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Dr. Katharina Schramm

Dr. Katharina Schramm

Dr. Katharina Schramm

Post Doc (Scholarship Holder 08/2005 - 07/2008)

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Dr. Katharina Schramm

Seminar für Ethnologie
Institut für Ethnologie und Philosophie
Philosophische Fakultät I
Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Witt
06114 Halle / Saale

phone: ++49 (0) 345 / 552 42 01
phone: ++49 (0) 345 / 552 42 01
phone: ++49 (0) 345 / 552 41 91
fax: ++49 (0) 345 / 552 73 26

Seminar für Ethnologie

Tracing the Slave Routes - Mapping Diverse Memories: The Emergence of Sacred Landscapes in Ghana

The project examines the contemporary sacralization of the memory of the slave trade with regard to the emergence of sacred landscapes of memory in Ghana. This politics of memory is understood in terms of a conflictive field, which encompasses the varying interests of state institutions and local as well as diasporan actors. At the same time, it is also seen to be embedded in processes of cultural globalization.

The concrete workings of those processes will be explored in a twofold manner: on the one hand, research will be conducted at the memorial sites in Ghana herself; on the other hand, the (re-)construction and perception of those sites in the USA will be taken into account. In addition, the project will also look at the existing interface with the memorial discourses of other diasporic groups. The aim is to show the close entanglement of politico-ideological and material aspects in the constitution of the memory of a violent past as well as its consequences for the present.

Education / grants

02/2007-04/2007Research Associate, Department of Anthropology, University of Chicago
since 08/2005Post-doc scholarship at the Graduate School Asia and Africa in World Reference Systems (GSAA), Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg
2005Nomination for Ernst-Reuter-Prize for the Best Dissertation, Free University Berlin
07/2004-12/2004Scholarship by the Research Commission of the Free University Berlin; project: "Mapping the Slave Routes - Tracing Diverse Memories: The Emergence of Sacred Landscapes in Ghana"
1998-2004PhD studies in Social Anthropology, graduate grant by the Heinrich Böll Foundation;
PhD (summa cum laude) "Struggling over the Past: The Politics of Heritage and Homecoming in Ghana"
1991-1997Studies in Social Anthropology (Free University Berlin) and African Studies (Humboldt University Berlin);
MA (excellent) "Dancing the Nation: Ghanaiasche Kulturpolitik im Spannungsfeld von Nation und globaler Herausforderung am Beispiel des Ghana Dance Ensemble"

Publications

Monographs

2008 (forthcoming)

Struggling over the Past: The Politics of Heritage and Homecoming in Ghana. Walnut Creek: Left Coast Press.

2000

Dancing the Nation: Ghanaische Kulturpolitik im Spannungsfeld von Nation und globaler Herausforderung. Hamburg / Münster: Lit.

Edited books

2008 (forthcoming)

With Nicolas Argenti: Remembering Violence: Anthropological Perspectives on Intergenerational Transmission. Oxford: Berghahn.

Articles in journals

2008 (forthcoming)

"Leaving Area Studies Behind: The Challenge of Diasporic Connections in the Field of African Studies", African and Black Diaspora 1 (1): 1-12

2006

"The Transatlantic Slave Trade: Contemporary Topographies of Memory in Ghana and the USA", Transactions of the Historical Society of Ghana, N.S., no. 9: 125-140.

2005

"Authenticity at Stake: Chieftaincy and the Politics of Heritage in Ghana", Etnofoor XVII (2); Special Issue on "Authenticity": 156-177.

2005

"'You Have Your Own History - Keep Your Hands Off Ours!': On Being Rejected in the Field", Social Anthropology 13 (2): 171-183.

2004

"Panafricanism as a Ressource: The W.E.B. DuBois Centre for Pan African Culture, Ghana", African Identities 2 (2): 151-171.

2000

"The Politics of Dance: Changing Representations of the Nation in Ghana", afrika spectrum 35 (3): 339-358.

Articles in edited books

2008 (forthcoming)

With Nicolas Argenti: "Introduction", In: Remembering Violence: Anthropological Perspectives on Intergenerational Transmission. Oxford: Berghahn

2008

"Slave Route Projects: Tracing the Heritage of Slavery in Ghana", In: Reclaiming heritage: Alternative imaginations in West Africa, eds. Michael Rowlands & Ferdinand de Jong. Walnut Creek: Left Coast Press: 71-98.

2005

"Imagined Pasts - Present Confrontations: Literary and Ethnographic Explorations into Pan-African Identity Politics", in: Africa, Europe and (Post-)Colonialism. Racism, Migration and Diaspora in African Literatures, ed. Susan Arndt & Marek Spitczok von Brisinski. Bayreuth: Breitinger: 256-270.

2005

"Weiß-Sein als Forschungsgegenstand: Methodenreflexion und 'neue Felder' in der Ethnologie" [Researching Whiteness: Reflections on Methodology and 'New Fields', In: Mythen, Masken und Subjekte: Kritische Weißseinsforschung in Deutschland, ed. Maisha Eggers, Grada Kilomba Ferreira, Peggy Piesche, Susan Arndt. Münster: Unrast-Verlag: 460-475. [Myths, Masks, and Subjects: Critical Whiteness in Germany]

2004

"Coming Home to the Motherland: Pilgrimage Tourism in Ghana", In: Reframing Pilgrimage: Cultures in Motion, ed. John Eade & Simon Coleman. London: Routledge: 133-149.

2004

"Das Cape Coast Castle als Heterotopie: Geschichte und Gegenwart eines umstrittenen Ortes" [Cape Coast Castle as Heterotopia: History and Presence of a Contested Place], In: Moderne und Postkoloniale Transformation: Eine Schrift zum 60. Geburtstag von Prof. Ute Luig, hg. von Hansjörg Dilger, Undine Frömming, Kerstin Volker-Saad & Angelika Wolf. Berlin: Weißensee-Verlag: 227-241. [Modernity and Postcolonial Transformation: Essays in Honour of Prof. Ute Luig]

Review

2006

"Cati Coe: Dilemmas of Culture in African Schools: Youth, Nationalism, and the Transformation of Knowledge", Africa Today 53 (2): 113-115.

Translation

2005

Introduction / translation of Lewis Nkosi "The Birth of the African University", In: Kreatives Afrika. SchriftstellerInnen über Literatur, Theater und Gesellschaft. Eine Festschrift für Eckhard Breitinger, ed. Susan Arndt & Katrin Berndt. Wuppertal: Peter Hammer Verlag: 52-72. [Creative Africa: Writers on Literature, Theatre, and Society. Essays in Honour of Eckhard Breitinger]

In preparation / under review

  • "Das Joseph-Project: Sklavenhandel, Diaspora, Erinnerungskultur"; currently under review Historische Anthropologie
  • "Negotiating Race: Blackness and Whiteness in the Context of Homecoming to Africa"; to be submitted to Comparative Studies in Society and History.
  • "Welcome to the Slave Market: Signboards and Landscape Formation"; to be submitted to Public Culture
  • "The Slaves of Pikworo: Local Histories, Transatlantic Perspectives"; to be submitted to Slavery and Abolition

Study Day Contributions

Report Fieldwork

Current research interests

(African) diaspora; tourism and heritage; memory, identity and genetics; ritual,  performance and processes of sacralization; theories of space/place/landscape; anthropological methodology

Language skills

German (native speaker), English (fluid in speaking, reading and writing), Russian (fluid in speaking and reading), French (mainly readings skills), Twi (basic knowledge), Kiswahili (basic knowledge)

Selected conferences / papers presented

07/2007GSAA, Halle (Germany): paper: "History in the Genes: Genetic Testing and the Politics of Black Identity"
07/2007GSAA, Halle (Germany): workshop convenor and chair: "Race, Ethnicity, Genetics: Re/Creating Categories of Difference and Belonging"
06/2007

Conference "Ritual, Heritage and Identity"; Collaborative Research Centre 619 Ritual Dynamics, Ruprecht-Karls-University, Heidelberg (Germany): paper: "The Slaves of Pikworo" (invited)

06/2007

Colloquium, Historical Seminar / Collaborative Research Centre Memory Cultures, Justus-Liebig-University, Gießen (Germany) paper: Das Joseph-Projekt: Sklavenhandel, Diaspora und Erinnerungskultur ["The Joseph Project: Slave Trade, Diaspora and Memory] (invited)

05/2007WISE Conference in Commemoration of the Bicentenary of the Abolition of Slavery, Hull (UK): paper: "The Slaves of Pikworo: Local Histories, Transatlantic Perspectives"
05/2007WISE Conference in Commemoration of the Bicentenary of the Abolition of Slavery, Hull (UK): workshop convenor and chair (together with Nicolas Argenti): The Presence of the Past: Anthropological Perspectives on the Memory of Slavery in Africa and the Diaspora
03/2007

African Studies Workshop, University of Chicago (USA): paper: "Negotiating Race" (invited)

02/2007

Colloquium, Centre for Modern Oriental Studies (ZMO) Berlin (Germany): paper: "Welcome to the Slave Market" (invited)

12/2006

Public Lecture, University of Hamburg (Germany): paper: "Das Joseph-Projekt: Konstruktion diasporischer Identität und Inszenierung von Geschichte in Ghana" ["The Joseph-Project: Constructions of Diasporic Identity and the Performance of History in Ghana] (invited)

11/200649th ASA Annual Meeting, San Francisco (USA): paper: "Slave Route Projects: Tracing the Heritage of Slavery in Ghana"
09/20069th Biannual EASA-Conference, Bristol (UK): paper: "'Welcome to the Slave Market': Signboards and the Recreation of a Historical Landscape in Ghana"
09/20069th Biannual EASA-Conference, Bristol (UK): workshop convenor and chair (together with Nicolas Argenti): Violence and Memory
12/2005

Public lecture, Freie Universität Berlin (Germany), paper: "It's sacred!" Vergangenheits-repräsentation und Gegenwartsinteresse in der Konstruktion heiliger Erinnerungsland-schaften in Ghana" ["'It's Sacred! Representations of the Past and Current Interests in the Construction of Sacred Memorial Landscapes in Ghana] (invited)

12/2005

Anthropology Seminar Series, Brunel University, London (UK), paper: "Negotiating Race: Blackness and Whiteness in the Context of Homecoming to Ghana" (invited)

11/2005

Workshop: "'Rasse': Historische und diskursive Perspektiven", ['Race': Historical and discursive perspectives], Zentrum für Literaturforschung (ZfL), Berlin (Germany), paper: "'Rasse' und Ethnologie" ['Race' in anthropology] (invited)

10/2005

COMPAS Michaelmas term seminars "Racism and the New Immigration: theories and practices", University of Oxford (UK), paper: "Debating Race: Africans, African Americans and the White Researcher" (invited)

08/2005Annual Conference of the Historical Society of Ghana: "Linking the Present to the Past: Reflections on a Half Century of Independence", Accra (Ghana), paper: "The Transatlantic Slave Trade: Contemporary Topographies of Memory in Ghana"
06-07/2005AEGIS European Conference, SOAS London (UK), paper: "Remembering the Past - Negotiating the Future: The Representation of the Slave Trade in the Ghanaian Public Sphere"
06/2005

Public lecture, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz (Germany), paper: "African Glory: 'Traditionelle Kultur' im Spiegel (trans-)nationaler Interessen in Ghana" [African Glory: 'Traditional Culture' and (trans-)national interests in Ghana] (invited)

04/2005

Anthropological Colloquium, Institute of Social Anthropology, Free University Berlin (Germany), paper: "Authenticity at Stake" (invited)

12/2004

Research Colloquium "Intercultural Comparisons", University of Bielefeld (Germany); paper: "Landscapes of Violence: (Sacred) Memory, Politics, Diaspora in Ghana, Poland and the USA" (invited)

09/20048th Biannial EASA Conference, Vienna (Austria): workshop-convenor and chair (with Hansjörg Dilger); theme: "Embracing Home: Options and Constraints in Relationships of Belonging"
05/2004Conference "Imagining Diasporas: Space, Identity and Social Change", University of Windsor (Canada); paper: "Imagined Pasts, Present Confrontations: Coming Home to Ghana"
06/2003

Anthropological Colloquium, Collaborative Research Center 560: "Local Action in Africa in the Context of Global Influences", University of Bayreuth (Germany): "Zwischen Pilgerreise und Tourismus: Die Rückkehr von African Americans nach Ghana" [Between Pilgrimage and Tourism: The Return of African Americans to Ghana] (invited)

08/20027th Biannial EASA Conference, Copenhagen (Denmark); paper: "You have your own history: keep your hands off ours! Fieldwork Encounters with African Americans in Ghana" (Panel-Session: Young Scholars Forum)
06/2002

Conference "Performing Culture" (300 Years of Dutch-Ghanaian Relations), Amsterdam (Netherlands); paper: "From the Ghana Dance Ensemble to the National Dance Company: The Dynamics of Changing Cultural Representations" (invited)

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