Carolin Maertens is a member of the research group Highland Asia (www.highlandasia.net) and a PhD Student at the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology, LMU Munich. Her PhD project focuses on livelihood strategies and socio-economic practices in the mountainous Pamir region of Tajikistan. In particular, Carolin is interested in relations that people from the Wakhan Valley entertain with places, actors and resources within the Pamir region and beyond. She is currently a Visiting Scholar at the Center for Asian Studies of the University of Colorado Boulder.