I am a social anthropologist trained at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London and currently an assistant professor of political anthropology at the Institute of Anthropology and African Studies at Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz. My working languages are English, Swahili and German.

My work is located at the intersection of political anthropology, feminist anthropology, public anthropology, linguistic anthropology, visual and arts-based ethnography, and Indian Ocean Studies, and focuses on:

  • politics/ the political

  • gender

  • violence

  • protection and (self-)defense

  • witnessing and refusal

  • childhood and child protection

  • international development

  • (Swahili) diaspora and belonging

  • translation

    in Eastern Africa (Zanzibar, Tanzania mainland, Kenya) and the Arabian Peninsula (Oman)

Academic Training

  • 2017 | PhD, Anthropology and Sociology, SOAS, London

  • 2013 | MARes/MPhil, Social Anthropology/Anthropological Research Methods, SOAS, London

  • 2012 | Magistra Artium, Education/African Linguistics (Swahili)/Cultural Anthropology, Goethe University, Frankfurt

Academic Appointments

  • 2021 - | Assistant Professor of Political Anthropology, JGU Mainz

  • 2020 | Visiting Research Fellow, Oman Research Grant, Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient (ZMO), Berlin

  • 2021-2017 | Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Research Center Normative Orders, Goethe University Frankfurt

My University of Mainz faculty website

My academia.edu site