Viola Thimm

PD Dr. Viola Thimm is an Associate Professor (Privatdozentin) of Anthropology at the University of Heidelberg and Senior Lecturer at the University of Erlangen-Nürnberg, where she serves as Program Director of the Elite Master Program 'Standards of Decision-Making Across Cultures (SDAC)'. Her academic journey includes a Habilitation in Cultural Anthropology (2021) and a Ph.D. from the University of Göttingen (2013), focusing on gender and educational migration in Southeast Asia.

Her research interests revolve around cultural mobilities (migration, pilgrimage, tourism), gender, sexuality, queer theory, and intersectionality, with regional expertise in Malaysia, Singapore, and the Arabian Peninsula. She has held visiting research positions at institutions such as Universiti Malaya (2023–2024), Zayed University (2017–2018), and Monash University (2017). Dr. Thimm has secured major grants from the German Research Foundation (DFG) and the Olympia Morata Programme.

Her publications include monographs like Shopping with Allah: Muslim Pilgrimage, Gender, and Consumption (2023) and edited volumes on intersectionality and Muslim mobilities. She actively supervises PhD students researching queer mobilities, transnational migration, and Muslim life-worlds.

• Education: M.A. (2007), Ph.D. (2013), Habilitation (2021)
• Key Projects: 'Sexual im/mobilities in Muslim pilgrimage' (ongoing), 'From Malaysia to Dubai: Muslim pilgrimage and gender' (2017–2021)
• Awards: Olympia Morata Fellowship, DFG Research Fellowship

Dr. Thimm teaches courses on decoloniality, queer anthropology, and gender theory at both universities. Her fieldwork spans Malaysia, the UAE, and Germany, emphasizing ethnographic approaches to marginalized communities and religious practices.