African Studies in Germany through the Lens of Critical Race Theory
Dr. Yusuf (Joseph) Serunkuma
What constitutes the canon of African studies at Germany African Studies institutions? How is this canon curated, packaged and disseminated? How are notions of racial consciousness integrated in the different modes of knowledge production about Africa? And how is the knowledge production about Africa connected to the activism and work of anti-racial activists and groups? With co-researchers, Dr. Serawit B. Debele (Africa Multiple Cluster of Excellence University of Bayreuth) and Dr Stephanie Lämmert (Max-Planck-Institute for Human Development in Berlin), Dr. Serunkuma is engaged in studying and finding answers to these questions.
More pointedly, the three scholars seek to problematise the claim Germany is a 'post-racial society' which they contend obscures the fact that its politics of knowledge production was and still is deeply racialised. To overall ambition is to develop useful conceptual and theoretical tools that bring together scholarly and activist knowledge production about Africa in the Germany African Studies domain. With Critical Race Theory (CRT) providing the conceptual and analytical lens for the study, Serunkuma and his colleagues use the category race as a social construct and assumes that racism is deeply rooted in society and its institutions, and is often disguised under claims of objectivity, science, market, and the law.
This project is part of the new Volkswagen Foundation funding initiative "Open Up – New Research Spaces for the Humanities and Cultural Studies" which aims at exploring so far untapped research spaces by funding projects which are primarily concerned with reflecting and exploring new and original research approaches.
Laufzeit
2021 (November) -2024 (Juli)
Finanzierung
Volkswagenstiftung
Wissenschaftliche Hilfskräfte
Simon Schneider
Annika Meyer
Betreuung
Prof. Dr. Olaf Zenker