Johanna Mugler

Johanna Mugler is an Assistant Professor at the University of Bern, Switzerland, affiliated with the Department of Social Anthropology. She has served as a lecturer and researcher at the Institute for Social Anthropology since 2012, bridging anthropology, law, and organizational studies to investigate state institutions and public goods production.

Her academic credentials include:

• Ph.D. in Social Anthropology from Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (2015)
• Magister in Social Anthropology from Ludwig Maximilians University Munich (2006)
• Honours Degree in Social Anthropology from the University of Cape Town (2004)

Mugler's research centers on the anthropology of the state, legal anthropology, and sociology of quantification. She examines how institutions like justice systems, trade frameworks, and public finances interact to produce accountability, justice, and solidarity. Her work interrogates the tension between self-interest, national priorities, and global responsibility in decision-making processes, with particular focus on international tax norm development and quantification practices in legal contexts.

Her 2015-2019 publications reveal consistent thematic threads: the role of measurement in justice systems, regulatory capture in fiscal governance, and emotional dimensions of performance metrics. Ethnographic studies of South African prosecution services and transnational tax networks demonstrate how quantification shapes state power and professional practices. Her work frequently addresses the material constraints of trans-local research while contributing to theoretical debates about governmental knowledge production.

Mugler was integral to the LOST Research Network (Law, Organization, Science and Technology) and the International Max Planck Research School on Retaliation, Mediation and Punishment. She led the completed project "The Emergence of Global Taxpayers," analyzing transnational expert networks negotiating tax norms for digital economies, collaborating with Richard Rottenburg and global partners.