Completed third-party-funded projects

Project title: Summer School “Spaces for Future: Processes of Rural and Urban Transformation in Southern Africa”

Project sponsor: Volkswagen Stiftung Programme “Knowledge for Tomorrow - Cooperative Research Projects in Sub-Saharan Africa”
Project funds: 49.900 Euro

Project participants:

The summer school aims at offering an interdisciplinary space for scientists coming from the humanities, social sciences and natural sciences in order to get an comprehensive understanding of rural-urban relations and recent challenges of migration and climate change.

Countries in Southern Africa are in the process of a major transition from rural to urban-based societies. As estimated by the UN, 77 percent of the population in Southern Africa will live in urban areas by the middle of this century. These developments increase the already existing challenges in the provision of urban infrastructure, transportation, social services and housing. It furthermore raises questions on the development of social and spatial inequalities that follow in the wake of the expansion of urban centres.

On the other hand, land reforms to overcome the strains of apartheid and colonialism and to address its spatial structures of inequality remains one of the most pressing issues in Southern Africa.  The unresolved land question in rural and urban spaces significantly impacts societies' capacities for cohesion or severe social conflict.

While research mostly either focusses on rural or urban challenges the summer school seeks to interrogate the dynamics of change by combining the rural and urban studies for a new understanding and will address the following questions:

• In which ways are processes of transformation between rural and urban spaces interconnected and shape each other?
• Who are relevant agents of transformation processes and resistance?
• In which ways can the future of urban and rural areas be imagined in new ways or by learning from past concepts and experiences?

Two important dimensions - climate change and migration - identified as particularly influential in shaping the dynamics of rural-urban transformation in Southern Africa will provide a useful analytical lens to analyse rural-urban-transformation processes and its interrelations.

Project title: “Concepts of development in postcolonial Kenyan literature”
Project sponsor: FWF - Fonds zur Förderung der wissenschaftlichen Forschung - Elise-Richter-Stipendium
Project manager: Martina Kopf
Project duration: 01.07.2017-30.06.2021 (verlängert bis 28.02.2022)
Project funds: 269.474,94 Euro
Project website: https://kenyan-literature.univie.ac.at/

Project title: “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.”
Short title: "Employment-tied Housing in (post)colonial Africa"
Project sponsor: FWF - Fonds zur Förderung der wissenschaftlichen Forschung
Project number: P29566-G28
Project manager: Kirsten Rüther
Project participants: Daniela Waldburger, Martina Ciganikova, Carl-Philipp Bodenstein
Project funds 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 title: “SUSFISH-plus / Sustainable Management of Water and Fish Resources in Burkina Faso, Advanced Partnership”
Project number: FA432004
Project sponsor: OEAD - APPEAR
Project manager: Andreas Melcher, BOKU
Project participants: u.a. Gabriele Slezak
Project duration: 01.12.2016-30.11.2019
Project homepage: http://susfish.boku.ac.at

 Akie - A heavily endangered hunter-gatherers' language in Central Tanzania

Project title: "Akie - A heavily endangered hunter-gatherers' language in Central Tanzania"
Project sponsor: Volkswagenstiftung
Project funds: 200.000,00 Euro
Project lead (team): Prof. Dr.phil.habil Rainer Voßen, Frankfurt; Prof.emer. Dr.phil.habil. Karsten Legère; Prof. Dr.phil.habil. Christa König, Köln.
New team members (01.02.2017): Prof. Dr. Gerhard Kubik; Mag. Iris Winter, Universität Frankfurt am Main, Deutschland
Projektlaufzeit: 01.02.2017-31.01.2019

Project title: “Popular Culture in Translocal Spaces: Processes of Diasporisation among Comorians in Marseilles and Cape Verdeans in Lisbon”
Project sponsor: FWF - Fonds zur Förderung der wissenschaftlichen Forschung
Project manager: Birgit Englert
Project participants: Katharina Fritsch, Hanna Stepanik
Project duration: 01.06.2014-31.05.2017 (extended until 30.09.2018)
http://translocalculture.com/         
Arbeitsgruppe "Translocal Africa" (Traraa)
http://translocalafrica.wordpress.com

Project title: "Understanding and Misunderstanding Grammar. Perception of Grammatical Categories in the Languages of the Lake Chad Area" (UMIG)
Project sponsor: FWF - Fonds zur Förderung der wissenschaftlichen Forschung
Project manager: Norbert Cyffer
Project participant: Akin Wewe
Project duration: 01.12.2012 - 30.11.2015
Project homepage: http://umig.univie.ac.at

Project title: "Colonial Concepts of Development in Africa" (CoDe)
Project sponsor: FWF - Fonds zur Förderung der wissenschaftlichen Forschung
Project manager: Walter Schicho
Project participants: Gerald Hödl, Martina Kopf
Project duration: 01.12.2012 - 30.11.2015

 PLUS - Plurilingual Speakers in Unilingual Environments

Project title: "PLUS - Plurilingual Speakers in Unilingual Environments"
Project sponsor: WWTF - Wiener Wissenschafts-, Forschungs- und Technologiefonds
Project manger: Brigitta Busch, Walter Schicho
Project participants: Gabriele Slezak, Karlheinz Spitzl, Martina Rienzner
Project duration: 01.04.2011 - 30.09.2013

Project title: "Language Endangerment in Tanzania: Documenting the Dowe Language"
Project sponsor: Endangered Languages Documentation Programme, SOAS - School of Oriental and African Studies, London, UK
Project manager: Karsten Legère
Project duration: 01.08.2012 – 01.08.2013
http://www.hrelp.org/grants/projects/index.php?projid=305

 Gender, Migration, and Slavery in Mali/West Africa, 1890-1920

Project title: "Gender, Migration, and Slavery in Mali/West Africa, 1890-1920"
Project sponsor: FWF - Hertha-Firnberg-Programm
Project manager: Marie Rodet
Project duration: 01.01.2009 - 31.12.2011

 Sprachwahl in Straf- und Asylverfahren mit Verfahrensbeteiligten aus afrikanischen Herkunftsländern

Project title: "Sprachwahl in Straf- und Asylverfahren mit Verfahrensbeteiligten aus afrikanischen Herkunftsländern"
Project sponsor: Jubiläumsfonds der Österreichischen Nationalbank
Project manager: Walter Schicho
Project participants: Gabriele Slezak, Martina Rienzner
Project duration: 01.04.2009 - 31.03.2011

 Dynamics of Linguistic Change in Northeastern Nigeria

Project title: "Dynamics of Linguistic Change in Northeastern Nigeria" (DYWAN)
Project sponsor: FWF - Fonds zur Förderung der wissenschaftlichen Forschung
Project manager: Norbert Cyffer
Project participant: Georg Ziegelmeyer
Project duration: 01.04.2007 - 31.03.2010

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

Project title: "Sprachliche Innovation und Konzeptwandel in Westafrika" (SIKWA)
Project sponsor: FWF - Fonds zur Förderung der wissenschaftlichen Forschung
Project manager: Norbert Cyffer
Project participants: Erwin Ebermann, Georg Ziegelmeyer
Project duration: 01.07.2002 - 30.06.2005