Associated Researchers

Ibrahim Bachir Abdoulaye, M.A. (University of Bayreuth)

Ibrahim Bachir Abdoulaye is a PhD candidate at the Bayreuth International Graduate School of African Studies (BIGSAS) and researcher within the "Religious engineering. The making of moralities, development and religion in Niger" project at the "Africa Multiple" Cluster of Excellence.

Prof. Dr. Andrea Behrends (University of Leipzig)

For more than 20 years, Andrea Behrends' research concerns lifeworlds in crisis due to flight, conflict, and intervention in African contexts. This includes studies on resource governance and conflicts over distribution. Furthermore, she explores contingencies of belonging to understand the diversity in coexistence. She is also leader of a subproject within the BMBF-funded "Postcolonial Hierarchies" network.

Prof. Dr. Isabel Heinemann (Leibniz Institute of Contemporary History, Munich)

Isabel Heinemann is Director of the Leibniz Institute of Contemporary History (IfZ) at Munich. Previously, she was Professor of Contemporary History at the University of Bayreuth. Her research focuses on entanglements of racism, gender, and knowledge and the long-term effects of political, epistemic, and physical violence in historical perspective. Her research particularly concerns National Socialism, the Second World War, and Nazi extermination policies as well as their impacts on European societies after 1945.

PD Dr. Thomas Hüsken (University of Bayreuth)

Thomas Hüsken is Adjunct Professor of Social and Cultural Anthropology at the University of Bayreuth. He authored "Tribal Politics in the Borderland of Egypt and Libya" (2019) and co-leads the DFG-funded project "Cyrenaica Contested: Politics, Identity and Justice in Times of Transition" with Amal Obeidi. A co-founder of the African Borderlands Studies Network (ABORNE), Thomas has a consultancy background and facilitated a DAAD-supported university partnership between Bayreuth and four universities in eastern Libya.

Saskia Jaschek, M.A. (University of Bayreuth)

Saskia Jaschek is a PhD candidate at the Bayreuth International Graduate School of African Studies (BIGSAS) and a freelance journalist working on Sudan’s military coup d’état 2021 and the following war.

Prof. Dr. Kai Koddenbrock (University of Bielefeld)

Kai Koddenbrock is a professor of political economy at the University of Bielefeld. Previously, he led the Junior Research Group "The political economy of monetary and economic sovereignty in West Africa compared" at the "Africa Multiple" Cluster of Excellence, University of Bayreuth. His research intersects International Relations and International Political Economy. He also facilitates the DFG network "Politics of money" together with Benjamin Braun.

Dr. Maria Ketzmerick (Zentrum Moderner Orient, Berlin)

Maria Ketzmerick is a postdoctoral researcher and lecturer at the Chair for Sociology of Africa at the University of Bayreuth. She conducts research on security from a post and de-colonial perspective to better understand the complex interrelationships between locally rooted social dynamics, transnational politics, and global change. She is also leading a subproject within the "Postcolonial Hierarchies" network (BMBF-funded).

Prof. Dr. Cyrus Samimi (University of Bayreuth)

Cyrus Samimi is the Head of the Research Group of Climatology at the University of Bayreuth. He is also a Vice Dean for Digital Solutions in the Cluster of Excellence Africa Multiple and Director of the Bavarian Research Institute of African Studies (BRIAS). He has conducted research on various topics, including climate change, food insecurity, political instability, resource governance, and the politics of change.

Dr. Cassandra Mark-Thiesen (University of Bayreuth)

Cassandra Mark-Thiesen leads the Junior Research Group "African Knowledges and the History Publication since the 1970s" at the "Africa Multiple" Cluster of Excellence. Within the project, she examines global inequalities and contestation in knowledge production.

Dr. Marcus Mühlnikel (University of Bayreuth)

Marcus Mühlnikel is a senior lecturer at the Institute for Franconian Regional History, affiliated with the universities of Bamberg and Bayreuth. His research focuses on the experience of war.

Dr. Bretton (Bret) McEvoy (University of Bayreuth)

Bret McEvoy was a researcher within the “Conflict.Meanings.Transitions" research network (until 2026). His research addresses how political actors interpret their roles in histories of injustice and engage their consequences through projects of accountability, denial and resistance. In "Conflicts.Meanings.Transitions" he examined the entangled corporate responsibilities of arms manufacturers in (post)colonial violence.

Patricia Pinky Ndlovu, M.A. (University of Bayreuth)

Patricia Pinky Ndlovu is a Ph.D. candidate at the Bayreuth International Graduate School of African Studies (BIGSAS) and researcher within the "Postcolonial Hierarchies" network. Her research deals with racialized capitalism, patriarchy, and violence in South Africa's minibus taxi industry.

Prof. Dr. Sabelo Ndlovu-Gatsheni (University of Calgary, Canada)

Sabelo J. Ndlovu-Gatsheni is Professor of History at the University of Calgary. Previously, he held the Chair of Epistemologies of the Global South with emphasis on Africa at the University of Bayreuth. He is a leading decolonial theorist with over a hundred publications in the fields of African history, politics, development, and decolonial theory. Furthermore, he is leader of a subproject within the "Postcolonial Hierarchies" network (BMBF-funded).

Dr. Nathaniel Umukoro (Western Delta University, Nigeria)

Nathaniel Umukoro is a visiting Alexander Von Humboldt Research Fellow. His research focuses on democracy, public health, and conflict in Nigeria. Currently, he examines Nigeria's food security policies from a social perspective, particularly regarding the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Alexander Schwarz, M.A. (University of Bayreuth)

Alexander Schwarz is a PhD candidate and researcher within the "Conflicts.Meanings.Transitions" network (BMBF-funded). His research mainly concerns paramilitary groups, known as Freikorps, after the first World War.

Nicolai Teufel, M.A. (Ivan Franko National University of Lviv, Ukraine)

Nicolai Teufel is currently working at the Ivan Franko National University of Lviv, Ukraine. Before this, he led the education program Learnopolis.net (funded by the DAAD and BMBF) between the University of Bayreuth and three universities in Ukraine.

Darja Wolfmeier, M.A. (University of Bayreuth)

Darja Wolfmeier is a PhD candidate and researcher within the "Postcolonial Hierarchies" network (BMBF-funded). She examines racial inequalities and power in the humanitarian sector.