Jens Adam is a political anthropologist and cultural analyst. Since October 2024 he has been Professor of Cultural Management at Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus–Senftenberg. His first ethnographic research had its starting point in Lusatia, with a study on the impact of post-socialist transformation and lignite mining on a Sorbian village. Subsequent projects have addressed international cultural policy in war and conflict zones, authoritarian transformations within contemporary democracies, the role of cultural heritage in urban development, and the European border regime. This research has taken him to places like Ramallah, Jerusalem, Sarajevo, L’viv, Warsaw and the Polish–Belarusian border.

He studied and completed his doctorate in European Ethnology at Humboldt University of Berlin, where he subsequently held a position as research associate. Further academic stations included the Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient, visiting professorships at the Universities of Bremen and Göttingen, a role as Senior Researcher in the U Bremen Excellence Chair Soft Authoritarianisms, and a fellowship in the interdisciplinary research group Internalizing Borders at the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research, Bielefeld.

Alongside his academic career, he has long-standing experience in international cultural exchange, including as programme director of a German–Polish cultural centre in Wrocław and as a member of the management team of a music festival in Berlin.