Dr Erich Kolig
Erich Kolig (PhD Vienna) is a retired social/cultural anthropologist. He has held several academic positions: mainly at Otago University (as Senior Lecturer/Reader), Vienna University (as Visiting Professor), University of Western Australia (as Research Fellow), and as Government Anthropologist of Western Australia and other appointments. In addition to visiting fellowships in various universities, and professional consultancies in Australia, he was Honorary Fellow in Religious Studies (focus Islam and Muslims) at Otago University for some ten years.
Changing direction later in his career, he specialised in the study of Islamic society in the era of globalisation and Muslims as minority in modern Western society, but continued to pursue other professional interests as well. His field research on Muslim issues – in addition to conducting studies in New Zealand – took him to Indonesia, Australia, Austria, Afghanistan, the Middle East and North Africa.
Among his books, both single-authored and edited, are the following specifically dealing with Islamic and Muslim issues: New Zealand’s Muslims and Multiculturalism. Leiden: Brill, 2010; Conservative Islam: a Cultural Anthropology. Lanham MD: Lexington Books, 2012; edited Freedom of Speech and Islam. Farnham: Ashgate, 2014 (now Routledge); and edited with Malcolm Voyce, Muslim Integration: Pluralism and Multiculturalism in New Zealand and Australia. Lanham: Lexington, 2016. As guest editor: Muslims in New Zealand. Special issue of New Zealand Journal of Asian Studies, vol. 8/2, 2006; and many book chapters and journal articles.
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