Prof. Dr. Achim von Oppen

Project Leader & Director of the Academy

Achim von Oppen_neu_0kt.2014
Mail: achim.vonoppen@uni-bayreuth.de
Tel: +49 921 554193

Research Focus

Research Focus

Geographic
South-Central  and  East  Africa  (Zambia,  Angola,  Tanzania,  Congo);  Sudano-Sahelian West Africa (Mali)

Thematic
social  and  cultural  history  in  rural  and  urban  contexts;  religion  in  history; production  and  transformation  of  space;  history  of  mobilities,  transfers  and  translations; compared   and   entangled   histories;   global   history;   history   of   knowledge;   historical anthropology; local history; biography; research methodology; historical cartoraphy.

CV

Academic CV

Academic Education:
Studies of history, geography and several social sciences, Düsseldorf and several Berlin Universities

PhD FU Berlin: „Terms of Trade and Terms of Trust. The history and contexts of precolonial market production on the Upper Zambezi and Kasai, ca. 1790-1910“ (1990)

Habilitationin History and Society of Africa, HU Berlin: “Bounding Villages. The Enclosure of Locality in Central Africa, 1890s to 1990s” (2003)

Other Positions:
First Director of the Bayreuth Academy for Advanced African Studies, funded by the Federal Ministry for Education and Research / BMBF (since 2012)

Coordinator (Sprecher) of the Dept. of History at the University of Bayreuth (2011-13)

Executive Director of the Institute for African Studies, University of Bayreuth (2010-12, Deputy 2009)

Principal Investigator at Bayreuth International School of African Studies (since 2007)

Deputy Director, Zentrum Moderner Orient, Berlin (2001-2007; Acting Director 2002)

Academic teacher and examiner (Privatdozent) in History and Society of Africa, HU Berlin (2004-2007)

Research Fellow, Zentrum Moderner Orient, Berlin; head of the research group “locality and the state” (from 1996)

Junior Lecturer, Institute for Sociology, FU Berlin (1984-1989)

Previous professorships:
Professeur Invité at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS), Paris (Oct. 2005)

visiting Chair of African History, HU Berlin (2003/04)

Other professional activities:
Research consultant for development institutions (GTZ, BMZ, Government of Mali); adult education in development-related fields.

Publications

Important Publications

2015 (Sub-editor) Lexikon zur Überseegeschichte (eds. Hermann Hiery u.a.), Lemmata on Southern Africa. Wiesbaden: Steiner

2012 (ed., with Silke Strickrodt): Religious biographies in Southern Africa. Thematic cluster in Journal of Southern African Studies, 2012

2010 (ed., with Ulrike Freitag): Translocality. The study of global processes from a southern perspective. (Studies in Global Social History, 4) Leiden: Brill

2010 (with Ulrike Freitag): Introduction: "Translocality": an approach to connection and transfer in Area Studies. In: Eisdem (eds.):, Translocality. The study of globalising processes from a southern perspective. Leiden: Brill, pp. 1–24.

2008 (ed., with Beatrix Heintze), Angola on the Move / Angola em Movimento. Transport, Communications and History / Vias de Transporte, Communicação e História. Frankfurt/Main: Lembeck

2006 The painting and the pen. Approaches to Heinrich Barth and his African heritage” In: Mamadou Diawara, Paulo Fernando de Moraes Farias und Gerd Spittler (eds.), Heinrich Barth et l’Afrique. Köln: Rüdiger Köppe Verlag, pp. 105-132

2006 A place in the world. Markers of the local along the Upper Zambezi. In: Peter Probst and Gerd Spittler (eds.) Between Resistance and Expansion. Explorations of Local Vitality in Africa (Beiträge zur Afrikaforschung, 18), Münster: LIT Verlag, pp. 175-192

2006 The Village as Territory. Enclosing Locality in Northwest Zambia, 1950s to 1990s. In: Journal of African History 47 (2006), 1, pp. 57-75

2006 (with Chanfi Ahmed:) Sufi-Heiligtümer in Ostafrika als Schauplätze translokaler Erinnerung. In: Angelika C. Messner und Konrad Hirschler (eds.): Heilige Orte in Asien: Räume göttlicher Macht und menschlicher Verehrung (Asien und Afrika. Beiträge des Zentrums für Asiatische und Afrikanische Studien (ZAAS) der Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, 11). Hamburg: EB Verlag, 2006, pp. 199-218

2005 (with Ulrike Freitag) Translokalität als ein Zugang zur Geschichte globaler Verflechtungen. In: Matthias Middell and Rüdiger Hohls (eds.), Fachforum geschichte.transnational: Artikelserie „Transnationale Geschichte“; revised version in print in: Transnationale Geschichte als transnationales Projekt? Historisches Forum. Themenheft von Clio-online.

2002 Cinderella Province. Discourses of locality and nation state in a Zambian periphery, 1950s-1990s. In: Making or Shaking the State ? The power of locality = Sociologus 52, 1, pp. 11-46.

1998 Dorf, Siedlung, Gemeinschaft. In: Jan-Georg Deutsch und Albert Wirz (eds.), Geschichte in Afrika. Einführung in Probleme und Debatten.  (Studien / Zentrum Moderner Orient, 7)  Berlin: Das Arabische Buch, 1998, pp. 231-260.

1997. (with Ute Luig:) Landscape in Africa: process and vision. An introductory essay. In: Ute Luig and Achim von Oppen (eds.), The making of African landscapes. = Paideuma 43, pp. 7-45.

1993. Terms of Trade and Terms of Trust. The history amd contexts of pre-colonial market production on the Upper Zambezi and Kasai (ca. 1790-1910). (Studien zur Afrikanischen Geschichte, Bd.6). Münster: LIT-Verlag

Functions and Memberships

Functions and Memberships in academic organisations

Working-Group Non-European History (AAG) of the German Historical Association (VHD) (Board)

Zentrum Moderner Orient, Berlin (Academic Advisory Board)

Journal of Southern African Studies, London (Overseas Editorial Board)

Archiv Orientální, Prague (Editorial Board)

Association of German African Studies (VAD), Hamburg

Frobenius-Gesellschaft, Frankfurt/Main

Heinrich-Barth-Gesellschaft, Cologne

Sektion Entwicklungssoziologie und Sozialanthropologie der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Soziologie