Elke held several important administrative positions at the University of Vienna: vice dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences (2008-2012), deputy director of the Study Programme for Social and Cultural Anthropology (2012-2014), director of the Interdisciplinary University Programme for Higher Latin American Studies (2013-2017) as well as head (2014-2016) and deputy head (2016-2018) of the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology.

Elke’s research fields included myths and rituals, Amazonian anthropology as well as the anthropology of media and visual anthropology. In the last years of her academic career, she became particularly interested in globalization processes in relation to Indian cinema and film as well as in ritual dynamics in rural Austria. Moreover, Elke pioneered the development and implementation of e-learning and blended learning strategies and services in sociocultural anthropology and the social sciences in general. Elke, either alone or as part of a team, supervised more than 300 academic theses, which addressed topics close to her own research, as well as themes and questions outside her own research interests.

We will remember Elke as an optimistic, cheerful, warm and open colleague who always had an encouraging word for students and colleagues alike. We will miss her very much.

The Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology of the University of Vienna