Curriculum Vitae

Klaus VOLLMER was born in 1959 in Bremen (Federal Republic of Germany). After receiving a degree in library science from Hamburg polytechnic in 1982 he took up the study of Japanese (major), German Literature, Comparative Religion, History and Chinese History at Hamburg University. He received Japanese language training in Kyoto and acquired an M.A. in Japanese Studies in 1988. Starting work on his dissertation in Japan two years later with a travel grant of the German Research Foundation (DFG) his research at that time focused on medieval Japanese professionals ('shokunin') and their representation in works of literature. He was appointed assistant professor in Japanese Studies at Hamburg University and awarded his PhD in 1993. He then moved to Osaka City University to conduct post-doctoral research that was funded with a grant from the Rotary-Yoneyama Foundation (Tokyo). While concentrating on medieval and early modern social history in his research during the 1990's Klaus Vollmer also published on topics of contemporary society and the construction of Japanese cultural identity. In 1996 one of his publications dealing with current issues (in this case the background of the 'rice crisis' of the mid-1990's) received the award of the Tamaki-Foundation (University of Vienna). In 1997 he received a scholarship of the German Research Foundation to complete his post-doctoral thesis ('Habilitation') on prohibitions of killing and meat-eating in premodern Japan. After serving as a professor for Modern Japanese Culture and History at the University of Duisburg's East Asian Institute in 1997/98 Klaus Vollmer was appointed chair of Japanese Studies at the Japan Center of Munich University in 1998. In 2002 he briefly returned to Hamburg University as Numata-Fellow for studies in Japanese Buddhism. Areas of research and teaching include a broad range of subjects in the cultural and social history of Japan, both premodern and modern. Within this vast frame of potential topics, Klaus Vollmer focuses in particular on issues of 'identity' and 'marginality'. He has taught and published (see publications) on self-images, representations and interpretations of Japanese culture and society, food and culture in Japan, Japanese Buddhism and society, history of discrimination and outcaste status in Japan and representations of history and historiography.
Klaus Vollmer has served on the board of directors of the Department of Asian Studies at Munich University from 2002 through 2005 (head of the department in 2004-05, and from 2013 to the present). He was elected president of the German Association for Social Science Research on Japan (VSJF) for many years (2000-2006) and a member of the advisory council of the German Association for Asian Studies (DGA) (2004-2012). He also served as member of the advisory council of the Institute for the Cultural and Intellectual History of Asia of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna (2005-07, 2014-2016) and is a member of the advisory board of the German Institute for Japanese Studies (DIJ) in Tokyo (since 2008). In 2009, he initiated the international PhD program in Buddhist Studies at Munich University (funding provided by Munich University and DAAD German Academic Exchange Service). Klaus Vollmer also served as dean and vice-dean of the faculty of cultural studies at Munich University (2009-2013). As an elected member he is currently serving on the DFG review board on research in social and cultural anthropology, non-European cultures, Jewish Studies, and Religious Studies.