CURRENT POSITION: 

 

Assistant Professor, South Asian Studies (since 05/2008)

 

Chairman of the Board, Contemporary India Study Centre Aarhus (CISCA)

 

Section of Asian Studies

Department of History and Area Studies, Aarhus University

Ndr. Ringgade, Building 1328, DK-8000 Århus C

Tel: +45 8942 6489,   Fax: +45 8942 2047, skoda@gmx.com

 

 

ACADEMIC CAREER 

 

09/2006 – 04/2008

Post-doc Research Fellow at the Graduate School “Cultural Encounters

and the Discourses of Scholarship”, University Rostock, Germany

(funded by the German Research Council)

 

12/2004 – 04/2008

Lecturer in Anthropology at the Institute for Ethnology, Free University

of Berlin (since 09/2006 on long-term leave)

 

VISITING FELLOWSHIPS 

 

January 2008

Department of Sociology at the Delhi School of Economics, Delhi

University, India

 

February 2006 - April 2006

Department of Anthropology, Sambalpur University, India (funded by

the German Academic Exchange Service / DAAD)

 

CURRENT RESEARCH AND FIELDS OF INTEREST 

 

since 08/2003 (continuing)

on transformations of kingship, state and society in Central-Eastern

India focussing on the former princely state of Bonai as a ‘little’

kingdom in Orissa (India) in anthropological perspective 

with general interest in: political anthropology, electoral politics and

political system, Hindu-nationalism

 

since 11/2007 (continuing)

on visual traditions and regional imaginaries focussing on

photographies and the social use of photographs and images in

Central-Eastern India with general interest in: visual anthropology

 

02/2000 – 07/2003 (completed)

on peasantry, social organisation and transitions between caste and

tribal society focussing on the Aghria community in Orissa / India

(published as The Aghria – a peasant caste on a tribal frontier) 

with general interest in: caste system, kinship studies, tribal society

 

FIELD-RESEARCH 

 

Orissa, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand  / India 2003-2009:

24 months on current research projects (including 20

months field research and 4 months archival research)

 

Orissa / India 2000-2002:

18 months as doctoral research project on the Aghria community

 

Gujarat / India Sept 1995- Jan 1996 and Sept 1997- Jan 1998

as part of a research project on marriage / kinship

 

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

 

forthcoming ”Rituals and the State in South Asia”, edited together with Hermann Kulke, Wiesbaden:

Harrossowitz

2008 ”Power Plays. Politics, Rituals, Performances in South Asia”, edited together with Lidia Guzy,

Berlin: Weißensee Verlag

2007 “The kinship system of the Aghria. A case study of peasants in Middle India”, Journal of the

Royal Anthropological Institute, vol.13,  no.3,  pp.679-701.

2007 “Children - Sold and Thrown away. Temporary Identifications in a Converging Tribal and Caste

Society” in: Malinar, A. (ed.) “Identities in Time. Concepts and Practices”, Delhi: Manohar.

2005 “The Aghria: A Peasant Caste on a Tribal Frontier”, Delhi: Manohar