Annabelle Böttcher has been a global nomad before moving to Germany in 2020 to focus on German higher education management and teaching as vice-rector, dean of faculty and professor. Prior to that she worked globally shuttling between research and higher education in Denmark, Austria, US, France, Syria, Lebanon, Indonesia, and Germany. From 2005 to 2015 she was with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) as an advisor and delegate in war and conflict zones, such as Iraq, Jordan, Yemen, Bangladesh, Niger, Syria, Lebanon, and Turkey.

She obtained a PhD in Political Science from Albert-Ludwigs-University of Freiburg and a Habilitation in Islamic Studies at the Freie Universität Berlin (FU-Berlin). Her fields of expertise are contemporary Middle East (Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Turkey) and Islamic movements, as well Muslim body- and space-management.

She currently works on a number of books and projects related to her fields of interest.