Research 

Current Projects

"The Black East in the Cold War? Networks of Afro-Asian Solidarity and the Divided City of Berlin" within CRAFTE at ZMO 

This project focuses on Afro-Asian actors in the divided city of Berlin from a localized long-term perspective between 1948 and 1990. The project examines the extent to which local entanglements were challenged by changing global discourses and contexts regarding racial division, and how racialized actors used Berlin and its possibilities as a venue for direct competition between different political systems. The project is interested in the long-term dynamics between local division, regional embedding, and the international context of South-South solidarities, as well as the dynamics around globalized discourses and everyday local practices.

The research is divided into three parts:

1. First, the project looks at the international level and investigates the role the Berlin question played diplomatically within the Afro-Asian bloc at the UN. Starting with the formation of the UN, newly independent African states actively shaped the decolonization of other continents while forming the Afro-Asian Bloc. From the late nineteenth century onwards, anti-imperialist networks and activist groups in metropoles from Paris and Berlin to Cairo grew and actively shaped these processes from below. The project explores both developments to exemplify how Afro-Asian regional solidarity was lived and how it shaped Global South internationalism.

2. Secondly, the project focuses on the divided city as a material space for Afro-Asian actors and the extent to which systemic competition created realms for maneuver. It delves into mobilities, social movements, and moments of contestation to understand the temporal contingency and permeability of the Wall.

3. Finally, the project takes a biographical approach, focusing on the narratives of people of Afro-Asian descent and their life stories, exploring the extent to which the materiality of the Wall and the division shaped their lives.

Re-centering African Subjects and Subjectivities. Proposition for a New Research Agenda on Regionalism in Africa (DFG funded Scientific Network)

The scientific network "Re-centering African Subjects and Subjectivities”, funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG), led by Mariel Reiss, officially starts its work in January 2024. The network brings together 16 internationally renowned scholars from different disciplines, united in shaping a new research agenda on African regionalism over the next three years. Within the network, a coordinating team, comprising Lynda Iroulo, Maria Ketzmerick, Miriam Mukalazi, Densua Mumford, Mariel Reiss, and Antonia Witt, orchestrates the collaborative endeavors and outreach initiatives. Rooted in a critical examination of both mainstream/Western and African perspectives on regionalism, and drawing inspiration from the collective expertise of its members, the network aims to produce fresh empirical insights, advance new methodological approaches, and foster the development of innovative theories in the study of African regionalism. Central to its mission is a dedicated focus on African subjects and subjectivities, aiming to contribute substantially to the understanding of regional dynamics in the African context.

Transnational Conflicts and Colonial Dis/Continuities: The Anglophone Conflict in Cameroon within Postcolonial Hierarchies Network (University of Marburg, University of Bayreuth, University of Erfurt, University of Freiburg)

In October 2017, the Anglophone conflict in Cameroon escalated violently, with more than 3,000 deaths and 500,000 internally displaced persons (Mehler and Glund 2021). At the international level, the conflict and its violent events have already been discussed in the new format of the Arria-Formula Meeting (Coni-Zimmer and Peez 2019). In recent years, there has been a normative shift in the debate on international intervention in the fight against war crimes and violence against civilians in the wake of the emergence of global justice standards (Langer and Eason 2019; Mégret 2015). According to In the era of “new interventionism” (Doyle 2001), despite its criticism (Richmond and Ginty 2015), the UN is expected to respond alongside other international actors when civilians are harmed. This project investigates this policy of protection and justice, focusing on post-colonial hierarchies of knowledge related to security, peace and conflict. The project analyses the factors and knowledge systems that determine when and how international or regional actors decide to intervene to prevent harm to civilians, and what form such interventions take. In particular, the project focuses on the changes brought about by stronger non-Western actors, such as China: Changing norms of justice and human rights on transformative responsibility in situations of violence for former colonial powers and non-Western actors? What is the background to non-intervention, as in the case of the Anglophone conflict, and what is the role of strategic non-knowledge (McGoey 2012)? What influence do non-Western actors without a colonial past have in this process. The impact of the new actors on the dimensions of peace and security policy is fundamental not only on the ground, but also in international institutions (Fung 2019) and thus raises once again the question – What new hierarchies are emerging in conflict research and in practical conflict resolution and violence prevention? Does that mean for local decision-makers?
Based on the empirical example of the Anglophone conflict in Cameroon, the project aims to develop a theoretical perspective on peace and conflict research with postcolonial/decolonial theories (Sabaratnam 2017; Go 2013) that recognizes international norms as well as geographical-historical consequences and influences (Hönke and Müller 2012).