Björn Reichhardt
- Foto
-
- Name
- Dr. Björn Reichhardt
- Status
- wiss. Mitarb.
- bjoern.reichhardt (at) hu-berlin.de
Lehrstuhl für Geschichte und Kulturen Zentralasiens
Chair for Histories and Cultures of Central Asia
Prof. Dr. Diana Lange
Bio
I am a social anthropologist who studies human-environment relationships, multispecies relationships, and infrastructural development with a regional focus on Mongolia and Central Asia.
I completed my PhD in Social Anthropology at the University of Fribourg, Switzerland. My dissertation is focused on how rural populations in Mongolia navigate post-socialism as a condition of chronic crisis by looking at multispecies and socioeconomic relationships as embedded in pastoral milk fermentation and capitalist modes of generating growth.
At the University of Fribourg, I taught undergraduate courses on ethnographic methods where I developed a syllabus that is focused on the training of applying ethnographic research methods and ethnographic writing techniques.
I was a research assistant at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History (2017-2019) and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology (2019-2023) in the ERC-funded multidisciplinary research projects “Heirloom Microbes” and “Dairy Cultures”, which focused on the co-evolution and cultural legacy of ancient dairy bacteria and human gut microbiomes in Mongolia.
In 2022, I was awarded the Silk Roads Youth Research Grant issued by the UNESCO Silk Roads Programme, through which I was able to realize my research project "Sources of Wealth: Milk, Microbes, and the Making of Heritage in Central Asian Pastoralism.”
In my work, I value critical, reflected, and collaborative research approaches and I am committed to knowledge transfer based on local engagements and public outreach formats beyond academia.
I am furthermore a member of the Audio-Visual Commission of the Swiss Anthropological Association where I represent the University of Fribourg and engage in the organization of academic and public events and knowledge transfer.
Current teaching:
Summer term 2025
- Seminar 53742: Jenseits von Fortschritt und Krise: Wege des Kollektiven Lebens in der Mongolei (und Innerasien) [Beyond Progress and Crisis: Ways of Collective Life in Mongolia (and Inner Asia)]
PhD thesis (open access):
Ferments, fences, futures: Ecologies of transformation in rural Mongolia
List of publications:
- Reichhardt, B. 2025. “Sources of Wealth: Milk, Microbes, and the Making of Heritage in Central Asian Pastoralism” UNESCO Silk Roads Papers, Second Edition. UNESCO Silk Roads Youth Research Grant. 204-23. doi:
- Reichhardt, B. 2025. "Mongolia’s Mother Ocean: Ecologies of Transformation at the Intersection of Land, Growth and Pollution" Inner Asia 27(1), 139-165.
- Reichhardt, B. 2023: "Embracing Landscape: Living with Reindeer and Hunting among Spirits in South Siberia by Selcen Küçüküstel" Inner Asia 25(1). Book review. Pp. 178-181.
- Reichhardt, B. and Abrahms-Kavunenko, S. 2022: "Plastic Purity and Sacred Dairy: Microbes, Vitality and Standardisation in Mongolian Dairying" Copenhagen Journal for Asian Studies 40(1). Pp. 66-90.
- Joniak-Lüthi, A., Rippa, A., Clendenning, J., DiCarlo, J., Erie, M.S., Hirsh, M., Karrar, H.H., La Mela, V., Lu, J., Mostowslansky, T., Murton, G., Ng, H., Norum, R., Oakes, T., Plachta, N., Reichhardt, B., Sarma, J., Sulek, E., Tang, D., Urmanbetova, Z., and T. White. 2022: "Demystifying the Belt and Road Initiative", Fribourg, Munich, Boulder. Available at: https://bri.roadworkasia.com/
- Oakes, T., Clendenning, J., DiCarlo, J., Erie, M.S., Hirsh, Joniak-Lüthi, A., M., Karrar, H.H., La Mela, V., Lu, J., Mostowslansky, T., Murton, G., Ng, H., Norum, R., Oakes, T., Plachta, N., Reichhardt, B., Rippa, A., Sarma, J., Sulek, E., Tang, D., Urmanbetova, Z., and T. White. 2022: "China’s global development model: Looking beyond the Belt and Road Initiative", Fribourg, Munich, Boulder. Available at: https://chinadevelopmentmodel.roadworkasia.com/
- Reichhardt, B., Enkh-Amgalan, Z., Rest, M., Warinner, C. 2021: "Enduring Cycles: Documenting Dairying in Mongolia and the Alps" Current Anthropology 62(S24), special issue "Cultures of Fermentation" edited by Matthäus Rest, Jessica Hendy, Mark Aldenderfer and Christina Warinner, Pp. 343-348.
- Reichhardt, B. 2021: "From anatomic analogies to arrhythmic timescapes: Roads and development in northern Mongolia" Central Asian Survey 41(2), special issue "Technology, temporality and the study of Central Asia" edited by Julia Obertreis and Jonas van der Straeten. Pp. 277-296
- Reichhardt, B. 2021: "Pastoral Dairying in Rural Mongolia: Microbes as Heritage" Archaeology of Food and Foodways (1). Pp. 85-102.
- Reichhardt, B. 2019: “Review of Pastoralist Livelihoods in Asian Drylands: Environment, Governance and Risk edited by Ariell Ahearn, Troy Sternberg with Allison Hahn” Nomadic Peoples 23(1). Book review. Pp. 143-147
- Klausmann, K., Coppenrath, F., Petrova, M., Mamadshoeva, D., Reichhardt, B. 2018: “To transfer, but not to serve? Central Asian Studies Inside Out – a workshop report” ASIEN 148. Deutsche Gesellschaft für Asienkunde. Essay. Pp. 78-90.