Prof. Dr. Magnus Treiber

My Curriculum Vitae

After spending several years in Bayreuth and Addis Ababa, I have been teaching at the Institute of Ethnology at the University of Munich since 2016. My research focuses in particular on displacement, migration, and political conflict, with a regional emphasis on the Horn of Africa, as well as on issues of global asymmetry and responsibility.

My Research

In the Horn of Africa, it is not only multiscale conflicts over resources that are on the rise; even simple rural-to-urban migration and subsequent further migration are now often driven by climate deterioration: the consequences of droughts and floods often cannot be offset by agricultural means. At the same time, farming and herding families bear little responsibility for these effects of global climate change.

During my research on “Migration from Eritrea” (2017), I learned, among other things, what role the multifaceted disruption of people’s lives plays in their decision to migrate, and how this shapes their relationship to the world and transnationality. I also address global interconnections, the emergence and effects of asymmetries, and the possibility of learning and understanding despite these challenges in projects on the history of the discipline—such as the Second Freiburg Moluccas Expedition—through methodological considerations and conceptual frameworks (https://www.berghahnjournals.com/view/journals/migration-and-society/8/1/migration-and-society.8.issue-1.xml). As an ethnologist, I am a member of the interdisciplinary project “Theoretical Analyses of Justice Regarding Climate Change and Migration” (https://www.kaththeol.lmu.de/de/ about-us/chairs-and-professorships/chair-of-christian-social-ethics/projects/climate-change-and-migration-klimi/), which is funded by the LMU Sustainability Fund.

My Understanding of Sustainability

With its empirically grounded perspective on the many intertwined spheres of life, ethnology can make a contribution to cultural studies by ethnographically documenting empirical change, raising public awareness, and fostering discussion about political responsibility and the shaping of the future for subsequent generations. Living together on the same planet raises questions of justice, coexistence, and sustainability that must be continually reexamined and renegotiated.

Feel free to contact me if you’re interested in

…migration-related topics, issues in economic anthropology, or discussions about the future and living together.