Dr. Paul Christensen

Paul Christensen is a research and teaching staff member with a regional focus on Southeast Asia. Paul studied cultural and religious studies in Bremen and Yogyakarta. He completed his dissertation project "Spirits in Cambodia - Existence, Power and Ritual Practice" (Abstract) in 2019, following a doctoral fellowship from the German National Academic Foundation. He is currently working on the research project "Sandscapes in Southeast Asia," which examines the social consequences of sand mining in Southeast Asia, particularly in the Mekong region. Using sand as an example, local ideas and movements of environmentalism, endangered cosmologies, and critique of capitalism are united in this research project by examining 'sandscapes' as sites of the Anthropocene present.

Post-Doc Projekt
"Sandscapes in Southeast Asia: the social implications of sand mining on the Mekong River" (Abstract)

Dissertation:
"Spirits in Cambodia - Existence, Power and Ritual Practice" (download/order here)

Thematic foci