Current third-party-funded projects
Project title: "Rastafari 'Reasonings' zu Afrika in historischer Perspektive"
Project sponsor: FWF - Fonds zur Förderung der wissenschaftlichen Forschung
Project number: P 35987 (Einzelprojekt)
Project funds: 155.505,00 €
Project manager: Birgit Englert
Project staff: Dominik Frühwirth
Project duration: 01.10.2022-31.08.2024
Keywords: Rastafari, Africa, African History, Translocal History, Reasonings, Mobilities
Project title: "A history of Kenya's female parliamentary pioneers"
Project sponsor: FWF - Fonds zur Förderung der wissenschaftlichen Forschung - Elise-Richter-Stipendium
Project funds: 263.982,18 €
Project manager: Anais Angelo
Project duration: 01.07.2022-30.06.2025
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.
Website: https://hawpp.univie.ac.at/
Project title: “PhD Programme Cultural Mobility Studies” (doc.funds)
Short title: "Cultural Mobility Studies"
Project sponsor: FWF - Fonds zur Förderung der wissenschaftlichen Forschung
Project number: Doc56-G30
Project manager: 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.
with 7 prae-doc posts.
Project collaborator: Daniela Atanasova (Department of African Studies)
Project duration: 01.10.2019-30.09.2023
Project funds: 1.331.836,48 Euro
Project website: http://mobilecultures.univie.ac.at
Project title: “Research Platform: Mobile Cultures and Societies.”
Project sponsor: Universität Wien - University of Vienna
Project manager: Kirsten Rüther (01.07.2019 - 28.02.2021)
Second manager: Birgit Englert(01.07.2019 - 28.02.2021)
Project collaborators: Immanuel Harisch (Department of African Studies), Sigrid Thomson (Department of Comparative Literature)
Key Researcher: Kirsten Rüther, Birgit Englert
Project duration: 01.12.2018-30.09.2023
Project funds: 349.000,00 Euro
Project website: http://mobilecultures.univie.ac.at/en/