Assoz. Prof. Mag. Dr. Birgit Englert, Privatdoz.

I am Associate Professor of African History and Society at the Department of African Studies, University of Vienna, Austria.

In the last two decades, I have published extensively on land rights issues (ranging from land reform to women's land rights to land grabbing), on popular and youth culture, and on qualitative research methods. My regional focus has been East Africa (especially Tanzania) and Southern Africa, as well as the Comorian diaspora in France.

Currently, my research interests lie at the intersection of African Studies and Mobility Studies. Specifically, I work on mobilities in the context of solidarity practices, focusing on entangled solidarities between Black and/or African actors and Palestinians, as well as on the role of international recruits travelling to South Africa to help fight apartheid (1960s-90s).

Another research focus is on contemporary German-language travel writing in relation to African contexts. Furthermore, I am in charge of the externally funded project "Rastafari Reasoning on Africa in Historical Perspective" (funded by the Austrian Science Fund, P 35987, 2022-2027), which was conceived and is carried out together with Dominik Frühwirth.

So far, I have supervised 54 master's or diploma theses and co-supervised 2 doctoral theses. Ongoing projects include 3 PhD theses and 8 MA theses in African Studies and related disciplines such as Global Studies and Development Studies.

Administrative functions at the University of Vienna have included deputy director of the study programme (8 years in total), deputy chair of the department (2 years), deputy director of the research platform "Mobile Cultures and Societies" (5 years), and managing editor of the journal "Stichproben. Vienna Journal of African Studies" for most of the period 2001-2021.

See my u:cris profile for publications and activities:
https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/de/persons/birgit-englert

Photo © Birgit Englert