Mag. Dr. Martina Kopf, Privatdoz.

© Der Knopfdrücker

 Contact

Telephone: +43 1 4277 43206
E-Mail: martina.kopf@univie.ac.at

 Profile

Martina Kopf is a Senior Lecturer in African Literatures. Her research focuses on development theory and critique in African writing (Kenya) and the history of ideas of development in Africa (focus on colonial discourses 1930-1950). Further areas of interest are Afro-feminist and intersectional feminist thought, as well as issues of literary witnessing, especially with regard to the genocide in Rwanda and with regard to sexualized violence.

After completing her PhD in African Studies at the University of Vienna, she was editor of the Africa section of Südwind – Magazin für Internationale Kultur, Politik und Entwicklung for five years. She had a research fellowship at the Centre for Global Cooperation Research in Germany, was visiting professor at the Department of Development Studies in Vienna, and has research experience in Kenya, Senegal and Cameroon.

In addition to her research areas, she teaches general theory and criticism of African literatures and literary history of Africa (East and West Africa) at the Department.

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  • CV

    Academic CV

  • Publications

    Siehe u:cris

  • Projects

    Concepts of development in postcolonial Kenyan literature
    01.07.2017-28.02.2022

    Short description:
    This project looks at Anglophone works by Kenyan writers through the lens of development theory and critique. Kenya is a country with a fascinating and vibrant literary culture, that has witnessed huge social and economic transformations since independence, and a country that has been a hub for the international development industry for the wider region of East Africa. This project is interested in how Kenyan writers have witnessed, shaped and responded to what the Latin American anthropologist Arturo Escobar (1991; 1995) described as ‘the ‘development encounter’, meaning a continuation and substitution of the colonial encounter, that has become a defining experience of the so-called global South. Furthermore, it is interested in conceptual and methodological issues with regard to literary studies approaches to the history and critique of development in Africa.

    Project lead
    Dr. Martina Kopf (full-time 07/2017 – 06/2019, part-time 07/2019 – 02/2022)

    Student assistant
    Lisa Tackie (part-time 07/2020 – 02/2022)

    Funding institution
    Austrian Science Funds (FWF)
    V554 Elise Richter Program
    https://kenyan-literature.univie.ac.at/

     

    Completed

    Developing Africa in colonial and postcolonial imaginations
    01.04.2014-28.02.2015 and 09/2015
    Fellowship at the Käte Hamburger Kolleg, Centre for Global Cooperation Research University Duisburg-Essen, Germany

    Colonial concepts of development in Africa, 1920-1960
    01.04.2009-31.08.2013
    Project lead: Univ. Prof. Walter Schicho
    Postdocs: Dr. Gerald Hödl, Dr. Martina Kopf
    Student assistants:Marlene Schild, David Schlauß
    Funding institution: Austrian Science Funds (FWF)
    Funding programme for stand-alone projects    
    https://www.univie.ac.at/colonial-development/seiten/projekt.html

  • Memberships
    • Editorial board of Stichproben – Vienna Journal of African Studies
    • International Advisory Board of LIFT – The Journal of Literature and Performing Arts
    • African Literature Association (ALA)
    • European Association for Commonwealth Literature and Language Studies (EACLALS)
    • Vienna African Writers Club (VAW)
  • Functions
    • Mittelbausprecherin des Instituts für Afrikawissenschaften
    • Mittelbauvertreterin des Instituts in der Studienkonferenz SPL 14
    • Mittelbauvertreterin im Gender-Ausschuss der Kulturwissenschaftlichen Fakultäten

Last updated: 23.08.2023