Positions
Associate Professor, Hakubi Centre for Advanced Research, Graduate School of Human and Environmental Studies, Kyoto University, 2025-present.
Visiting Scholar, inherit. heritage in transformation Käte Hamburger Kolleg, Humboldt University, 2024-2025.
External Senior Fellow (Marie S. Curie FCFP) Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies, University of Freiburg, 2024.
EHESS/Iméra Chair at the Institute for Advanced Study at Aix Marseille Université, 2023-2024.
Research Fellow funded by the Velux Foundation at the Centre for Contemporary Buddhist Studies, Department of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies, University of Copenhagen, 2022-2024.
Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow at the Centre for Contemporary Buddhist Studies, Department of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies, University of Copenhagen 2020-2022.
Research Fellow, The Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities, The University of Edinburgh, 2020.
Junior Fellow, Max Weber Center for Advanced Cultural and Social Studies, University of Erfurt, 2019-2020.
Global Perspectives on Society Teaching Fellow, New York University Shanghai. 2017-2019.
Postdoctoral Research working within the group ‘Buddhist Temple Economies in Urban Asia’ at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology. 2014-2017.
Adjunct Professor, Buddhist Studies in India, Antioch University. 2013.
Book
Peer Reviewed Articles
Pathak, G., Abrahms-Kavunenko, S. and M. Nichter. (forthcoming) ‘The Cruel Optimism of Plastics: Promissory Technologies and the Temporalities of Inaction.’ Social Studies of Science.
Abrahms-Kavunenko, S. (forthcoming 2025) ‘Time and Plastic Tide: The Rhythms of Commensality and Connection on Christmas Island.’ Social Analysis.
‘Toward an Anthropology of Plastics’. 2023. Journal of Material Culture. 28,1: 3-23.
‘Mongolian Buddhism, Science and Healing: A Modernist Legacy’. 2022. Central Asian Survey. 41, 1: 41-57.
Mongolian Buddhism in the Democratic Period. Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Religion, 2019.
Edited Volumes
Chapters in Edited Volumes
‘Introduction: Balancing Sangha Economies’ in Monks, Money and Morality: The Balancing Act of Contemporary Buddhism edited by Christoph Brumann, Saskia Abrahms-Kavunenko and Beata Świtek. New York, London: Bloomsbury
Special Issues
Popular Writing
4 guest entries for the Database of Religious History published by the University of British Columbia: ‘Mongolian Buddhism during the Revolutionary Period‘, ‘Postsocialist Mongolian Buddhism’, ‘Postsocialist Mongolian Shamanism’, and ‘Pilgrimage sites Associated with the Noyon Khutagt Danzanravjaa’ 2020-2022.
Media Engagements
2025. Interview on Greta Beach, Christmas Island about plastics for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
2023. Interview with for the National Catholic Reporter regarding the Pope’s visit to Mongolia.
2023. Interview for the Boston Globe about plastic pollution.
Education
Department of Anthropology and Sociology, The University of Western Australia: Doctor of Philosophy. 2007-2012.
History and Philosophy of Science, The University of Melbourne: Postgraduate Diploma. 2005.
Department of Anthropology and Sociology, The University of Western Australia: First Class Honours in Anthropology. 2002.
Faculty of Arts, The University of Western Australia: Bachelor of Arts majoring in Anthropology, Philosophy and Political Science. 1998-2001.
Ethnographic Fieldwork
Ethnographic research on Christmas Island and Australia for two months in 2025, funded by the JSPS Research Activity Start-up Grant and the Hakubi Center for Advanced Research.
Ethnographic research in Western Australia, Christmas Island and Cocos Keeling for thirteen months funded by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellowhip, the Velux Fonden and the Marie S. Curie Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies Cofund Fellowship 2021-2024
Ethnographic research in Ulaanbaatar for ten months: funded by the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology 2015 and 2016
Ethnographic research in Ulaanbaatar for thirteen months as part of doctoral research: funded by The University of Western Australia 2009 – 2010
Teaching Experience
University of Copenhagen 2020-present. Co-writing and co-coordinating ‘Waste: Cultural Imagineries and Materialities’. Guest lecturing in Copenhagen and internationally in Anthropology, Asian Studies, Buddhist Studies, and Environmental Humanities
Global Perspectives on Society Teaching Fellow, NYU Shanghai, 2017-2019, Teaching Fellow.
Contemporary Buddhist Cultures, Buddhist Studies in India, Antioch University Abroad 2013, Adjunct Professor.
Independent Study, Buddhist Studies in India, Antioch University Abroad 2013, Project Supervisor.
Meditation Traditions, Buddhist Studies in India, Antioch University Abroad 2013. Tutor.
Religion: Anthropological and Sociological Approaches and Being Human: Culture, Identity and Society, The University of Western Australia, 2013. Guest lecturer and student assessment
Anthropology Department, National University of Mongolia, Ulaanbaatar, 2009. Tutor.
Religion, The University of Western Australia, 2008. Lecturer, curriculum development, tutor
Development of Social Thought, The University of Western Australia, 2008. Lecturer, curriculum development, tutor.
Supervision
University of Tartu Estonia, 2025: Doctoral supervisor for the final year of Daina Pupkevičiūtė’s PhD.
Italian Doctoral School of Religious Studies 2024: Key note lecturer and mentoring for PhD candidates of religious studies in Pavia, Italy.
Aarhus University, Denmark 2024: Discussant for the thesis seminar of PhD candidate Aarti Latkar working on the topic of ‘Plastic Predicaments in India’ at Aarhus University. Follow-up mentoring during a week-long writing retreat in Skågen, Denmark.
Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, 2014-2020: As part of the research group Buddhist Temple Economies in Urban Asia at the Max Planck Institute I helped to supervise two anthropology doctoral students, Hannah Klepeis and Kristina Jonutytė, working in a Tibetan borderland region in China and Buryatia, a Mongolian cultural region in Russia, respectively
Independent Study, India, 2013: As part of my work on the Buddhist Studies Abroad program I supervised six undergraduate ethnographic projects in India, Nepal and Myanmar
Awards
JSPS Research Activity Start-up Grant 2025-2026.
Marie S. Curie Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies CoFund Fellowship 2024
Velux Foundation: Research Fellowship, 2022-2024.
European Union Horizon 2020: Marie S, Curie Fellowship, 2020-2022.
The University of Western Australia: PhD Completion Scholarship, 2011.
The University of Western Australia: University Postgraduate Award, 2007-2011.
Faculty of Arts, The University of Western Australia: Dean’s Postgraduate Award, 2009.
School of Social and Cultural Studies, The University of Western Australia: Postgraduate Research Funding, 2009.
Graduate Research School, The University of Western Australia: Graduate Research Travel Award, 2009.
Selected Conferences and Presentations
‘Marking Plastic Time: Recurrence and Connection amidst the Indian Ocean Waste Stream’ for the ‘Anthropology of Plastics Symposium’ Aarhus University, 2025
‘Being Uncanny: Plastics Personhood and the Beyond on an Indian Ocean Island’ invited lecture for the ‘Creativity and Climate Crisis: Asian Media and Arts in the Anthropocene’ Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2025
‘Being Uncanny: Plastics Personhood and the Beyond on an Indian Ocean Island’ Heritage in Transformation lecture series, Humboldt University, Germany, 2025.
‘Enlightenment and the Gasping City: On the Praxis of Breath, Light and Mind in Urban Mongolia’ invited lecture for the ‘The Environment across Central Eurasia in the 21st Century’ series Indiana University, Bloomington, 2025.
‘Always, Already Entwined/ Impure: Buddhist Plastic and Praxis in Oceania’ invited keynote as part of the Italian Doctoral School of Religious Studies, Pavia, Italy, 2024.
‘On Star Work and Dharma: Contemporary Buddhist Visioning of the Universal and the Universe’ invited talk for ‘The Spirit of Space Exploration in China and the West’, Duke Kunshan University, China, 2024.
‘Purity as Danger: Contesting Reproduction and the Body Plastic’ invited talk as part of the Microbial Futures Symposium, Aarhus University, Denmark, 2024.
‘Voyagers from the Depths of Time: Spirits, Plastics, and the Living Tide of an Indian Ocean Island’ invited lecture for the On the Brink Series, University of Bayreuth, Germany, 2024.
‘Message is a Bottle: Plastics, Connections, and the Story of Things on an Indian Ocean Island’ Waste and Value Conference, University of Copenhagen, Denmark, 2024.
‘Message is a Bottle: Plastics, Connections and the Stories of Things on an Indian Ocean Island’ invited lecture at the Research Centre for Infrastructure and Sustainable Environment, Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember, Surabaya, Indonesia, 2024.
‘Footfall and Phosphate, Plastics and Rain: On the Sensation and the Materiality of Time on Christmas Island’ invited lecture for Savoirs, Environnement, Sociétés, Université Paul-Valéry, France, 2024.
‘Plastics Temporalities and the Materiality of Connection on Christmas Island’ invited lecture Campus EHESS, Marseille, France 2024.
‘Spiritual Universalisms and the Invention of the Fragile Planet: Theosophy, the Occult and the Race Towards Heaven and Earth’ Thinking Outer Space workshop, NYU Berlin, Germany, 2023.
‘Footfall and Phosphate, Plastics and Rain: On the Sensation and Materiality of Time on Christmas Island’ STS Italia Conference, University of Bologna, Italy, 2023.
‘Plastic Temporalities and the Materiality of Connection on Christmas Island’ Opening the Bin conference, Lancaster University, UK, 2023.
‘Commensality and Plastics Amidst a Deluge of the Living: The Materiality and Rhythms of Connection on Christmas Island’ Plastic Time workshop, University of St Andrews, UK, 2023.
‘Buddhism in the Life of Urban Mongolia’ Public Lecture for the Institute of Asian and Transcultural Studies, Vilnius University (online), Lithuania, 2023.
‘Polyester Blessings: The Persistent Incarnation of Purity in Contemporary Mongolia’ Buddhism and Posthumanism Series, Center for Buddhist Studies, University of Toronto (online), Canada, 2023.
‘Visions of Heaven, Visions of Earth: Spiritual Universalisms in the Evolution of the Modern Environmental Movement’ for the Buddhist, Spiritual, Esoteric and Ecological Movements in the 21st Century: A Dynamic Legacy workshop, University of Copenhagen, Denmark, 2023.
‘Living Plastics: Ingested Externalities and the Corporealization of Capitalism.’ American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting, Seattle, 2022.
‘Shown by the Marron’s Claw: Ecological Receptivity as Mindful Praxis’ Buddhism in the Anthropocene workshop, Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Halle (Saale) Germany, 2022.
‘Polyester and/as the Proliferation of Blessings’ 16th International Association of Tibetan Studies Seminar, Prague, 2022.
‘Shown by the Marron’s Claw: Ecological Receptivity as Mindful Praxis’ for the ‘Ecologies of the Six Realms: Buddhism, Soteriology and the More-Than-Human’ panel at the Society for the Anthropological Sciences Conference, Vilnius University, Lithuania, 2022.
‘Re/cognizing Humanity in a Plastic Mirror: Shifting Ontologies, Epistemologies and Politics After the Dawning of the Plasticene’. Divergent Temporalities: Capitalism and the Conquest of Space-Time conference at Panteion University, Athens, 2022.
‘Human Exceptionalism and the Sound of Awakening: Countercurrents in Buddhist Soteriology.’ Mantras, Sound, Materiality, and the Body workshop at the Department of South Asian, Tibetan and Buddhist Studies, University of Vienna, Vienna, 2022.
‘Breathing Sunlight and Smog: On the Praxis of Wind, Light and Mind in Urban Mongolia.’ Inaugural Lecture for the Environment, Religion and Culture in Asia’s Heartland lecture series, University of California, Riverside (online), 2021.
‘Enlightenment, Breath and the Anthropocene: Mongolian Buddhism in a Time of Environmental Disarray’ Keynote lecture for the Mongolia Update hosted by the Mongolia Institute at the Australian National University, Canberra (online), 2021.
‘Breathing the Anthropocene: Air Pollution and Buddhist Practice in Urban Mongolia’ For the After Lunch Series hosted by the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology at the University of Cologne (online), 2021.
‘The Dimming and the Light: Pollution and Purification among Mongolian Buddhists’ lecture as part of the Religion and Society in East and Southeast Asia course for Lund University (online), 2021.
‘Enlightenment and the Gasping City: Pollution, Purification and Buddhism in Postsocialist Mongolia’ lecture as part of the Asian Studies Development Program, hosted by the East-West Center, The University of Hawai’I, Honolulu (online), 2021.
‘Plastic Purity and Sacred Dairy: Microbes, Life and Purification in Mongolian Dairying.’ Plastic Asia workshop hosted by the Center for Contemporary Buddhist Studies, The University of Copenhagen, 2021.
‘On the Sanctity of (Some)Things: Mongolian Buddhist Perspectives on Mutual Obligation with Animate Materials.’ Buddhism, Economy and Value(s) workshop hosted by the Center for Contemporary Buddhist Studies, The University of Copenhagen, 2021.
‘Monstrous Waste in the Anthropocene’ lecture for Crisis and Transition: Environmental Humanities in a Global World Summer School, The University of Copenhagen, 2021.
‘Troubled Breath: Windhorse, Smog and the Stagnation of Vital Energies’ presentation as part of the Buddhism and Breath Summit, The University of Toronto (online), 2021.
‘Monstrous Waste in the Anthropocene: Tracing the Contours of Disconcerting Materialities.’ Re-opening the Bin. Workshop hosted by the School of Business Economics and Law, University of Gothenburg (online), 2021.
‘Zombie Trash, Mummy Materiality: Rethinking Monster Waste in the Anthropocene.’ The Materiality of Blessings in the Anthropocene: Fusion and Rupture in Transecological and Transdimensional Relatedness in Asian Highland Ecosystems. Workshop hosted by the Center for Contemporary Buddhist Studies, University of Copenhagen (online), 2021.
‘Body of Light, Body of Energy: Buddhism, Science and Healing a Modernist Legacy.’ The Medical and Medicinal Margins workshop (online), 2021.
‘Zombie Trash, Mummy Materiality: Rethinking Buddhist Waste in the Plasticene.’ European Association of Social Anthropologists Conference, Lisbon (online), 2020.
‘Obscure Purity: Smoke, Smog and the Quasi-Material in Urban Ritual’, International Mongolian Studies Vienna Symposium, Vienna, 2020
‘Choking Light and Breath: Air Pollution and Purification in Urban Mongolia’, American Anthropological Association/ Canadian Anthropological Society Annual Meeting, Vancouver, 2019
‘Cosmologies Fast and Slow: Karma, Fortune and Corruption in Mongolia’s Capital’, Biennial Conference of the Finnish Anthropological Society, Helsinki, 2019
‘Understanding Religion on a Heating Planet: Smoke as Purification in Mongolia’, 7th Congress of the Portuguese Anthropological Association, Lisbon, 2019
‘The Hidden Force of Things: Potency, Objects and Urban Waste in Mongolia.’ Buddhist Consumption, Excess and Waste Project, Helsingør, University of Copenhagen, 2019
‘The Social Life of Difficult Things: Navigating Air Pollution in Mongolia’s Capital.’ European Association for Social Anthropologists Biennial Conference, Stockholm, Sweden, 2018
‘Tenuous Blessings: Wealth and Ignorance in Mongolian Prosperity Ceremonies.’ Association of Asian Studies Annual Meeting, Washington DC, USA, 2018.
‘Calling Money: Mongolian Religion in Ulaanbaatar.’ Center for Global Asia and Global Perspectives on Society Young Scholars Colloquium on Asia and the World, NYU Shanghai, China, 2018
‘Enlightenment and the Gasping City: Mongolian Religion in Ulaanbaatar.’ Faculty Lunch Speaker Series, NYU Shanghai, China, 2018.
‘Regeneration and the Age of Decline: Understanding the Influence of Transregional Buddhist Economies in Mongolia.’ Sangha Economies Workshop. The Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Germany, 2017
‘Materializing Wealth: Mongolian Buddhist Objects and Prosperity Ceremonies, Trade and Translation of Buddhist Material Culture across Asia Panel.’ Asian Dynamic Initiative Conference, The University of Copenhagen, Denmark, 2017.
‘Returning Lamas: Life After the Monastery, Mongolian Buddhism in Practice.’ Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary, 2017.
‘Calling Wealth: Attraction, Multiplication and the Fickleness of Money.’ University College London, Emerging Subjects of the New Economy research group, United Kingdom, 2017.
‘Money as Seed, Money as Fruit: Karma, Poverty and Wealth in Ulaanbaatar.’ Buddhism, Believers and Economic Relations in Asia and Beyond. Buddhism, Business and Believers Conference, The University of Copenhagen, Denmark, 2016.
‘Aspiring to Enlightenment: Practicing Purification in Postsocialist Mongolia.’ Religious Revivals and Artistic Renaissance in Central Asia and the Himalayan Region – Past and Present. Fourth International SEECHAC Colloquium, Heidelberg, Germany, 2015.
‘Pollution and Purification: Metaphors of Spiritual Danger and Social Inequality.’ Geographies of Capitalism and Landscapes of Globalization Panel, Biennial Conference of the Finnish Anthropological Society, Helsinki, Finland, 2015.
‘Enlightenment and Purification: Spirituality, Education and Lay Buddhist Religiosity in Mongolia.’ Anthropologie Comparée du Bouddhisme, Dynamiques Asiatiques, Paris, France, 2015.
‘New Buddhist Economies in Mongolia: Accrual, Dispersal and the Vicissitudes of Wealth.’ Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Halle, Germany, 2015.
‘Contemporary Mongolian Buddhism: Meditation, Ritual and New Forms of Religiosity.’ Mongolian Buddhism – Past Future and Present, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary, 2015.
‘Karma and the Permeability of Personhood: Perspectives from Mongolian Buddhists.’ University College London, Emerging Subjects of the New Economy research group, United Kingdom, 2015.
Professional Service
Editorial Board: Cambridge Journal of Anthropology, 2022-2026.
Editorial Board: Journal of Contemporary Buddhism, 2025-present.
Research Coordinator at the Centre for Contemporary Buddhist Studies, University of Copenhagen, 2020-present.
Peer reviewer for: Ethnos: Journal of Anthropology, Ethos: Journal of the Society for Psychological Anthropology, American Ethnologist, Central Asian Survey, Swiss National Science Foundation, Études Mongoles & Sibériennes, Centrasiatiques & Tibétaines, Focaal: Journal of Global and Historical Anthropology, Social Analysis, Cambridge Journal of Anthropology, Anthropological Quarterly, Prace Etnograficzne, MAVCOR, Religions, Inner Asia, International Journal of Asian Studies, American Anthropologist, Social and Cultural Geography, South Asia Studies, Dutch Research Council, Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space, Journal of the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture, Journal of Material Culture, Worldwide Waste, Journal of Global Buddhism, Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Environmental Science, Africa, Geoforum, Journal of the Society for Asian Humanities.
Co-organising the ‘Anthropology of Plastics’ symposium with Gauri Pathak (Aarhus University), Aarti Latkar (Aarhus University) and Alice Street (Edinburgh University), Aarhus University, 2025
Co-organising the ‘Waste and Value’ conference with Paulina Kolata and Trine Brox, University of Copenhagen, 2024.
Co-organising the ‘Buddhist, Spiritual, Esoteric and Ecological Movements in the 21st Century: A Dynamic Legacy’ workshop with Trine Brox and Tim Rudbøg, University of Copenhagen, 2023.
Co-organising the ‘Beyond the Suffusion of Surface : Plastic Use in Vivo’ panel with Kaming Wu (City University of Hong Kong) at the AAA annual meeting, Seattle, 2022.
Co-organising the ‘Buddhism in the Anthropocene’ workshop with Jovan Maud (Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology), 2022.
Co-organising the panel titled ‘Ecologies of the Six Realms: Buddhism, Soteriology and the More-than-Human’ with Kristina Jonutytė (Vilnius University) at the Society for the Anthropological Sciences conference held at Vilnius University, 2022.
Organising and facillitating ‘When the Eternal Meets the Imperishable: Plastics and Religion in Contemporary Asia’ workshop hosted by the Centre for Contemporary Buddhist Studies, 2022 (online).
Co-organising the ‘Plastic Asia’ workshop hosted by the Center for Contemporary Buddhist Studies, University of Copenhagen, 2021.
Co-organising the ‘Buddhism, Economy and Value(s)’ workshop hosted by the Center for Contemporary Buddhist Studies, University of Copenhagen, 2021.
Co-convening ‘The Materiality of Blessings in the Anthropocene: Fusion and Rupture in Transecological and Transdimensional Relatedness in Asian Highland Ecosystems’ workshop hosted by the Center for Contemporary Buddhist Studies, University of Copenhagen with Kalzang Bhutia (University California, LA) and Trine Brox (University of Copenhagen), 2021.
Association for Asian Studies Annual Conference, Washington DC, 2018. Co-convening a panel titled ‘Jewels from the Mouth of a Mongoose: Buddhist Conceptions of Value, Prosperity and Fortune in East and Inner Asia and the Himalayas’ with Kalzang Bhutia (Occidental College).
Sangha Economies: Temple Organisation and Exchanges in Contemporary Buddhism. Workshop at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, 2017. Co-convening a workshop with Prof Christoph Brumann and Dr Beata Switek.
The 13th Seminar of the International Association for Tibetan Studies, National University of Mongolia, Ulaanbaatar, 2013. Co-convening a panel titled ‘Novelty and Lineage: Contemporary and Historical Relations between Mongolian and Tibetan Buddhism’ with Lhkagvademchig Jadampa (National University of Mongolia).
International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences, the Australian Anthropological Society and the Association of Social Anthropologists of Aotearoa / New Zealand Conference, The University of Western Australia, 2011. Co-convening a panel titled ‘Faith as Heresy: Translocal Religion in a Global Era’ with Associate Professor Debra McDougall
Interviewing Incoming Students at New York University Shanghai, 2018
Professional Affiliations
A member of the ‘Planetary Health Network: Planetary Thinking in the Social Sciences and Humanities’. Part of a network of scholars funded by the German Research Foundation. 2025-present.
Affiliated Member: Ca’ Foscari University ‘Buddhism and Ecology’ and ‘Waterscapes’ at the New Institute Centre for Environmental Humanities. 2023-present.
Associate: The Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology: 2017-2022.
Research Affiliate: School of Culture, History and Languages, The Australian National University: 2014-2015
Artist/ Academic Residencies
Research fellowship, New Institute Center for Environmental Humanities, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, 2025.
Writing retreat, with the ‘Plastics and the Anthropocene’ research team, Kiltgården Refugium, Skågen, Denmark, 2024.
‘Movement, Health and Resilience: A New Approach for the Mid-21st Century’ collaboration in an ongoing exploratory dance/academic residency series, Centro Incontri Umani, Ascona, Switzerland, 2023.
Cenote, Portugal: 2019, Running and participating in an dance/academic residency program. Academic writer in residence. http://www.cenote-art.com
Centre De Recerca I Creació Casamarlès, Catalonia, Spain: 2014, Academic writer in residence.
Public Presentations (in person)
Light, Enlightenment, and Purification: Contemporary Mongolian Buddhism in Ulaanbaatar, 2016. The American Center for Mongolian Studies, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.
Studying Buddhism: Culture, Tradition and Globalization, 2016. Rotary Club of Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.
Radio Interview, 2016, The Voice of Mongolia Radio Show.
Television Interview, 2015. Mongolian National Broadcaster
Contemporary Buddhism and New Forms of Religiosity in Ulaanbaatar, 2015. Zhun Khuree, Past and Present. Dashchoiliin Hiid, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.
Interdependent Co-arising: Contemporary Ideas of Buddhism in Ulaanbaatar, 2010. American Centre for Mongolian Studies, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.
Saskia Abrahms-Kavunenko 