Habilitation in Social Anthropology, University of Basel, Switzerland 2022
Doctorate in Social Anthropology, University of Basel, Switzerland, 2013
Lizentiat (Master of Arts) in Social Anthropology, University of Zurich, Switzerland, 2007
From August 2022: Associate Professor of Urban Studies, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of St.Gallen (https://www.unisg.ch/en/university/schools/school-of-humanities-and-social-sciences/subject-areas/urban-studies/)
2021 – 2022: Senior Lecturer (Wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin), Institute of Social Anthropology, University of Basel, Switzerland
2013 – 2020: Senior Lecturer (Oberassistentin), Institute of Social Anthropology, University of Basel, Switzerland (on parental leave between February and July 2020)
September 2018 to March 2019: Fung Global Fellow, Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies, Princeton University, USA
2018 – 2020: Editor-in-Chief and co-editor, Anthropology Southern Africa (ASnA)
2017 – 2018: Project leader and coordinator, Valueworks: Effects of Financialization along the Copper Value Chain (SNIS-funded; 24 months)
2015: Visiting researcher, Dag Hammarskjold Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies, University of the Copperbelt, Kitwe, Zambia (March-December) Host: Prof. Owen Sichone
2012: Lecturer, Institute of Social Anthropology, University of Basel, Switzerland
2012: Visiting researcher, Department of Social Anthropology, University of Cape Town, South Africa (June-September) Host: Prof. Fiona Ross
2011: Visiting researcher, Human Rights Institute, University of Connecticut, USA (January-December) Host: Prof. Richard Wilson
2010: Lecturer, Institute of Social Anthropology, University of Basel, Switzerland
2009 – 2010 and 2012: Research fellow and co-management of Swiss-South African Joint Research Project “Safeguarding Democracy” (University of Basel and University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa)
2005: Post-graduate studies, Centre for African Studies, University of Cape Town, South Africa
2002 – 2003: Advanced degree in didactics/ adult education, Frey Akademie Zürich, Switzerland (SVEB 2 certificate)
2001 – 2007: Bachelor and Master studies in Social Anthropology, English Linguistics and International Law, University of Zürich, Switzerland
2022 – 2024: Project leader, “(Ausland-)Adoptionen in den Kantonen Zürich und Thurgau 1973–2002” (funded by the cantons of Zurich and Thurgau)
2017 – 2018: Project leader and coordinator, “Valueworks: Effects of Financialization along the Copper Value Chain” (funded by SNIS)
2009 – 2010 and 2012: Research fellow and co-management of Swiss-South African Joint Research Project “Safeguarding Democracy” (University of Basel and University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa)
Board member, Swiss Apartheid Debts and Reparations Campaign (KEESA)
Board Member, Fund for Development and Partnership in Africa (fepa)
Advisory Board Member for ‘Energy Assemblages’, an SNF-funded research project (2019-2023), University of Lausanne
Member, Swiss Society for African Studies (SAGS)
Member, Association for African Studies in Germany (VAD)
Member, Swiss Anthropological Association (SEG, SAA)
Founding member, Arbeitskreis Forschung zur Vergangenheitspolitik, Switzerland
Walter-Enggist-Forschungspreis, canton of Thurgau, 2025
Engagement Award 2017, University of Basel, for project “Valueworks”
Shortlisted for the Teaching Excellence Award 2017, category “Top Aktuell”, University of Basel
Young Scholars’ Award 2014 of the African Studies Association in Germany (VAD) for PhD dissertation
Faculty Price 2013 of the Faculty of Humanities, University of Basel, for PhD dissertation
Sociologus: Journal of Social Anthropology, co-editor
Penser la Suisse, member of the committee
Africa Spectrum, editorial advisory board member
Anthropology Southern Africa (ASnA), editorial board
Rita Kesselring holds the Chair for Urban Studies, School of Humanities and Social Sciences: www.unisg.ch/en/university/schools/school-of-humanities-and-social-sciences/subject-areas/urban-studies/