Martin Saxer

Dr. Martin Saxer is an anthropologist at LMU Munich’s Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology, specializing in highland Asia (Tibet, Himalayas, Pamirs) with a focus on borderland studies, medical anthropology, and visual ethnography. He leads the ERC-funded project Remoteness & Connectivity: Highland Asia in the World (2015-2020) and has conducted extensive research on Tibetan medicine’s industrialization and transnational trade.

His research interests include:

• Highland Asia’s socio-political dynamics
• Sino-borderland interactions
• Medical knowledge systems
• Visual storytelling through ethnographic film

Recent publications analyze connectivity trends in Asian mountain societies (2016) and border regimes in trans-Himalayan trade (2011-2014). He has received prestigious awards including an ERC Starting Grant (2015), Marie Curie Fellowship (2013), and Clarendon Scholarship (2006).

As a filmmaker, he directed documentaries on Tibetan medicine (2005) and aging in Zurich’s red-light district (2000), blending academic inquiry with visual arts. He also co-organizes international conferences on Asian borderland topics with institutions like the Austrian Academy of Sciences and American University of Central Asia.