Oliver Tappe

Dr. Oliver Tappe is a Senior Researcher at the University of Heidelberg's Department of Anthropology, leading a DFG-funded project investigating labor and ritual practices among artisanal miners in Laos. His work focuses on contested livelihoods, sociocosmological relations, and extractivism in the Anthropocene, particularly in Khammouane province. Previously, he held positions at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology (2009–2014), University of Cologne’s Global South Studies Center (2014–2018), and University of Hamburg’s ERC CRISEA project (2017–2020). His research spans communist historiography, ethnic minority memory, inter-ethnic relations, and labor migration patterns in Southeast Asia.

Education: PhD in Anthropology from Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster (2004–2007), with a dissertation on Lao national historiography and iconography (published 2008). Key research areas include colonial infrastructures, ritual practices in resource extraction, and historical trajectories of Vietnamese labor mobility. His work combines historical anthropology with critical studies of extractivism and memory politics.

Recent publications analyze colonial-era conflicts, tin mining dynamics, and revolutionary heritage in Laos. His edited volumes include Extracting Development (2022) and Bonded Labour: Global and Comparative Perspectives (2016). Research interests emphasize interdisciplinary approaches to understanding marginalized perspectives on history and labor.

Grants include DFG funding for his current project and ERC Horizon 2020 support for labor migration studies. Collaborations involve institutions like ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute (Singapore) and NIAS Press. Ongoing projects interrogate the socio-environmental impacts of extractivism in Laos, linking local practices to broader geopolitical economies.