Interdisciplinary Areas Studies and Transdisciplinary Research
Research Network Africa
Basel has become a centre for Africa-related research. This development is rooted in a long research tradition at various institutions in the region and has been fostered by the University of Basel's strong commitment to research on, in, with and for Africa. Our Centre acts as an interface for exchange between disciplines, faculties and institutions outside the University.
Six key areas of activities (KAAs) have been defined on the basis of the competence and fields of research at the University of Basel and its partner institutions. In addition, each affiliated subject area, department and institution has its own research profile.
Key areas of activities
Research in the five key areas will help to close important gaps in our understanding of the processes of rapid change in Africa, provide opportunities to tackle conceptual and methodological challenges in interdisciplinary and disciplinary research, and contribute to social development on the continent.
![[Translate to English:] kaa2](https://zasb.unibas.ch/fileadmin/_processed_/e/6/csm_Ghana_SPHC_Kinderkontrolle__Pascal_Schmid_62f9c86ac8.jpg?1725376369)
![[Translate to English:] Richtersveld Community Conservancy, Südafrika](https://zasb.unibas.ch/fileadmin/_processed_/8/1/csm_Lenggenhager_IMG_9805_b5653b5a84.jpg?1725376370)
Departments and partner organisations
The Research Network Africa is based on the competences and activities of different research groups, subject areas and departments at the University of Basel and at various partner organisations. They all contribute to research on, in, with and for Africa, as well as to teaching and training at ZASB.
![[Translate to English:] ethnologie forschung](https://zasb.unibas.ch/fileadmin/_processed_/6/0/csm_Ethnologie_Forschung_9d9f9eafb1.jpg?1614730702)
![[Translate to English:] plakat](https://zasb.unibas.ch/fileadmin/_processed_/c/9/csm_geschichte_afrikas_01345_KeyVisual_954c7f70f3.jpg?1614730701)
![[Translate to English:] namibia](https://zasb.unibas.ch/fileadmin/_processed_/1/0/csm_namibian_csm_DSC_0719_c92c18e6a7_760b454096.jpg?1614730706)
![[Translate to English:] Impression Afrika](https://zasb.unibas.ch/fileadmin/_processed_/b/7/csm_P1040134_b1054caeef.jpg?1725376373)
![[Translate to English:] logo swisspeace](https://zasb.unibas.ch/fileadmin/_processed_/8/0/csm_swisspeace-logo_724f007b02.png?1614730708){kind=logo}
![[Translate to English:] world-christianity](https://zasb.unibas.ch/fileadmin/_processed_/3/f/csm_fachbereich_aussereurop_christentum_csm_olga-delawrence-370717_89389ae828_54891424e7.jpg?1614730707)
![[Translate to English:] forschung umweltwissenschaften](https://zasb.unibas.ch/fileadmin/_processed_/5/9/csm_umweltwissenschaften_csm_Banner_2_59475a9de5_aa8ff34d12.jpg?1614735235)
![[Translate to English:] University hospital entrance](https://zasb.unibas.ch/fileadmin/_processed_/c/8/csm_Das_Unispital_1_150b286d3a.jpg?1614730709)
![[Translate to English:] urban studies](https://zasb.unibas.ch/fileadmin/_processed_/3/b/csm_urban_SO_JOburg_82d28a1798.jpg?1614730709)
Recent publications
Calls
| Francis Daudi Mlacha (History) | A History of the Insurance Business in Tanzania and Kenya, 1945-2006 | 2024 |
| Katienegnimin Seydou Konate (French Literature) | Bestiaire et biotope végétal dans la littérature de jeunesse de Côte d’Ivoire | 2024 |
| Thanushiyah Korn (History) | Development, Cooperation, and Conflict. A Global History of Rwanda’s Path to the 1994 Genocide against Tutsi | 2024 |
| Faisal Nooh Ali (Epidemiology) | Epidemiology and control of hypertension in Somaliland | 2024 |
| Andrea Christina Buhl-Colmsee (Anthropology) | Images of Palliative Care in Tanzania – A Hospital-Ethnography in a Cancer Clinic in Dar es Salaam | 2024 |
| Ursula Wüthrich Grossenbacher (African Studies) | Impact of religion/spirituality (R/S) on the outcome of HIV care in different health settings in rural and urban Zimbabwe with a special focus on adolescent patients | 2024 |
| Thomas Betschart (Urban Studies) | Infra-Incremental Urbanism and Differential Mobility in Ethiopia | 2024 |
| Sindi-Leigh McBride (African Studies) | The Politics and Poetics of Climate Change in South Africa and Nigeria | 2024 |
| Olutoyin Ikuteyijo (Epidemiology) | Understanding Sexual and Reproductive Health of Adolescent Girls and Young Women's Experiences of Gender-Based Violence in Low-Income Communities in Nigeria | 2024 |
| Brian Ngwenya (History) | Vectors, Villains, Victims: The Socio-Cultural and Political Implications of African Policemen's Service in the BSAP in late colonial Zimbabwe, c.1960-1980 | 2024 |
| Cita Wetterich (Gender Studies) | Violence against male Refugees – Patterns, Factors and Consequences for Individuals and Communities | 2024 |
| Kai Florian Herzog (History) | Violent Economies: Everyday Violence, Ignorance, and the Making of Colonial Order in the Namaqualand Borderlands, c. 1880-1903 | 2024 |
| Temitope Christina Adebayo-Ojo (Epidemiology) | A new global Air Quality Health Index based on the 2021 WHO Air Quality Guideline Values | 2023 |
| Shreya Shrikhande (Epidemiology) | Climate change and cardiovascular diseases in India and South Africa: Impacts, perceptions and policy responses | 2023 |
| Kirubel Mussie (Biomedical Ethics) | Ethical issues in the healthcare of older adults in Ethiopia | 2023 |
| Toon Dirkx (Political Science) | The Political Stability of Post-Insurgent States: Institutional Legacies of Rebel Governance in Eritrea and South Sudan | 2023 |
| Julia Rensing (African Studies) | Trouble Archives: Namibia Auto/Biographical Accounts and Artistic Practices as Archival Interventions | 2023 |
| Silvia Balzan (Anthropology) | "Don't Understand Me Too Soon" Pancho Guedes and the Protestant Missons Socio-spatial Alternatives in Late Colonial and Postcolonial Mozambique | 2022 |
| Olalekan Oluwaseyi Arowosegbe (Epidemiology) | Air pollution exposure assessment in sparsely monitored settings; applying machine-learning methods with remote sensing data in South Africa | 2022 |
| Giulia Scotto (Urban Studies) | ENI's "Grande Disegno Africano": Oil Infrastructure between Decolonization and Neo-Imperialism | 2022 |
| Helene Widmer (Sociology) | Interdependenz von Individuum und Gesellschaft in Bezug auf Religion und Glaube. Am Beispiel der methodistischen Kirche und der Akan in Ghana. Does religion enhance or undermine work ethic? | 2022 |
| Bédjou Prisca N'Dri (Epidemiology) | Malaria in Elibou region, south of Côte d’Ivoire: transmission and insecticide resistance | 2022 |
| Herry Mapesi (Epidemiology) | Non-communicable diseases in people living with HIV in rural Africa: tackling the double burden | 2022 |
| Sharmarke Jama Dugsiye (Sociology) | Pastoral Conflict Management and the Role of Indigenous Knowledge and Customary Institutions in Conflict Resolution, Somali Region, Ethiopia | 2022 |
| Ernest Sewordor (Urban Studies) | Race, Infrastructure, and the Evolution of Gold-mining Hinterlands in South-western Gold Coast (Ghana), c. 1900-1957 | 2022 |
| Mamane Tassiou Amadou (Anthropology) | Sur la dynamique des fada des jeunes dans la ville de Zinder, Niger | 2022 |
| Marta Rudnicka (Anthropology) | Tastescapes in Ghana. Eating, cooking and culinary praxis in Northern Ghana | 2022 |
| Balz Andrea Alter (Science of Religion) | Back from greener pastures | 2021 |
| Ulrike Lühe (Political Science) | Developing the African Union Transitional Justice Policy. A Study in the Practice(s) of Expertise in International Relations | 2021 |
| Nancy Matowo (Epidemiology) | Dynamics of insecticide resistance in Anopheles arabiensis and Culex pipiens complex, and its associations to agricultural practices in southern Tanzania | 2021 |
| Joëlle Schwarz (Epidemiology) | Family Planning in Burundi: Hegemonic Discourse, Reproductive Navigation and Embodied Experiences in a Fragile Context | 2021 |
| Andrea Leuenberger (Epidemiology) | Investigating health impacts and equity in communities surrounding large natural resource extraction projects in sub-Saharan Africa: a contribution to sustainable development | 2021 |
| Jamie Pring (Political Science) | Making the Middle: Localizing Inclusivity in the IGAD-led Mediation in South Sudan (2013-2015) | 2021 |
| Khadeeja "Haddy" Sarr (African Studies) | Narratives of Identity, Multi-Sited Biographies, and Transnational Life-Modes of Highly Qualified Migrants. Senegambia Migrants in Switzerland and Swiss Migrants in Senegambia | 2021 |
| Andrea Azizi Kifyasi (History) | Neither Saviour nor Exploiter: A Historical Study of China's Medical Assistance in Post-Colonial Tanzania | 2021 |
| Céline Mbilo (Epidemiology) | Rabies Epidemiology in DR Congo and Chad | 2021 |
| Alain Amstutz (Clinical Research) | Supporting Lesotho on the way towards the UNAIDS 90-90-90 targets: Operational and clinical research addressing HIV/AIDS care in resource-limited settings | 2021 |
| Kuwawenaruwa August Joachim Shayo (Epidemiology) | The effects of Jazia prime vendor system in complementing the existing pharmaceutical supply chain across public healthcare facilities in Tanzania | 2021 |
| Janet Michel (Epidemiology) | Towards Universal Health Coverage (UHC) policy roll-out experience in South Africa : how and why policy-practice gaps come about in a UHC context | 2021 |
| Nina Brunner (Epidemiology) | Treatment seeking and case management for suspected severe malaria in the context of implementing rectal artesunate | 2021 |
| Jerry Hella (Epidemiology) | Understanding the epidemiology and transmission of tuberculosis among adults in rural and urban Tanzania | 2021 |
| Shakuntala Mhlanga (Epidemiology) | An epidemiological cohort study of children and adolescents investigating neurobehavioural effects from pesticide exposure and e-media use in South Africa | 2020 |
| Jin Ding (African Studies) | China in Africa: Perspectives on development and emergence | 2020 |
| Dominik Dietler (Epidemiology) | Impact of mining projects on environmental determinants of health and associated health outcomes in sub-Saharan Africa: insights for guiding impact assessment practice | 2020 |
| Natalie Tarr (African Studies) | Interpreting the Administration: Burkina Faso's Courts in Translation | 2020 |
| Frederik Unseld (Anthropology) | Making Art Work: Articulating Art and Urban Marginality in Kisumu, Kenya | 2020 |
| Stephen Asol Kapinde (Theology) | Political Sermons in Kenyas Quest for Democratic Governance between 1986 and 2010: A case Study of the selected sermons from the three Anglican Clergy | 2020 |
| Kpongbo Etienne Angora (Epidemiology) | Population genetic structure and hybridization of schistosomes in schoolchildren in Côte d’Ivoire | 2020 |
| Owusuaa Adwoa Bobie (Sociology) | Rebranding African, Reclothing Africa: The influence of Emerging Designers in the Production of Aesthetic Cosmopolitanism in Nigerian Fashion Industry | 2020 |
| Peter Ayoola Oderinde (African Studies) | The role of Internet in migrants’ Christianity: A case study of Nigerian Pentecostal churches in Switzerland | 2020 |
| Lianne Gonsalves (Epidemiology) | Understanding the role of pharmacies as contraceptive outlets for young people (ages 18-24) in Coastal Kenya | 2020 |
| Jacob Geuder (Sociology) | Visualizing Urban Struggles: Video Activism as Utopian Practice | 2020 |
| Anna Christen (Anthropology) | Walking Together. Perils of Participation in Anthropology and Philosophy of Action. A Case Study in Post-Apartheid South Africa | 2020 |
| Maren Larsen (Urban Studies) | Worlding Home: Peacekeepers, Camp Space, and Urbanity in Goma, DRC | 2020 |
| Betty Bukenya Nambuusi (Epidemiology) | Assessing the effects of interventions on child and maternal health-related outcomes in Uganda | 2019 |
| Aïdas Sanogo (Anthropology) | Corruption, conflict and cities in West and East Africa | 2019 |
| Sandra Staudacher (Anthropology) | Cosmopolitan Aging in Urban Zanzibar: Elderhood, Health and Transnational Care Spaces Related to Oman | 2019 |
| Langelihle Mlotshwa (Epidemiology) | Exploring incident HIV in Pregnant Women and Sexual Risk Behaviours and Practices in Soweto, South Africa | 2019 |
| Grace Mhalu (Epidemiology) | Identifying community determinants of health seeking behaviour and the contribution of socio-cultural and gender aspects to improve tuberculosis case detection in Tanzania | 2019 |
| Juliane Krenz (Environmental Sciences) | Land degradation and Carbon erosion in Southern Africa | 2019 |
| Dennis Massue (Epidemiology) | Long-Lasting Insecticide Treated Bed Net (LLINs) for malaria control in Tanzania: Barriers to physical and chemical protection | 2019 |
| Ousmane Seydi (History) | Voyages et construction d'une identité savante à l'epoque moderne. Michel Adanson (1727-1806): un homme des Lumières en quête d'une reconnaissance scientifique | 2019 |
| Melanie Boehi (History) | A South African social garden: people, plants and multispecies histories in the Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden | 2018 |
| Andrea Grolimund (Anthropology) | Ageing, Agency and Health in Dar es Salaam | 2018 |
| Julius Ssempira (Epidemiology) | Bayesian spatial-temporal modeling of malaria risk in Uganda during 2009-2016, and the effect of control interventions and health system strengthening | 2018 |
| Samuel Andreas Admasie (African Studies) | Dynamics of Assertive Unionism in Ethiopia | 2018 |
| Susann Ludwig (African Studies) | La chance: En Ethnography. University Graduates making Sense of Uncertainty in Bamako, Mali | 2018 |
| Victoria Amma Agyeiwaah Osei-Bonsu (Anglophone Literary and Cultural Studies) | Representations of the African Other in Selected Works of Joseph Conrad | 2018 |
| Tanja Hammel (History) | Shaping Science and Society at the Cape – A Relational History of Mary Elizabeth Barber | 2018 |
| Anne Laube (Sociology) | The Organisation of Violence in the Actions of the Lord’s Resistance Army | 2018 |
| Beryl Akoth Bwong (Environmental Sciences) | At the crossroads of two biodiversity hotspots : the biogeographic patterns of Shimba Hills, Kenya | 2017 |
| Séverine Erismann (Epidemiology) | Children’s intestinal parasite and nutritional patterns in face of integrated school garden, nutrition, water, sanitation and hygiene interventions in central Burkina Faso | 2017 |
| Kristina Keitel (Epidemiology) | e-POCT: Improving health outcomes of febrile childresn in Tanzania through innovative point-of-care technologies at the primary care level | 2017 |
| Julia Büchele (Sociology) | Expat Spouses in Kampala, Uganda: An Ethnography of Migration from the Global North | 2017 |
| Mari Dumbaugh (Epidemiology) | Influencing Factors on the Utilization of Maternal Health Services and Uptake of Family Planning in the Context of Conditional Cash Transrers, South Kivu, DRC | 2017 |
| Gabriela Bueno Bittencourt Silva (Environmental Sciences) | Lacuna Mozambique : adding an important piece to the African jigsaw puzzle | 2017 |
| Myra Posluschny-Treuner (Political Science) | Land grabbing or an essential move towards development? A case study of Ethiopia | 2017 |
| Sabine Renggli (Epidemiology) | Promoting Universal Health Coverage in Tanzania: An Evaluation of the Initiative to Strengthen Affordability and Quality of Health Care (ISAQH) | 2017 |
| Olivier Moreillon (Anglophone Literary and Cultural Studies) | Reading the Post-Apartheid City. Urbanite and Capetonian Literary Topographies in Selected Texts Beyond 2000 | 2017 |
| Sokhna Thiam (Epidemiology) | Spatial analysis of diarrhoea and environmental risk factors in an urban context in Senegal, West Africa | 2017 |
| Vladimir Wingate (Environmental Sciences) | Terrestrial ecosystem change monitoring: Satellite remote sensing the Namibian savannah biomes in the context of the global carbon cycle and local livelihoods | 2017 |
| Sabine Schultz (Anthropology) | The Game of Personal Politics or How to Rule a Kingdom. The State of Affairs in Rey Bouba/North-East Cameroon. | 2017 |
| Carole Ammann (Anthropology) | The Work of State Imageries: Women and the Imageries of the State in Guinea | 2017 |
| James Merron (African Studies) | Travelling technologies of the environment: Knowledges of water management and the transformation of land in South Africa | 2017 |
| Christopher Barratt (Environmental Sciences) | Using Next Generation Sequencing data to estimate the Biodiversity value of the Coastal Forests of East Africa | 2017 |
| Bobby Luthra Sinha (African Studies) | A Comparative Interpretation of Peoples’ Movements: Actors, Evolving Consciousness and Democratic Imagination in India and South Africa | 2016 |
| Claudette Simone Sutherland (Epidemiology) | An elimination investment case (EIC) for human African trypanosomiasis (HAT) Trypanosoma brucei (T.b.) gambiense (“sleeping sickness”) | 2016 |
| Adrian Indermaur (Environmental Sciences) | Comparative ecology and phylogeography in east African cichild fishes | 2016 |
| Joschka Philipps (Sociology) | Crystallizing Contention. A cumulative dissertation on youth, politics, and urban violence in Conakry, Kampala, and beyond | 2016 |
| Henry Frimpong Owusu (Epidemiology) | Insecticide Resistance Monitoring – a review of current methodology | 2016 |
| Albert Tibaijuka (African Studies) | Multinational Mines and Communities of Place: Revisiting the Stakeholder Dialogue Discourse from Geita, Tanzania | 2016 |
| Michael Aeby (History) | Zimbabwe's Gruelling Transition: Interim power-sharing and conflict management in Southern Africa | 2016 |
| Nicolas Schicketanz (History) | A History of Teacher Training Colleges in South Africa and the Effects of Teacher Training on Identity Formation | 2015 |
| Thomas Fürst (Epidemiology) | Assessing morbidity and burden due to neglected tropical diseases at different geographical scales | 2015 |
| Marcel Dreier (History) | Health Care, Welfare, and Development in Rural Africa: Catholic health services in Ifakara/Tanzania in the 20th century | 2015 |
| Nanina Guyer (History) | Picturing Secrecy - A History of the Visualization of "Secret Societies" in Historical Photographs from West Africa | 2015 |
| Barbara Heer (Anthropology) | Spaces of Encounter and Unequal Neighbourhoods. A Comparative Ethnography of Agency, Space and Difference in Maputo and Johannesburg | 2015 |
| Patricia Schwärzler (Epidemiology) | “ De nos jours, chacun fait ce qu’il veut ” ? Dynamiques des relations sociales et pratiques sexuelles dans le contexte du VIH/sida à Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso | 2014 |
| Aurélie A. Righetti (Epidemiology) | Aetiology of anaemia and public health implications in the Taabo health demographic surveillance system, south-central Côte d’Ivoire | 2014 |
| Sara Anna Hellmüller (Political Science) | Bridging the Gap – Examining Local Dimensions of International Peacebuilding in the DR Congo | 2014 |
| Eveline Hürlimann (Epidemiology) | Effects of parasitic infections on clinical outcomes, self-rated quality of life and physical fitness in Côte d’Ivoire | 2014 |
| Demissie Ferdissa Bekele (Political Science) | Ethnic Decentralization and Negotiating Statehood in Urban Ethiopia: A Case Study of Adama and Hawassa Cities | 2014 |
| Hans Christoph Liedtke (Environmental Sciences) | The Evolution of Terrestrial Breeding in African Amphibians | 2014 |
| Sandra Rubli (Political Science) | Transitional Justice and State-Formation in Burundi | 2014 |
| Christine Giustizieri-Haberstroh (Anglophone Literary and Cultural Studies) | Writing the City. Narratives of Johannesburg’s Urban Space in Contemporary South African Literature | 2014 |
| Rita Kesselring (Anthropology) | Bodies of Truth. Law, Memory, and Emancipation in Post-Apartheid South Africa | 2013 |
| Verena JeanRichard-dit-Bressel (Epidemiology) | Crowding at Lake Chad: An Integrated Approach to Demographic and Health Surveillance of Mobile Pastoralists and Their Animals | 2013 |
| Jana Gerold (Anthropology) | Full of Life: old age and care in urban Dar es Salaam, Tanzania | 2013 |
| Pascal Schmid (History) | Medicine, Faith and Politics in Agogo. A history of health care delivery in rural Ghana, ca 1925 to 1980 | 2013 |
| Richard Faustine Sambaiga (Anthropology) | Sexual inter-subjectivity and the quest for social well-being : an ethnographic inquiry of adolescent sexuality in urban Southern Tanzania | 2013 |
| Andrea Kaufmann (Anthropology) | Spaces of Imagination Associational Life and the State in Post-War, Urban Liberia | 2013 |
| Katharina Elisabeth Heitz Tokpa (Anthropology) | Trust and Distrust in Rebel-Held Côte d’Ivoire | 2013 |
| Michelle Engeler (Anthropology) | Youth and the State in Guinea: Meandering Lives | 2013 |