UNIVERSITY OF COLOGNE

Merle Schatz (Dozentin, assoziiert)

M.A. in Chinese Studies, Mongolian Studies and Japanese Studies. PhD Candidate at Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, PhD in Mongolian Studies. Former lecturer at Leipzig University, Chinese Studies. Recent: Project member at SUB Göttingen.

My PhD project based on an oral tradition in Inner Mongolia, that I transcribed and translated, it belongs to the genre bensen üliger. The linguistic data let to my work on Sinism (Mongolian version of Chinese, contact induced language change and the relation of language and identity).

My ongoing project on structural characteristics of established and outsider figurations in Inner Mongolia explains, how different context models on both sides (Chinese and Mongolian) regarding several social, economic, political, historical (…) spheres create a very complex situation of living on a shared ground (Inner Mongolia). My aim is to describe this complexity on the three levels ideas, institution and practice and to discuss the specific established outsider figurations in Inner Mongolia. 

Research Interest

Languages and Identity of the Mongols in China; Contact Linguistics, Structural Characteristics of Established and Outsider Figurations in Inner Mongolia, Established and Outsider, concepts of time, future, environment and society, cultural neighborhood