Postdoc.-Ass. Dr. Christof Lammer

Professional Experience

Biography

Christof Lammer is a social anthropologist and postdoc assistant (non-tenured assistant professor) in the Department of Society, Knowledge and Politics at the University of Klagenfurt (previously in the Department of Science, Technology and Society Studies).

From April 2024 until March 2025, he was a fellow at the Käte Hamburger Kolleg inherit – Heritage in Transformation, a center of advanced studies at the Humboldt University of Berlin. In his project "Panda Heritage: Kinship Measurements and Life's Value in Species Conservation", he explored how certain species and individuals come to be considered "natural heritage" worth protecting – and others not.

Christof Lammer studied Social and Cultural Anthropology and China Studies at the University of Vienna, Tianjin University and Renmin University of China. Since 2011, he has conducted more than 18 months of ethnographic fieldwork in the People’s Republic of China. The resulting book, Performing State Boundaries: Food Networks, Democratic Bureaucracy and China, was published by Berghahn Books in 2024. It questions the othering of the Chinese state (as cultural, socialist or authoritarian other) and opens up new perspectives in the anthropology of the state by analyzing the multiplicity of performed state boundaries. Further articles have been published in journals such as The China Quarterly, Global Social Policy and Urban Anthropology.

Combining his interest in political and economic anthropology, kinship studies, and science and technology studies (STS), Christof's current projects ask how measurements, standards, and infrastructures are intertwined with belonging and value.

Two special issues emerging from this work have already been  published:

Measuring Kinship: Gradual Belonging and Thresholds of Exclusion (2021, Social Analysis, with Tatjana Thelen)

Infrastructures of Value: New and Historical Materialities in Agriculture (2024, Ethnos, with André Thiemann)

Together with Marco Lazzarotti and Jean-Baptiste Pettier, Christof Lammer co-organizes the Scientific Network "Anthropology and China(s)" funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG, 2021–2025).

Positions

since 2019/04: postdoc assistant (non-tenured assistant professor), Department of Society, Knowledge and Politics (until 2023/12 Department of Science, Technology and Society Studies), University of Klagenfurt

2024/04-2025/03: Fellow at the Käte Hamburger Kolleg inherit – Heritage in Transformation, Humboldt University of Berlin

2019/08: guest researcher, Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Halle (Saale) 

2018/06-2019/02: fellow and lecturer, Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Vienna

2017/06-07: fellow, ZiF Research Group 'Kinship and Politics', Bielefeld University

2013/02-2017/01: predoctoral researcher, Department of Methods in the Social Sciences (Ethnography Group) and Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Vienna

Memberships

CaSt Research Network (Care and State)

German Anthropological Association (GAA/DGSKA) & Regional Group Anthropology of China

European Association of Social Anthropologists (EASA) & Network on Anthropologies of the State

LOST Research Network (Law, Organization, Science and Technology)

Postgraduate Supervision and Review

Fahimi, Miriam: “F:AI:R: An Ethnography on Constructing Algorithmic Fairness”, PhD thesis, University of Klagenfurt (co-supervision with Prof. Dr. Katharina Kinder-Kurlanda, current).

Malik, Julia: “Classifying Citizens, Updating the State: How Practicing Digital Welfare Shapes Statehood in Colombia”, PhD thesis, University of Klagenfurt (co-supervision with Prof. Dr. Daniel Barben, current)

Baltiņa, Reičela (2022): “Standardization of People and their Environment: Practicing Certified Green Care in Carinthia, Austria”, MA thesis, University of Klagenfurt (primary supervision, completed).

van Bree, Willem (2023): “From Preservation to Collaboration:
Unravelling the Dynamics of Community Engagement in Rewilding Perspectives and Projects”, ESST MA thesis, Maastricht University (review, completed).

De Pablos Sanz, Paula (2022): “Ethics of Care in Agro-Food Innovations: The Cases of Vertical Farming and Permaculture”, ESST MA thesis, Maastricht University (review, completed).

2018: PhD Social and Cultural Anthropology (with distinction, promotio sub auspiciis praesidentis), University of Vienna

2014-2015: Rural Studies, Renmin University Beijing

2012: MA Social and Cultural Anthropology (with distinction), University of Vienna

2009-2011: all courses of the MA China Studies, University of Vienna

2009: BA China Studies (with distinction), University of Vienna

2006-2007: language studies (Chinese), Tianjin University