Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin - Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences - Institute of Asian and African Studies

PhD Sozialanthropologie (Universität Fribourg, Schweiz)

Chair for History and Cultures of Central Asia

(Prof. Dr. Diana Lange)

Research and regional focus

• Mongolia and Inner Asia
  • Milk production and fermentation
  • Pastoralism
  • Land privatization
  • Infrastructure development
  • Nature conservation
• Social and Cultural Anthropology
  • Ethnographic methods
  • Visual anthropology
  • More-than-human relationships
  • Human-microbe relationships
  • Anthropology of food
  • Environmental anthropology
  • Economic anthropology

Research projects

2022-2023: Sources of Wealth: Milk, Microbes, and the Making of Heritage in Central Asian Pastoralism - Silk Roads Youth Research Grant issued by the UNESCO Silk Roads Programme (PI)

2019-2023: Dairy Cultures - Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology funded by the ERC (wiss. Mitarbeiter; PI Christina Warinner)

2021: Rise of Altai Mountain Pastoralism Project (RAMPP) - Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology funded by the ERC (wiss. Mitarbeiter; PI Taylor Hermes)

2017-2019: Heirloom Microbes - Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History (now Max Planck Institute for Geoanthropology; wiss. Mitarbeiter; PIs Christina Warinner & Jessica Hendy)

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.