Since 2022
Planning Group Members Frontiers of Science (funded by AvH)

Since 10/2021
Vice-Speaker of the DFG-funded Research Training Group “connecting-excluding” (GRK 2661)

2021
Professor of Cross-Cultural and Urban Communication, Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology

Since 11/2020
Vice-Speaker of the Global South Studies Center

03/2019
Visiting professor Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Saitama University Japan

2016-2017
Parental leave

2013 - present
Assistant Professor Cross-Cultural and Urban Communication, University of Cologne

2011 - 2013 
Communication Officer, University of Hamburg

2011 
Research Associate in the DFG-funded project “Megacities – Megachallenge: Informal Dynamics of Global Change“,Institute of Geography, University of Hamburg

2011
PhD in Southeast Asian Studies, University of Passau

2007 - 2008
Research Fellow, Institute of Vietnamese Studies and Development Sciences, Vietnam National University, Hanoi, funded by DAAD

2006 - 2011 
Research Associate, Department of Southeast Asian Studies, University of Passau

• Urbanism
• Media and communication
• State-society relations
• Development
• Visualization in participatory programmes
• Audiovisual methods
• Hip Hop studies
• Regions: Southeast Asia and the Pearl River Delta

Transdisciplinary Research Training Group (RTG) „including-excluding“

The work of this transdisciplinary Research Training Group (RTG) focuses primarily on practices of connecting and excluding. In globalised networks, the ability to connect and remain connected is essential for anyone seeking to fully participate in social life. This RTG is interested in the ‘counterside’ of participation programmes across a host of networks including the media, society, the economy, politics, law, art, culture, and science and scholarship, and examines aspects of exclusion inherent within the practices of connecting in globalised networks. Our research focuses on practices of local particularisation which demonstrably exist beyond the ideal of a global standard and network. These develop in a space beyond customary national and cultural boundary lines and a priori historical periods, which are crucial for defining different concepts of modernity.

Its approach sees it act as a crucible in which a range of disciplines including art, media and cultural studies can combine with philosophy, ethnology, comparative cross-cultural studies and creative and artistic practice. It acts as a meeting point for a broad range of expertise covering locations of interest from the last two hundred years in Europe, East and Southeast Asia, North and South America, and sub-Saharan Africa and Arabia. By examining divergent concepts of culture and definitions arising from local practices of connecting and excluding, the RTG seeks to identify a new transdisciplinary approach for observing the interrelationship between participation and dissidence which is designed around processual action and dialogicity. The comparison of processes of historical change and various global, regional and local spaces raises issues of power, participation, autonomy and heteronomy and reveals the fragmented perception and symbolic narrativization of the world.

Support: DFG

Cooperation Partners: Kunsthochschule für Medien Köln, Technischen Hochschule Köln

Project management: Prof. Dr. Sandra Kurfürst, Prof. Dr. Martin Zillinger, et. al.

Website:https://www.anschliessenausschliessen.de/

Duration: October 2021 to March 2026

Hip Hop and Gender in Vietnam

In my ongoing research on Hip Hop and gender in Vietnam I investigate Hip Hop as a set of cultural practices. Breaking, popping, locking, waacking, and hip-hop dance are practiced widely in contemporary Vietnam. Considering the dance practices in the larger context of post-socialist transformation, urban restructuring, and changing gender relations, I examine youth's aspirations and desires embodied in dance. Drawing on a rich and diverse range of qualitative data, including interviews, sensory and digital ethnography, I show how dancers confront social and gender norms while following their passion.

Read more on the topic of hip-hop and gender in Vietnam in my recent publication "Dancing Youth" or listen to the introduction of my book on Deutschlandradio (in German) .

Project management: Prof. Dr. Sandra Kurfürst

Duration: Ongoing

Urban Gardening – use and symbolic-communicative functions of urban food production

Urban Gardening has become a major trend in the metropolises of Europe and Northern America. In different cities of the world citizens unite to grow vegetables and fruits in the public spaces of the city. Müller (2011) considers this return of the gardens into the city a new form of urbanism.

Read more on this topic in my article "Grow at home, buy local: (De)commodifying ‘rural’ vegetables and herbs" (open access)

Support: Professorinnenprogramm, University of Cologne

Project management: Prof. Dr. Sandra Kurfürst

Duration: Ongoing

Redefining Public Space in Hanoi

The introduction of the economic reform program, Doi Moi, in 1986 opened the door for private sector development in Vietnam, as well as the country’s integration into the world economy. As Hanoi is the national political centre, it occupies an important role in Vietnam’s transformation process. The capital has become a major hub for socio-economic development. Whereas “Hanoi was renowned for its quiet streets in the 1980s” (Drummond 2000: 2382), nowadays it is characterised by its bustling street life.

Support: German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD)

Duration: 2007 - 2011