Erdmute Alber

Erdmute Alber (born July 14, 1963 in Hamburg ) is a German ethnologist with research interests in political and kinship ethnology . Since 2010 she has held the chair of social anthropology at the University of Bayreuth .

biography

Professional background

Erdmute Alber studied literature, Spanish and history at the Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen and the Free University of Berlin from 1983 to 1990 . After completing her master's degree, she worked as a research assistant at the Institute for Social Anthropology at the Free University of Berlin from 1993 to 2000. a. with Georg Elwert . During this time she did her doctorate in 1997 on the subject of transformations of power and rule among the Baatombu in Northern Benin (1900-1995) . Her dissertation was awarded the Frobenius Society's Research Prize. In 2001/02 she was employed as a research assistant in the DFG- funded project Social Parenthood in West Africa . From 2002 to 2007 she received a position as junior professor for ethnosociology at the University of Bayreuth. In 2007, Alber was awarded a Heisenberg professorship by the German Research Foundation for her outstanding scientific achievements, which she took up at the University of Bayreuth in 2008/09. Since 2010 she has held the chair for social anthropology there. In 2011/12 she also received a fellowship at the Research College Work and Age at the Humboldt University in Berlin .

International research and teaching

Erdmute Alber carried out her first field research in Peru in 1988 and 1989. This has been followed by regular research stays in Benin and Togo since 1991 (since 2006). Since 2013, she has also been involved in the sub-project African Middle Classes in Departure at the Bayreuth Academy of Advanced African Studies in Kenya. She received teaching assignments at the History Department of the University of Zurich (Switzerland) and was a visiting professor at Radboud University Nijmegen (Netherlands) in 2009 .

Offices and functions

In the years 2004-10, Erdmute Alber held the office of deputy chairman for two years, then the office of chairman of the section Social Anthropology and Development Sociology of the German Society for Sociology . Since 2004 she has been the head of the pre-selection committee and since 2010 she has been a liaison professor of the Evangelisches Studienwerk at the University of Bayreuth. She has also been a Liaison Lecturer for the Heinrich Böll Foundation at the University of Bayreuth since 2004. She is a founding member and Principal Investigator of the Bayreuth International Graduate School of African Studies, where she was also the Equal Opportunities Officer from 2007–09 and Vice Dean from 2009–11. Since 2012 she has been a founding member and sub-project leader of the Academy of Advanced African Studies and since 2012 a board member of the Association for African Studies in Germany (VAD), where she was deputy chairwoman from 2012 to 2014. She has been a member of the Senate of the University of Bayreuth since 2013 and a member of the scientific advisory board of the Center for the Modern Orient (Berlin) since 2014 . From 2014 to 2017 she will be a member of the Commission for Self-Regulation in Science at the University of Bayreuth. Erdmute Alber is editor of Sociologus - Journal for Social Anthropology .

Research areas

Erdmute Alber's regional interest was initially in the Andean region. Since 1991 she has dealt with West Africa, in particular with the Republic of Benin. Her research interests are processes of social change and the resulting dynamics in politics and kinship. The focus is on two fields of research: the anthropology of politics, law and power and the anthropology of kinship, family and childhood. She is particularly interested in topics at the interface between the two fields, such as family and childhood politics, social parenting or child trafficking. Current concrete research topics are intergenerational relationships, social parenting and adoption, more recent kinship constructions, siblings, football migration and the emergence and dynamics of new middle classes. In addition to her own field research, Erdmute Alber supervises and accompanies field research in Togo, Ghana, Peru and Kenya.

Publications

Monographs

• 2014 Social parenting in transition. Childhood, Kinship and Belonging in West Africa. Berlin: Dietrich Reimer, ISBN 978-3-496-02868-0 .
• 2000 In the guise of domination. Modalities of power among the Baatombu (1895-1995). Studies in cultural studies Volume 116. Cologne: Rüdiger Köppe, ISBN 3-89645-211-8 .
• 1999 Migración o movilidad en Huayopampa? Nuevos temas y tendencias en la discusión sobre la comunidad campesina en los Andes. Lima: Instituto de Estudios Peruanos.
• 1990 And who moves to Huayopampa? Mobility and structural change in a Peruvian Andean village. Saarbrücken / Fort Lauderdale: Breitenbach, ISBN 3-88156-494-2 .

Anthologies (selection)

• 2013 The Anthropology of Sibling Relations - Shared Parentage, Experience and Exchange. New York: Palgrave MacMillan. (with Cati Coe and Tatjana Thelen)
• 2013 Child Fostering in West Africa - new perspectives on theories and practices. Leiden / Boston: Brill. (with Jeannett Martin and Catrien Notermans)
• 2010 relatives today. Berlin: Dietrich Reimer. (with Bettina Beer , Michael Schnegg and Julia Pauli)
• 2008 Generations in Africa. Connections and Conflict. Berlin u. a .: lit. (with Sjaak van der Geest and Susan Reynolds Whyte)

Articles and book entries (selection)

• 2014 family in Africa. In: Paul B. Hill, Johannes Kopp (ed.): Handbuch Familiensociologie. Wiesbaden: Springer. 147-178. (with Jeannett Martin)
• 2013 “A qui appartiennent les enfants?” Des norms et des practices de parenté sociale en Afrique de l'Ouest. In: Ute Fendler, Liliana Feierstein (eds.): Enfances? Representation de l'enfance en Afrique et en Amérique Latine. Munich: Academic Publishing Association. 69-85
• 2012 Kinship in Africa: Transformation Processes in the 20th Century. In: Thomas Bierschenk, Eva Spies (ed.): 50 years of independence in Africa: continuities, breaks, perspectives. Cologne: Rüdiger Köppe.
• 2012 foster father - foster mother - child. In: an.schlag , Nov 2012, Vienna: CheckArt. 25-27.
• Schooling or Working? How family decision processes, children's agencies and state policy influence the life path of children in northern Berlin. In: Gerd Spittler, Michael Bourdillon (eds.): African Children at Work. Working and Learning in Growing Up for Life. Contributions to Africa Research, Vol. 52. Münster: lit. 169-194.
• 2012 Child trafficking in West Africa? National child protection initiatives and the problem of working with girls in North Benin. In: Heinz Heinen (ed.): Child slaves - slave children. Fates between affection and exploitation in antiquity and in an intercultural comparison. Contributions to the conference of the academy project research on ancient slavery. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner. 43-62.
• 2011 Bonding and care as a leitmotif in the West African network of relationships. In: Hans Bertram, Nancy Ehlert (ed.): Family, ties and care. Family change in a diverse modern age. Opladen: Barbara Budrich. 533-556. (With Tabea Häberlein)
• 2010 No School without Foster Families in Northern Benin: A Social Historical Approach. In: Haldis Haukanes, Tatjana Thelen (eds.): Parenting after the century of the child. Tavelling ideals, institutional negotiations and individual responses. Aldershot: Ashgate. 57-78.
• 2009 Ethnological Generation Research in Africa. In: Harald Künemund, Marc Szydlik (ed.): Generations - multidisciplinary research. Martin Kohli on his 65th birthday. Wiesbaden: Publishing house for social sciences. 105-118.

Web links

• Prof. Dr. Erdmute Alber on the homepage of the Department of Ethnology at the University of Bayreuth
• Complete list of publications by Erdmute Alber (as of December 2016)
• Erdmute Alber in the AcademiaNet database of renowned women scientists

Individual evidence

1. ↑ http://www.ethnologie.uni-bayreuth.de/de/team/Alber_Erdmute/Wwissenschaftlicher_Werdegang/index.html
2. ↑ http://www.ethnologie.uni-bayreuth.de/de/team/Alber_Erdmute/Aemter_und_Fätze/index.html