Philipp Schroeder is an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Nazarbayev University (NU). He also serves as Deputy Director of NU’s Research Centre for Entrepreneurship (NURCE) at the Graduate School of Business and as a Principal Investigator with the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN), hosted at NU’s Graduate School of Public Policy.

At NU, Philipp leads the research project “Towards a Comparative, Interdisciplinary, and Applied Ethnological Perspective on Entrepreneurship in the IT and Green Economy Industries of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan”. He is also co-PI of the project “Equitable and Sustainable Horizons: Advancing ESG Training and Implementation in Kazakhstan through Abai’s Philosophical Insights”.

A specialist for Central Asia with over 18 years of experience in research, evaluation, and policy advice, Philipp has conducted long-term and short-term fieldwork across the region. His work focuses on entrepreneurship, translocality, and mobility; youth, urban-rural connectivity, and education; as well as gender, identity, integration, and conflict. Methodologically, he specializes in qualitative research techniques and mixed-methods approaches.

Philipp obtained his postdoctoral qualification (habilitation) in 2022 from the University of Zurich (Switzerland) with a thesis on trade, entrepreneurship, and translocal livelihoods in Eurasia, focusing on Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and China. Previously, he was a member of the ‘Integration and Conflict’ research group at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology in Halle/Saale (2006–2012) and later held postdoctoral and lecturer positions at Humboldt University of Berlin (2013–2017) and the University of Freiburg (2017–2022), Germany. He received his PhD in 2012 from Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Germany, researching youth cultures, identity, and urban change in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan.

Philipp is also an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Social Anthropology and Cultural Studies at the University of Zurich, Switzerland, and a Research Affiliate at ISDC – International Security and Development Center in Berlin, Germany.

As an expert with ISDC and in other capacities, he has conducted applied research and policy consulting for organizations such as the World Bank, UN Women, UNICEF, USAID, Fulbright Program, United Nations Peacebuilding Fund, KfW, Mercy Corps, Aga Khan Foundation, GIZ, and the German Federal Foreign Office.

Themes: entrepreneurship and trade; translocality and mobilities; gender, youth and intersectionality; climate change, nutrition and decision-making; digital life and education; identity, integration and conflict
Region: more than 70 months of on-site fieldwork experience in Central Asia and Eurasia.
Methods: various qualitative approaches (interviews, focus group discussions, observations) and mixed methods-approaches; (participative) visualization

Introduction to Sociocultural Anthropology
Qualitative Methods
Anthropology of Entrepreneurship
Approaches to Global Development
Digital Ethnographies
Climate Change, Future Energy and Sustainability