FRANKFURT. Maren Jordan studied ethnology and Islamic studies at the University of Hamburg. After completing her master’s degree, she worked in teaching. Her doctoral thesis was written as part of the German Research Foundation (DFG)-funded project “Fertility Transformation in the Sultanate of Oman,” under the supervision of Prof. Julia Pauli and Prof. Laila Prager. Since 2022, she has served as academic coordinator for the Collaborative Research Center (CRC) 1475 “Metaphors of Religion: Religious Meaning-Making in Language Use” at the Center for Religious Studies (CERES) at the University of Bochum.

Between 2016 and 2017, Jordan conducted twelve months of ethnographic research in the central Omani oasis town of al-Hamra. Her work focused on a demographic development observed in Oman since the 1970s: the significant decline in birth rates, often referred to as a “reproductive revolution.” Jordan’s research challenges the assessment that this phenomenon constitutes a revolution tied to notions of a new “modernity.” Instead, she examines changing marriage practices, gender roles, and shifting norms and values surrounding birth control and family planning, offering a nuanced perspective. Her study spans several generations, from the 1970s to the present, and is based on 70 systematically collected birth and marriage histories of women, extensive interview material, as well as supplementary quantitative data and source analyses.

According to the Frobenius Institute, the dissertation impressively demonstrates how ethnology can engage productively with other disciplines. It builds a bridge to demography while maintaining its ethnological identity, the Institute said, adding that by using quantitative data to deepen qualitative findings – and ethnographic depth to interpret statistical trends — the work is highly relevant not only to ethnology but also to sociology, demography, and gender studies.