• PhD Candidate
• Associate Lecturer
• Research Assistant

• Since 2016: PhD candidate
         2016-2018: Funded by the Helene and Benedict Schmittmann-Wahlen-Stiftung
         Since 2018: Funded by DFG - Leibniz Price (chair of Anne Storch)
• 2014-2014: Magister Artium in Social and Cultural Anthropology, History, and African Studies
         Thesis: Zivilisieren und Beherrschen: Diskurse und Praktiken der 'Erziehung zur Arbeit' in den deutschen Afrika-Kolonien und im Kaiserreich (Civilise and Rule: discourses and practices of 'work education' in Germany's African colonies and in the Kaiserreich)

The spirit possession of Zar, slave trade, and slavery in the Iranian littoral of the Western Indian Ocean

• Slavery and slave trade in the Persian Gulf
• Indian Ocean trade relations
• African diaspora in Asia
• Spirit possession
• Ritual Studies
• Cultural Memory
• Critical Heritage Studies
• Indian Ocean
• Persian Gulf
• Eastern Africa (mainly Tanzania and Kenia)
• Western Africa (Nigeria)

• 2018: Iran
• 2017: Northern Nigeria
• 2016: United Kingdom; Zanzibar/Tanzania
• 2014-2015: Iran; United Arab Emirates
• 2012: Northern Uganda
• 2010: Kenia
• 2007: Kenia

• Winter term 2020/2021: Language Ecologies / Language Transfer / Language Contact
• Winter term 2018/2019: Postkolonial Theorien: Basics (postcolonial theories: basics)
• Winter term 2015/2016 (with Anne Storch): Die Afrikanische Diaspora in Asien (The African diaspora in Asia)

• 09/2020: Panel 'Crossing the Gulf - Migration, Materiality and Spirituality' at Thirtheenth Biennial Iranian Studies Conference. Salamanca/Spain (cancelled due to Covid-19)
• 04/2018-07/2018: Research Colloquium 'Ritualisierung (ritualization)' at Institute for African Studies and Egyptology. Cologne/Germany
• 09/2017 (with Andrea Hollington, Angelika Mietzner, Nico Nassenstein und Anne Storch): Conference 'Performance and Representation in Language - The Other's Other'. Cologne/Germany

• 2018
  • 'Under Sheets - The possibilities of Intimacy' at Third Workshop on Language and Tourism. Language and Intimacy: Discourses and Narratives. El Arenal/Spain.
  • 'Trading Spirits and Slaves: Spirit Possession  in Zanzibar and Iran' at Muslim Cultures in the Indian Ocean: Diversity and Pluralism, Past and Present. London/United Kingdom.
  • 'Speaking Back - Speaking Loud - Speaking About: Reden und Schweigen über (Homo-)Sexualität in Iran' at Queer Contradictions – Widerspruchsszenarien der diskursiven Positionierung von Marginalität jenseits heteronormativer Lebensentwürfe. Bremen/Germany
  • 'Just Pretend I'm not here: Autonomie und Verletzlichkeit im Ritual' at Daten, Sammlung, Kritik: Reflexion zu Disziplinarität und Absurdität. Cologne/Germany.
     
• 2017
  • 'Slavery in Iran: new approaches in research' at International conference on African slave trade and slavery across the Sahara, the Mediterranean, the Middle East and the Indian Ocean. Katsina/Nigeria
  • 'All spirits are gay - whispered anecdotes on homosexuality in spirit possession contexts in Zanzibar and Iran'. Talk at Performance and representation in language: the Other's Other. Cologne/Germany.
  • 'Connectivity in motion: spirit possession in Zanzibar and Southern Iran' Talk at Zar and possession rituals: A Comparatove View. Historical, Ethnographical and Social Aspects. Bochum/Germany.
     
• 2016
  • 'We have our own Africans: Public displays of Zar in Iran'. Talk at Linguistic entanglements, emblematic codes and languaging in tourism. Cologne/Germany.

• 2021     
  • The Other’s Other.  In Hollington, Andrea; Mietzner, Angelika; Nassenstein, Nico; Storch, Anne & Sara Zavaree (eds.) Journal of Postcolonial Linguistics (4)
  • Degarbash - On Queerness in and about Iran. In: Hollington, Andrea; Mietzner, Angelika; Nassenstein, Nico; Storch, Anne & Sara Zavaree (eds.) The Other’s Other. Journal of Postcolonial Linguistics (4)
     
• 2019     
  • “When our eyes opened” – Revisting the History of Slavery in Iran.In: Babajo Sani, Abubakar and Ibrahim Muhammad Jumare (eds.) Studies in Slavery across Africa: Experiences and Modern Resurgence. Umaru Musa Yar’adua University Press Ltd: Katsina
  • “We have our own Africans” - Public Displays of Zar in Iran. In: Mietzner, Angelika und Anne Storch (eds.) Language and Tourism in Postcolonial Settings. Bristol: Channel View Publications.