P. (Peter) Berger, Dr

employment

2007 - present       

associate professor (since 2014) of Indian Religions and the Anthropology of Religion at the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies, RUG 

3/2023-6/2023

Mercator visiting professor, Frobenius Institute, Goethe University Frankfurt

2/2012-7/2012

visiting professor, Department of Anthropology, University of Zürich

1999-2007   

lecturer and researcher at the Institute of Ethnology, Free University of Berlin

university education

2004

Ph.D. at the Free University of Berlin. Title of dissertation: Füttern, Speisen und Verschlingen. Ritual und Gesellschaft im Hochland von Orissa, Indien (Feeding, Sharing and Devouring. Ritual and Society in Highland Orissa, India)

1998

M.A. ethnology, sociology and religious studies at the Free University of Berlin. Title of thesis: Von Häusern und Gräbern. Die Bestattungsrituale der Toraja auf Sulawesi, Indonesien. (Of Houses and Graves. Death Rituals of the Toraja on Sulawesi, Indonesia)

grants and awards

2021

(with René Cappers, UG) NWO Free Competition: Salvage Crops, “Savage” People: A comparative anthropological and archaeobotanical investigation of Millet Assemblages in India

2015

(with Sarbeswar Sahoo, IIT Delhi) Gratama Foundation: Modalities of Conversion in India

2015

Visiting Fellow at the Centre for Advanced Studies, University of Munich

2012

translation award for my book Füttern, Speisen und Verschlingen, from "Geisteswissenschaften International", Translation Funding for Work in the Humanities and Social Sciences (supported by the Fritz Thyssen Foundation, VG Wort, the Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels and the German Federal Foreign Office)

2011

lecturer of the year award; Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies

7/2003 - 4/2005 and 5/1999 - 9/2001

research funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG), title of research project: " Umstrittene Zentren: Konstruktion und Wandel sozio-kultureller Identitäten in der indischen Region Orissa"

2000

Rudolph-Virchow-Award for M.A. thesis