Heinzpeter Znoj is professor of social anthropology at the University of Bern and director of the board of the Center for Development and Environment at Bern University.
He did his graduate studies at Bern University where he earned his PhD in 1992 and afterwards spent two years as a post-doc at Yale University and Cornell University. His main research interest is economic anthropology with a regional focus on Indonesia. He did his PhD on social transformations in the course of market integration in the central highlands of Sumatra, focusing on seemingly irrational monetary practices among the Rejang (Znoj 1998, „Hot Money and War Debts. Transactional Regimes in Southwestern Sumatra“) as well as on the prestige economy related to endemic corruption in Java (Znoj 2007, “Deep Corruption in Indonesia – Discourses, Practices, Histories.”). Presently he is carrying out research in West Papua where he investigates the political context of indigenous Papuans’ non-participation in export-oriented agriculture. He is principal investigator in an SNF project on the role of Churches in sustainable development projects and in the r4d project on Feminization, Agricultural Transition and Rural Employment.