Univ.-Prof. Dr. J. Otto Habeck

2018 Visiting Professor, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan (1 April to 30 June)

Since 2014 Professor at the Institute of Social & Cultural Anthropology, University of Hamburg

2013-2014 Teaching at the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg

2003-2014 Coordinator of the Siberian Studies Centre, Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology

Summer 2008 Teaching at the Stradina University in Riga, Latvia

Summer 2006 Teaching at the University of Warsaw, Poland

1998-2002 Research Assistant for Tim Ingold, University of Aberdeen (on two EU-funded interdisciplinary research projects: TUNDRA and SPICE)

1997-2004 PhD studies, academic supervisor: Dr. Piers Vitebsky, Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge (partly funded by a grant of the Daimler Benz Foundation)

1993-1997 Mongolian Studies (first half completed) at Humboldt University, Berlin

1988-1996 Studying Geography, Social Anthropology and History, Free University of Berlin

• Lifestyles, distinction, exclusion
• Fences and barriers
• Periphery and deviance
• Gender relations and gender roles, i.a. in indigenous communities
• Land use in northern Asia under conditions of Global Change
• Siberia, Mongolia, circumpolar regions, post-socialist states

Laptander, Roza, Tim Horstkotte, Joachim Otto Habeck, Sirpa, Rasmus, Teresa Komu, Heidrun Matthes, Hans Tømmervik, Kirill Istomin, Jussi T. Eronen & Bruce C. Forbes 2023. "Critical seasonal conditions in the reindeer-herding year: A synopsis of factors and events in Fennoscandia and northwestern Russia". Polar Science, 101016. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.polar.2023.101016

Rasmus, Sirpa, Johanna Yletyinen, Simo Sarkki, Mia Landauer, Maria Tuomi, Marit K. Arneberg, Jarle W. Bjerke, Dorothee Ehrich, Joachim Otto Habeck, Tim Horstkotte, Sonja Kivinen, Teresa Komu, Timo Kumpula, Leena Leppänen, Heidrun Matthes, Christian Rixen, Sari Stark, Ningning Sun, Hans Tømmervik, Bruce C. Forbes & Jussi T. Eronen 2024. "Policy documents considering biodiversity, land use, and climate in the European Arctic reveal visible, hidden, and imagined nexus approaches". One Earth, 3 January 2024. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oneear.2023.12.010

Rasmus, Sirpa, Roza Laptander, Joachim Otto Habeck, Tim Horstkotte, Kirill Istomin, Teresa Komu, Heidrun Matthes, Simo Sarkki, Hans Tømmervik, Irina Wang, Bruce C. Forbes & Jussi T. Eronen (SUBMITTED). "Rethinking adaptation of traditional livelihoods in a rapidly changing Arctic". Submitted to Nature Sustainability (Analysis). 

Habeck, Joachim Otto 2020. "Private-in-the-collective: comparing the history and legacy of sovkhoism in Poland and Germany". REGION: Regional Studies of Russia, Eastern Europe, and Central Asia, 9 (1): 117-138.

Beloliubskaia, Galina & Joachim Otto Habeck [Khabek] 2020. "Zhilishchnaia mobil'nost', lichnoe prostranstvo i osobennosti gorodskogo razvitiia Yakutska" [Housing mobility, personal space, and peculiarities of the development of Yakutsk]. In: Shabaev, Yurii et al. (red.): Antropologiia goroda, vol. 2: Severnyi gorod: kul'turnoe prostranstvo i kul'turnye identichnosti v arkticheskikh i subarkticheskikh gorodakh, pp. 151-173. Moskva: RGGU; Syktyvkar: Institut yazyka, literatury i istorii Komi Nauchnogo Tsentra.

Habeck, Joachim Otto 2021. "Im Souterrain: das Seminar für Völkerkunde der Universität Hamburg in den 1970er Jahren" [In the basement: the institute of ethnology at the University of Hamburg in the 1970s]. In: Nicolaysen, Rainer, Eckart Krause und Gunnar B. Zimmermann (eds): 100 Jahre Universität Hamburg: Studien zur Hamburger Universitäts- und Wissenschaftsgeschichte in vier Bänden, vol. 3. Göttingen: Wallstein.

Habeck, Joachim Otto 2022. "Ulla Johansen (1927-2021)". Nachruf [Obituary]. Zeitschrift für Ethnologie: Journal of Social and Cultural Anthropology, 147 (1-2): 211-214.

 Habeck, Joachim Otto & Agnieszka Halemba 2022. "Direkte Nachbarschaft in der Grenzregion: Erwartungen und Herausforderungen". In: Dahl, Martin, Magdalena Lemańczyk, Peter Oliver Loew & Agnieszka Łada-Konefał (eds): Von der Versöhnung zur Alltäglichkeit? 30 Jahre deutsch-polnische Nachbarschaft, pp. 99-112. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.

Habeck, Joachim Otto & Agnieszka Halemba 2022. "Bezpośrednie sąsiedztwo w regionie przygranicznym: oczekiwania i wyzwania" [Immediate neighbourhood in the border region: expectations and challenges]. In: Dahl, Martin, Magdalena Lemańczyk, Peter Oliver Loew & Agnieszka Łada-Konefał (eds): Od pojednania do codzienności? 30 lat polsko-niemieckiego sąsiedztwa. Warszawa: Instytut Studiów Politycznych Polskiej Akademii Nauk.

Istomin, Kirill, Joachim Otto Habeck & Roza Laptander 2022. "Reindeer Herding Statistics in Russia: issues of reliability, interpretation, and political effect". Pastoralism: Research, Policy and Practice, 12(1): 19. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13570-022-00233-9

Habeck, Joachim Otto & Frank Schmitz (eds) 2023. Ruinen und vergessene Orte: Materialität im Verfall – Nachnutzungen – Umdeutungen [Ruins and lost places: materiality in decay – after-use – re-interpretations]. Bielefeld: transcript.

Complete List of Publications

2020 "Future prospects of post-industrial towns". Presentation for students at the University of Petroșani, Department of Sociology and Social Work, Petroșani (10 March)

 2019 Halemba, Agnieszka, J. Otto Habeck & Isabel Cellati: "Życie na granicy - transnarodowe praktyki mieszkańców polsko-niemieckiego pogranicza" [Life at the border: transnational practices of inhabitants of the Polish-German border region]. Workshop of perspektywa, "Vom Grenzraum zum Begegnungsraum. Engagement und Bürgerbeteiligung auf dem Dorf" [From a border space towards a meeting space: social commitment and citizens’ participation in the countryside], Groß Pinnow (29 November)

 2019 "Aufs Rentier gekommen: Rentierhaltung im Hohen Norden Russlands in sowjetischer und heutiger Zeit" [Reindeer herding in the Far North of Russia in Soviet times and at present]. Interessengemeinschaft Tunneltal, Public Library of Ahrensburg (10 October)

 2019 "Recollecting 'sustainable development' in research and regional politics of northern Russia". Biannual Conference of the German Anthropological Association (DGSKA-Tagung), Konstanz (30 September)

 2019 "Engagement with land use conflicts in the North of Russia: lessons from Anthropology". Inter-Congress of IUAES (International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences) on “World Solidarities”, Poznań, (28 September)

2019 Dudeck, Stephan & J. Otto Habeck: “Gender in Arctic Communities”. Presentation at the workshop “Gateway to the Arctic Workshop VI. Perceiving Arctic Change: Climate, Society and Sustainability”, Bremerhaven (27. März)

2019 Habeck, J. Otto & Mathias Ulrich: “Permafrost and pastoral land use: environmental and social-economic dynamics under conditions of past and current climate change”. Arctic Science Summit Week, Arkhangelsk (22 March)

  2018 Habeck, J. Otto & Joseph Long: “Travel Biography Interviews and Photo Elicitation as Methods for Studying Lifestyle in Russia”. Presentation at the workshop “Translocal Ethnographies of Mobilities and Boundaries”, Humboldt-Universität Berlin (7. Dezember)

2018 “Plurality of research methods: empirical studies on urban youth and social change and below”. Presentation at the workshop “Overcoming the distance – urban pioneers in Eastern Europe”, ZOIS (Centre for East European International Studies) Berlin (23. Oktober)

2018  “Land improvement under conditions of permafrost: melioratsiia and intended forms of environmental change in Soviet Yakutia”. Presentation at Mie University, Tsu, Japan (17. Juni)

2017 Habeck, J. Otto & Mathias Ulrich: “How to Study an Exemplary Social-Ecological System: Pastoralism in a Permafrost Landscape”. Arctic Science Summit Week, Prague (4. April)

2017 Gunhild Hoogensen Gjørv, May-Britt Öhman, Brenda Parlee, Olga Ulturgasheva, J. Otto Habeck & Virginie Vaté: "Roundtable: Gender, Gender Studies, and gendered science in the Far North and the Arctic", Ninth International Conference on Arctic Social Sciences (ICASS IX), Umeå (9. Juni)

2017 Agnieszka Halemba & J. Otto Habeck: " Life at the border: insights from a Polish-German anthropological field research co-laboratory", Ethnologisches Kolloquium, Hamburg (18. April)

2017 "Nomadenlager und Eigentumswohnung: Veränderungen der Umweltwahrnehmung beim Übergang von mobilen zu festen Wohnformen" [Nomadic camp and individually owned flat: changes in the perception of the environment in the transition from mobile to sedentary forms of dwelling], Archäologisches Museum Hamburg (9. März) 

2017 "Remoteness as an asset", International Conference on "Gender Shifts and Resource Politics in the Arctic", Uppsala (21.-23. Februar)

2016 Agnieszka Halemba & J. Otto Habeck: "New Directions in the Polish-German borderland – Towards a Pomeranian or Some Different Identification?", First Tomsk Forum on Anthropology (Antropologiia v poiskakh novogo yazyka opisaniia), Tomsk (15. September)

2016 Keynote Speech, “Livelihoods on Frozen Ground: Why Permafrost Matters to Indigenous Communities in Siberia and Elsewhere”, XI International Conference on Permafrost (ICOP), Potsdam (24. Juni)

2016 Presentation, Young Researchers’ Workshop at the XI International Conference on Permafrost (ICOP), Potsdam (18. Juni)

2016 "Feldforschung in Sibirien (Jakutsk) 2015: Forschungsergebnisse und Eindrücke aus dem heutigen Russland" [Fied research in Siberia, Yakutsk 2015: research results and impressions from contemporary Russia]". Vortrag für den Verein der Freunde des Museums für Völkerkunde Hamburg (27. April)

2016 Presentation at the Symposium "Do we speak the same language of science?", Arctic Science Summit Week (ASSW), Fairbanks, Alaska (13. März)

2016 "The Anthropology of Waiting: A Siberian perspective". Internationale Tagung "Infrastructure in the Arctic (and Elsewhere) as a Social and Ecological Challenge", Wien (15.-16. Januar)

2015 "Wohnkultur in Sibirien: Mobilität – Territorialität – Abgrenzung" [Cultivating homes in Siberia: mobility – territoriality – distinction]. Berliner Gesellschaft für Anthropologie, Ethnologie und Urgeschichte, Berlin (7. Dezember)

2015 J. Otto Habeck & Galina Belolyubskaya: "Fences and private/public spaces in a Siberian city". Tagung der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Völkerkunde, Marburg (Germany) (2. Oktober)

2015 "Zwischen Eiswüste und Gemüsegarten: Rentierhirten im Hohen Norden Russlands" [Between ice desert and vegetable plot: reindeer herders in the Far North of Russia]. Evangelische Studentengemeinde, Rostock (13. Mai)

2015 Kirill Istomin & J. Otto Habeck: "Permafrost and indigenous land use in the Northern Urals: Komi and Nenets reindeer husbandry". Poster presentation, Arctic Science Summit Week (ASSW), Toyama (28.-29. April)

2014 “Hangover: eine kulturvergleichende Betrachtung des Umgangs mit den Folgen exzessiven Alkoholkonsums” [Hangover: a cross-cultural perspective on how to tackle the consequences of excessive alcohol consumption]. Jüdisches Krankenhaus Berlin (25. September)

2014 “Make Love Fake War: playgrounds for adults in post-Soviet space“. Survival Kit 6 – Symposium: “Urban Utopia: art and culture as a tool for exploring and researching a city”, Riga (13. September)

2014 “The Rise and Fall of the Soviet Herdsman: mobility, management and herding techniques in Russian reindeer husbandry since the 1920s”. Internationale Tagung “On the Road: bioarchaeological and cultural scientific aspects of non-sedentary communities”, Berlin (16. Mai)

2014 “Lifestyle in Siberia: how social theory of Western Europe plays out in post-Soviet Asia”. Invited lecture, Department of Social Anthropology, University of Durham (30. Januar)

2020

"Gender in Polar Research: gendered fieldwork conditions, epistemologies and legacies". Online workshop at the Arctic Science Summit Week 2020, Akureyri, 30 March (with Gertrude Saxinger, Stephan Dudeck and Katariina Kyrölä).

2019

“Permafrost and pastoral land use in Mongolia: environmental and social-economic dynamics under conditions of past and current climate change”, Ulaanbaatar, 20-24 March 2019 (with A. Dashtseren)

“De//kolonisiert? Indigenität, Subjektivität, Souveränität”, Hamburg, 8-10 February 2019 (with Andreas Womelsdorf and Gertrude Saxinger)

2018

“Queering Indigeneity: Indigenous Queer Intersections in the Arctic”, Oulu, 6 September 2018, workshop as side meeting of the UArctic Congress (with Gertrude Saxinger, Rauna Kuokkanen and Gunhild Hoogensen Gjørv)

2014

Workshop "Permafrost Dynamics and Indigenous Land Use" at the Arctic Sciences Summit Week, Helsinki, 6-7 April (with Hiroki Takakura)

2012

"Deutsch-Russische Begegnungen 2012: Vom Sammeln zum Systematisieren" (German-Russian Meeting 2012, on the development of taxonomic systems in different branches of sciences in 18th-century Russia). Francke Foundations, Halle, Germany, 17-21 Oktober (with Wieland Hintzsche, Halle, and others)