Editorial Board (Last update: 01/2024

  • Tomi ADEAGA: Lecturer for African Literatures at the Department of African Studies of the University of Vienna.
  • Daniela ATANASOVA: PhD student at the Department of African Studies at the University of Vienna and a member of the Research Platform Mobile Cultures and Societies. Her PhD is a historical study focusing on social and spatial im/mobilities of women in Zambia since the 1950s onwards, particularly women who have been dwelling in and moving between rural Eastern Province and the capital city Lusaka. Previously, she completed an MA in Global Studies at the University of Vienna and the University of Wroclaw, and a BA in English Language and Literature at St. Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje, with a one-year study-abroad stay at Duke University, USA.
  • Ulrike AUER: Studied African Studies and Musicology at the University of Vienna. Head of the secretary's office of the Department of African Studies since 1999. Responsible for administrative affairs of Stichproben since 2009.
  • Carl-Philipp BODENSTEIN: Studied African history and anthropology in Vienna focussing on the historical geography of urban spaces. He currently holds a postdoctoral position at the Department for Urban Planning and Geoinformation Management at the University of Twente (NL).
  • Eric BURTON: Assistant Professor for Global History at the Institute for Contemporary History at the University of Innsbruck. Following studies in international development and cultural and social anthropology at the Universities of Vienna and Dar es Salaam, he wrote his dissertation in history on African socialism in Tanzania and the development policies of the GDR and the FRG. In 2019 he was a guest lecturer at the University of Ghana in Legon. He also worked as an academic project collaborator, lecturer and guest researcher at the University of Vienna, the SFB 1199 of the University of Leipzig and the University of Exeter, specialising in the fields of development policy, socialism and educational migration. Current research project on “Hubs of Decolonization: Cairo, Accra and Dar es Salaam, 1956-65”.
  • Birgit ENGLERT: Associate Professor of African History and Society at the Department of African Studies at the University of Vienna, where she also received her PhD in 2005. She has published widely on land rights issues, popular culture practices, mobilities, and qualitative research methods. Birgit was a founding member and editor-in-chief of Stichproben from 2001 to 2021 (with shorter interruptions). E-Mail: birgit.englert@univie.ac.at
  • Bea DE ABREU FIALHO GOMES: Senior Lecturer in Racism and Development Studies at the Institute for International Development until October 2019, retired research associate at the University of Vienna since 2019.
  • Immanuel R. HARISCH: one of the managing editors of Stichproben since 2021, is currently (2022-25) a Postdoctoral Researcher at the FWF Project A Socialist Workplace in Postcolonial Africa: A Connected History of the Yugoslav Workforce in Zambia (led by Dr. Goran Musić, University of Vienna). His dissertation, which was awarded the Walter-Markov-Price, examined Institutions, Networks, and Mobilities of African trade unions and trade union education and/within the international labor movements. He is co-editor of the anthology Navigating Socialist Encounters. Moorings and (Dis)Entanglements between Africa and East Germany during the Cold War (de Gruyter, 2021) and has published several journal articles on African/global labor history, African socialisms, East-South connections, and knowledge production.
  • Lisa HOPPEL: is a recipient of a DOC-Fellowship of the Austrian Academy of Sciences at the Department of Economic and Social History at the University of Vienna. She studied History (BA), Global History and Global Studies (MA) and Development Studies. Her global historical dissertation project focusses on Afro-Asian networks and their significance for pan-African institutionalization during the 1950s and 1960s. Among her fields of interest are (African) nationalisms, African liberation movements, pan-Africanism, Cold War and South-South relations, and transnational history of ideas.
  • Elisabeth KNITTELFELDER: Post-doc university assistant and lecturer at the Department of African Studies at the University of Vienna, Austria. She holds a PhD in English and American Studies from the University of Graz and is an awardee of the Marietta Blau Scholarship. She has worked on South African theatre at the University of the Western Cape (UWC) in South Africa and at Potsdam University in Germany. From 2022-2023 she was an OeAW (Austrian Academy of Sciences) postdoctoral fellow at the English department at the University of Vienna. Her current research explores hydrocolonialism, environmental crises, and climate justice in African literatures and theatre.
  • Martina KOPF: Senior Lecturer in African literatures in the Department of African Studies of the University of Vienna. Former editor of the newspaper Südwind - Magazin für internationale Politik, Kultur und Entwicklung (2004-2009). Researcher under the FWF-funded project Colonial Concepts of Development in Africa, 1920-1960 (2009-2012), Fellow at the Centre for Global Cooperation Research of the University of Duisburg-Essen (2014-2015) and visiting professor in the Department of International Development of the University of Vienna (2015). Research areas: African literatures and cultures in the 20th and 21st centuries. Narratives of development in colonial and postcolonial literatures. Trauma, narration and ethics of representation. Feminist theory and gender representations.
  • Arno SONDEREGGER: Senior Lecturer in African History and Societies at the Department of African Studies, University of Vienna (since 2010), Substitute Chair of African History at the Department of Asian and African Studies, Humboldt University, Berlin (2012-13); Deputy Head at the Department of African Studies, University of Vienna (2011-14); Lecturer at the International Development Project (2005-10) and at the Department of African Studies (2004-10); DOC Fellow of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (2002-04); PhD studies: African history (2002-05); Master's degree: Theater Studies (1993-94), Ethnology (1993-98), African studies (1994-2000). Teaching and Research Interests: Political, social, cultural, and intellectual history of Africa, global history, history of science, historical racism studies.
  • Dominik SPÖRKER: Studied African Studies and History at the University of Vienna. Currently project staff on the provenance research project "Reisen & Sammlungen. S.M. Schiff Aurora, k.k. Kriegsmarine" at the Weltmuseum Wien (https://www.weltmuseumwien.at/wissenschaft-forschung/reisen-sammlungen/) and project staff at the provenance research project "Koloniale Erwerbskontexte 2" at the Naturhistorisches Museum Wien (https://www.nhm-wien.ac.at/forschung/projekt_koltext).
  • Daniela WALDBURGER: Senior Lecturer in Swahili and Lecturer in Linguistics at the Department of African Studies at the University of Vienna.

Former Member of the Editorial Board

  • Anaïs ANGELO (2020-2023): I am a Post Doc Researcher at the Department of African Studies, University of Vienna (Austria), where I am working on a project entitled “Where are the Women? Power, Gender and Political Biographies in Kenya” under the supervision of Professor Kirsten Rüther. Originally trained as a political scientist in Sciences Po Paris, I started specialising in African studies at the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor, USA). I then decided to turn to history to study from a fresh angle the roots of presidential power in Sub-Saharan Africa. I completed my Ph.D. dissertation at the Department of History and Civilisation, European University (Italy), which was then turned into a book entitled “Power and the Presidency in Kenya: The Jomo Kenyatta Years” (Cambridge University Press, 2020). For my current post-doc project, I explore the careers of the first Kenyan women who campaigned for a parliamentary seat in the 1960s-1970s, a time that when politics remained essentially male.
  • Veronika BILGER (2001-2014): Afrikawissenschaftlerin mit Schwerpunkt Migration. Arbeitet am International Center for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD) in Wien.
  • Bianca BOROS (2017): Studium der Afrikawissenschaften, Bildungswissenschaften und Internationale Entwicklung an der Universität Wien. Studienassistentin am Institut für Afrikawissenschaften.
  • Elke CHRISTIANSEN (2001-2013): Studium der Afrikawissenschaften mit den Schwerpunkten Entwicklungspolitik und Internationale Beziehungen an der Universität Wien. Leitet das Sekretariat für die Studienrichtung Internationale Entwicklung an der Universität Wien.
  • Martina CIGANIKOVA (2008-2017): Studium der Afrikawissenschaften, der Internationalen Entwicklung und der Sozial- und Kulturanthropologie in Wien. Dissertation zum Thema: „Democratization Processes in Global Comparison. Governance of Oppositional Forces in Semi-Peripheral Societies.“ Forschungsschwerpunkte: Governance, Demokratie- und Transitionforschung.
  • Claudia DAL BIANCO (2011-2016): Studium der Afrikawissenschaften und der Internationalen Entwicklung. Arbeitet als Projektleiterin bei der Frauensolidarität in Wien.
  • Ingeborg GRAU (2001-2022): Retired lecturer / Department of African Studies/ Department of International Development at the University of Vienna. Research interests in sub-Saharan African history: colonialism; mission; history and literature; changing gender relations; gender studies.
  • Petra KARUME (2016-2017): Studium der Afrikawissenschaften und der Internationalen Entwicklung in Wien. Arbeitet als Universitätsassistentin prae doc am Institut für Afrikawissenschaften der Universität Wien. Schreibt derzeit an einer Dissertation über historische Landschaftsveränderungen in einem peri-urbanen Forstreservat in Tansania.
  • Albert KRALER (2001-2013): Politikwissenschaftler und Afrikanist mit Schwerpunkt Migration. Arbeitet als Programme Manager am International Center for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD), daneben Lehraufträge an der Universität Wien und der TU Wien.
  • Miša KRENČEYOVÁ (2008-2017): Diplomstudium Internationale Entwicklung, Doktorat Afrikawissenschaften (Uni Wien). Interessenschwerpunkte: Flucht, Migration, Empowerment, Gender, Rassismusforschung, Entwicklungsforschung, Menschenrechte, Konzepte und Repräsentationen von Afrika, Wissenschaftsgeschichte Afrikas.
  • Irmi MARAL-HANAK (2001-† August 2011): Ao. Professorin am Institut für Afrikawissenschaften an der Universität Wien. Forschungsschwerpunkte: Swahili – Sprachvermittlung und Literatur, Kommunikation und Entwicklung, Diskursanalyse, feministische Entwicklungskonzepte, Sozialpolitik. Regionalschwerpunkt: Ostafrika.
  • Karin OBERAIGNER (2001): Studium der Afrikawissenschaften an der Universität Wien.
  • Clemens PFEFFER (2011-2017): Studium der Internationalen Entwicklung in Wien. 2010-2015 Praedoc Universitätsassistent am Institut für Internationale Entwicklung der Universität Wien. Schreibt an einer Dissertation zum Thema 'Antikolonialer Widerstand in der Weimarer Republik, 1919-1933'.
  • Kirsten RÜTHER (2014-2022): Professor of African history in the Department of African Studies of the University of Vienna. Former historian and researcher in African studies at the Leibniz University of Hannover, the University of Hamburg, Freie Universität Berlin, Kulturwissenschaftliches Institut Essen, University of Zurich. Methodology: history of entanglement. Regional focus: Southern Africa. Research areas: Christianisation and colonialism, health and popular culture, kinship studies, cities and housing.
  • Walter SCHICHO (2001-2022): Univ.Prof, retired since 2010. Main research interests: African contemporary history and development studies. Regional focus: Tanzania, Democratic Republic of Congo, Francophone West Africa.
  • Katharina WURZER (2016-2022): Studied African Studies and Political Science at the University of Vienna. Student assistant in research and teaching at the Department of African Studies, Political Science and the Department for International Development.