural Process: A Case Study from Indonesia"

1987-1994
Scientific assistant at the Institute of Cultural and Social Anthropology, University of Göttingen

1987
PhD in Social and Cultural Anthropology at the University of Cologne. Subject of the dissertation: "The social reality of the ritual: continuity and change in the Makassar of Gowa"

1981
Master's degree at the University of Göttingen with the subject "The Relationship of People's Religions and Islam in Western Sudan"

1975-1987
Studies of Social and Cultural Anthropology, Arab Studies / Islamic Studies, Anthropology, Turkology, Malayology and Oriental Art History at the Universities of Göttingen, Zurich, Cologne and Bonn