Dr. Alexander Horstmann, 2009-2011

Curriculum Vitae

Alexander Horstmann is now Associate Professor in South-East Asian Studies at Tallinn University.

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Alexander Horstmann is a social anthropologist, contributing to Prof. van der Veer’s project on the globalization of religious networks with a project on the competition of Christian missionary movements and charismatic Buddhist movements in the Mekong region in mainland Southeast Asia.

He studied social anthropology, sociology of development, political sciences and Southeast Asian Studies (especially Thai Studies) in Berlin, Paris and Bangkok. He received his PhD from the University of Bielefeld (2000) with a work on Buddhist and Islamic movements in Southern Thailand (supervisors: Prof. Hans-Dieter Evers and Dr. Georg Stauth).

He taught anthropology and Southeast Asian Studies in Bielefeld, Berlin, Münster and Passau and was a research assistant in the research group on Islam and modern society, directed by Dr. Georg Stauth. His research was supported by grants from the German Research Foundation, the Fritz Thyssen Research Foundation, the German Academic Exchange Service and the National Bureau of Asian Research (Seattle).

Alexander Horstmann was a visiting professor at the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, Walailak University (Thailand) and Malmö Högskola.

Alexander Horstmann coordinates the scientific research network on Religious Dynamics in Southeast Asia, supported by the German Research Foundation.

His research interests include the study of religious and ethnic diversity in Southeast Asia and in a comparative perspective, Islam, Theravada Buddhism, Christianity (especially Pentecostalism and Charismatic Movements), autochthonous religion (spirit beliefs), modernity, violence, and border régimes. He is interested in the manifestations of world religions in the local context and in the encounters of the local and the global, globalization of religion and the impact of modern media.

Research projects:

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