Research Projects

Project sponsor: FWF - Fonds zur Förderung der wissenschaftlichen Forschung - Elise-Richter-Stipendium
Project number: V 872 Richter-Programm
Project funding: 263.982,18 €
Project leader: Anaïs Angelo
Project duration: 01.07.2022-30.06.2025  
until 30.11.2024 at the University of Vienna, from 01.12.2024 to 30.05.2026 at the ÖAW

In the last decades, the number of female parliamentarians has tremendously increased in African countries. Nevertheless, national realities vary greatly: Kenya is among the countries which face enduring difficulties to implement gender parity in legislative institutions. Contemporary political, economic, financial, cultural and social barriers hindering women’s representation in parliaments are well researched. But one question remains: what impact has the erasing of women’s politics from national history on the building of a gender-inclusive democracy in Africa/Kenya?

This project seeks to redress the gaps in the current knowledge about Kenyan women’s political history through the lens of parliamentary politics. Despite their contribution to the decolonization struggle as freedom fighters or political activists, Kenyan women have been largely sidelined in Kenyan politics and political history. Yet, preliminary research on Kenyan women’s fight for parliamentary representation in the 1960s and 1970s shows that the few who dared campaigning for a parliamentary seat in a patriarchal political system and society were particularly vocal about their political ideas and ambitions. Who were these women? Why did they campaign and what did they do afterwards? How can we document and write about their political endeavor?

Building on previous research on Kenyan political history, this project will document the political ideas and agenda these women defended during their parliamentary campaigns and, for the happy few, once in office. At stake is to make women’s political contribution to formal, national politics visible (instead of accounting of their marginalization, absence or invisibility). Extensive archival research will be conducted to retrieve written, oral, public, personal, visual sources from local, national, and global contexts.

This project challenges historical narratives that only remember (male) winners in African politics. Academic and non-academic outcomes will contribute to a more inclusive writing of African history, one that bridges formal and informal politics, focuses both on winners and losers, and introduces diverse sources to both an expert and general audience.

https://www.oeaw.ac.at/ikw/forschung/wissensproduktion-knowledge-production/projekte/eine-geschichte-der-afrikanische-pionierinnen-im-parlament

Project sponsor: FWF - Fonds zur Förderung der wissenschaftlichen Forschung
Project number: Doc56-G30
Project leader: Kirsten Rüther (01.07.2019-28.02.2021)
Principal investigators: Pelz, Annegret; Ganser-Blumenau, Alexandra; Rüther, Kirsten; Sakdapolrak, Patrick; Macho, Thomas; Sauer, Birgit; Dannecker, Petra.

7 prae-doc positions

Project Staff African StudiesAfrikawissenschaften: Daniela Atanasova

Project duration: 01.10.2019-30.09.2023

Project funding: 1.331.836,48 Euro

Project homepage: http://mobilecultures.univie.ac.at/docfunds/ 

Project sponsor: Universität Wien
Project leader: Kirsten Rüther (01.07.2019 - 28.02.2021)
Deputy leader: Birgit Englert (01.07.2019 - 28.02.2021)
Project staff: Immanuel Harisch (Afrikawissenschaften), Sigrid Thomson (Vergleichende Literaturwissenschaft)
Key Researchers: Kirsten Rüther, Birgit Englert
Project duration: 01.12.2018-30.09.2023
Project funding: 349.000,00 Euro
Project homepage: http://mobilecultures.univie.ac.at 

Project sponsor: Volkswagen Stiftung Programme “Knowledge for Tomorrow - Cooperative Research Projects in Sub-Saharan Africa”
Project funding: 49.900 Euro
Project duration: Jan 2021 - March 2022

Project leader: Prof. Dr. Reimer Gronemeyer (Sociology, University of Giessen)

Project coordination: Dr. Jonas Metzger (Sociology, University of Giessen)

Partners: Prof. Dr. Mutjinde Katjiua (Department of Land and Property Science, Namibia University of Science and Technology); Dr. Lameck Mwewa (Department of Agricultural and Natural Resources Sciences (NUST); Prof. Dr. Kirsten Rüther (African Studies Department, University of Vienna); Dr. Antje Daniel (Institute of Development Science, University of Vienna)

The summer school seeks to interrogate the dynamics of change of rural and urban areas in Southern Africa. The focus is on Southern Africa due to two reasons: First, countries in Southern Africa are in the process of a major transition from rural to urban-based societies. Second, land reforms to overcome the strains of apartheid and colonialism and to address its spatial structures of inequality remain one of the most pressing issues in Southern Africa. Furthermore, conflicts over land are accelerated by processes of land acquisition dominated by foreign investors. The land question in Southern Africa cannot be reduced to agrarian change or production as it is politically re-formulated as a question of belonging, citizenship and indigeneity.

Project sponsor: FWF - Fonds zur Förderung der wissenschaftlichen Forschung - Elise-Richter-Stipendium
Project leader: Martina Kopf
Project duration: 01.07.2017-30.06.2021 (verlängert bis 28.02.2022)
Project funding: 269.474,94 Euro
Project homepage: https://kenyan-literature.univie.ac.at/ 

Project titel: "The Provision, Planning and Building of Employment-tied Housing: Language, Agency and Governance in three Housing Projects in Kenya, Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo, c. 1940s to 1970s"
Project sponsor: FWF - Fonds zur Förderung der wissenschaftlichen Forschung
Project number: P29566-G28
Project leader: Kirsten Rüther
Project staff: Daniela Waldburger, Martina Ciganikova, Carl-Philipp Bodenstein
Project funding: 428.484,00 Euro
Project duration: 01.03.2017-28.02.2020 (Verlängert bis 28.02.2021)
Project homepage: http://housing.univie.ac.at 

Project titel: “SUSFISH-plus / Sustainable Management of Water and Fish Resources in Burkina Faso, Advanced Partnership”
Project number: FA432004
Project sponsor: OEAD - APPEAR
Project leader: Andreas Melcher, BOKU
Project staff: u.a. Gabriele Slezak
Project duration: 01.12.2016-30.11.2019

Project sponsor: Volkswagenstiftung
Project funding: 200.000,00 Euro
Project team: Prof. Dr.phil.habil Rainer Voßen, Frankfurt; Prof.emer. Dr.phil.habil. Karsten Legère; Prof. Dr.phil.habil. Christa König, Köln.
from 01.02.2017: Prof. Dr. Gerhard Kubik; Mag. Iris Winter, Universität Frankfurt am Main, Deutschland
Project duration: 01.02.2017-31.01.2019

Project sponsor: FWF - Fonds zur Förderung der wissenschaftlichen Forschung
Project leader: Birgit Englert
Project staff: Katharina Fritsch, Hanna Stepanik
Project duration: 01.06.2014-31.05.2017 (extended until 30.09.2018)
Working Group "Translocal Africa" (Traraa)
http://translocalafrica.wordpress.com 

Project sponsor: FWF - Fonds zur Förderung der wissenschaftlichen Forschung
Project leader: Norbert Cyffer
Project staff: Akin Wewe
Project duration: 01.12.2012 - 30.11.2015
Project homepage: http://umig.univie.ac.at 

Project sponsor: FWF - Fonds zur Förderung der wissenschaftlichen Forschung
Project leader: Walter Schicho
Project staff: Gerald Hödl, Martina Kopf
Project duration: 01.12.2012 - 30.11.2015

Project sponsor: WWTF - Wiener Wissenschafts-, Forschungs- und Technologiefonds
Project leader: Brigitta Busch, Walter Schicho
Project staff: Gabriele Slezak, Karlheinz Spitzl, Martina Rienzner
Project duration: 01.04.2011 - 30.09.2013

Project sponsor: Endangered Languages Documentation Programme, SOAS - School of Oriental and African Studies, London, UK
Project leader: Karsten Legère
Project duration: 01.08.2012 – 01.08.2013

Project sponsor: FWF - Hertha-Firnberg-Programm
Project leader: Marie Rodet
Project duration: 01.01.2009 - 31.12.2011

Project sponsor: Jubiläumsfonds der Österreichischen Nationalbank
Project leader: Walter Schicho
Project staff: Gabriele Slezak, Martina Rienzner
Project duration: 01.04.2009 - 31.03.2011

Project sponsor: FWF - Fonds zur Förderung der wissenschaftlichen Forschung
Project leader: Norbert Cyffer
Project staff: Georg Ziegelmeyer
Project duration: 01.04.2007 - 31.03.2010

Project titel: "Geschichte der Afrikanistik in Österreich". Forschung zur Wissenschaftsgeschichte mit biographisch-bibliographischer Dokumentation ausgewählter Persönlichkeiten (1923-1992)
Project sponsor: Jubiläumsfonds der Österreichischen Nationalbank
Project leader: Clemens Gütl
Project duration: 01.03.2009 - 31.12.2009

Project sponsor: FWF - Fonds zur Förderung der wissenschaftlichen Forschung
Project leader: Norbert Cyffer
Project staff: Erwin Ebermann, Georg Ziegelmeyer
Project duration: 01.07.2002 - 30.06.2005