Martin Saxer

Research Group Leader

Martin was a Clarendon scholar at Oxford and received his doctorate in 2010. He was a postdoc at the Asia Research Institute in Singapore and a Marie Curie Research Fellow at LMU Munich. He conducted extensive fieldwork in Siberia, Tibet and Nepal since 2003, directed three feature length documentary films and runs a visual ethnography blog.

CV

Academic Biography

since 2015
Research Group Leader ERC Starting Grant Project Remoteness & Connectivity: Highland Asia in the World
2016
Field research in Nepal, Visiting Research Fellow at ICIMOD (International Center for Integrated Mountain Development), Kathmandu.
2013-2015
Marie Curie Fellow at the Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich
2011–2013
Postdoctoral Fellow, Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore.
2010–2012
Postdoctoral Associate in the School of Anthropology, University of Oxford.
2006–2010
Doctoral studies on a Clarendon scholarship at the University of Oxford, Institute of Social & Cultural Anthropology, under the supervision of Charles Ramble and Elisabeth Hsu. Thesis: Manufacturing Tibetan Medicine. The Creation of an Industry and the Moral Economy of Tibetanness, assessed by Marcus Banks and Mona Schrempf.
2007–2008
Field research on the industrialisation of Tibetan medicine in the People’s Republic of China and transnational trade in medicinal plants.
2005–2006
Lecturer for Visual Anthropology at the University of Zurich, assistant to Prof. M. Oppitz. Responsibilities: teaching an introductory course in visual anthropology and a seminar on making ethnographic films, supervising student film projects, contributing to the exhibition “Trommeln der Schamanen” (2007-2008).
1998–2005
Studies of Anthropology and Sociology at the University of Zurich, Lic. phil (summa cum laude).
2003–2005
Masters thesis, including feature length documentary film “Journeys with Tibetan medicine”.
2003
Field research in Buryatia on the history of Tibetan medicine in Russia.
2002
Exploratory field research in Northern India on Tibetan medicine and ritual music (five months).
2000
Field research on ageing in Zurich’s red light district, documentary film “Mosimann”.
1994–1995
Theatre studies at the University of Bern, Switzerland.

Awards and Grants

2018
Road Diplomacy: International Infrastructure and Ethnography of Geopolitics in 21st Century Asia (with Galen Murton), 2018–2020 (2 years), Marie S. Curie Incoming Fellowship (Road Diplomacy, 751131).
2015
ERC-Starting Grant, Project Remoteness and Connectivity: Highland Asia in the World, 5 years of funding for a team of 4 people (2015-2020).
2013
Marie Curie Intra-European Fellowship, FP7-PEOPLE-2011-IEF, Project NEIGHBOURING – 298595, 2 years of funding
2012
Research Grant, Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore.
2011
ARI Academic Event Funding, Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore; used to organise international workshop “The Art of Neighbouring”, 1–2 March 2012
2011
Research Fellowship for Prospective Researchers, Swiss National Science Foundation (18 months).
2010
Writing-up bursary, School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnology, Oxford.
2009
Rajiv Gandhi Foundation’s Travelling Scholarship to India.
2008
Recipient of Zurich University’s research funding (tenable for last phase of research and writing up 2009 - 2010).
2007
SASS Language Training Grant for the study of Tibetan at Tibet University in Lhasa; Society for South Asian Studies (UK).
2006
Clarendon Scholarship; University of Oxford (3-years full funding).
2006
ORS Award (Overseas Research Students Award Scheme, UK Government, 3-years)

Professional Experience Outside Academia

2013
Consultant for the Rubin Museum of Art, New York; responsible for acquisition, outline, and organisation of photographic work and video footage for the 2014 exhibition “Bodies in Balance”.
1998 - 2003
Assistant editor of the Journal “Panorama”, project administrator, “Berufsbildungsprojekte Wettstein GmbH” (part time).
1994–1998
Actor, writer and stage director, and dramatic adviser in various theatre projects.
1994–1995
Freelance designer (education materials, poster & flyer design).
1993
Carpenter and joiner, social worker with mentally handicapped persons in Kreuzlingen (4 months).
1992–1993
Gardener, social worker with mentally handicapped persons in “Aigues Vertes”, Camphill Community near Geneva (6 months).
1991–1992
Stained Glass Design, Atelier Tre Fiori, Saint Gallen (internship, six months).

Theatre Plays

1997
Director: “Versuch mit der Dauer der Liebe”, theatre play, on tour in Switzerland (St. Gallen, Frauenfeld, and Zurich).
1996
Director/writer: “Cyberfaust”, theatre play, on tour in Switzerland (St. Gallen, Zurich, Luzern).

Internet Projects

since 2012
The Other Image – Visual Ethnography: www.theotherimage.com.

Contact:
Highland Asia Research Group
LMU, Social and Cultural Anthropology, Oettingenstr. 67
80538 Munich, Germany
martin.saxer@lmu.de | +49 89 2180 9639

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