Michaela Pelican | Professor of Social and Cultural Anthropology

Short Biography

Michaela Pelican is Professor of Social and Cultural Anthropology at the University of Cologne. Since January 2024 she is the Rector's Representative for International Affairs and the Speaker of the Global South Studies Center Cologne (GSSC).

Michaela is also the Speaker of the international research unit 'The production and reproduction of social inequalities: Global contexts and concepts of labour exploitation'; the Director of the international research cluster ‘Conflict-Induced Displacement and Socio-Economic Resilience: Learning From Neglected Conflicts in Cameroon and Myanmar’; and Principal Investigator in the DFG research unit 5183 'Transborder Mobility and Institutional Dynamics'. Previously, she was the Director of the University of Cologne Forum 'Ethnicity as a Political Resource: Perspectives from Africa, Latin America, Asia, and Europe' (2013-16). Before coming to Cologne, she was a lecturer at the University of Zurich, guest professor at the Graduate School of Asian and African Area Studies in Kyoto, and a researcher with the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology in Halle/Saale. She received her PhD from the Martin-Luther University Halle-Wittenberg and her MA from the University of Bayreuth.

Michaela’s main areas of research and teaching are ethnicity, indigeneity, conflict; migration within the Global South, social inequality; research methodology and audio-visual anthropology. Her regional specialization is in sub-Saharan Africa, in particular Cameroon, Gabon, and South Africa. In recent years, she has also conducted research in the Arab Gulf States and southern China, as she is interested in the strengthening relations and transnational mobilities between Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. In addition, she has engaged in interdisciplinary collaborations with colleagues in Africa, Asia, Latin America, USA, and Europe. At the University of Cologne she has been in charge of the Department’s focus on research methodology, and has developed several research-oriented teaching programmes.

Research Interests

Regional expertise

Sub-Saharan Africa: Cameroon, Gabon, South Africa
United Arab Emirates, China