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Prof. Dr. Dorothea Schulz

Professor of Social and Cultural Anthropology | Head of Department

  • News and information on consultation hours

    Consultation hours during summer term 2024:

    • will follow here

    To make an appointment via Learnweb please klick here (link will follow).

    You can attend the consultation hour via Zoom or in presence in my office at the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology.

  • Research

    My research, publications, and teaching are centered on the Anthropology of Religion, of Mental Health and Spiritual Wellbeing, Political Anthropology, Islam in Africa, Gender Studies and Media Studies. I also bring to my research and teaching a strong background in critical theory, social theory, and the anthropology of social organization. I have extensive field research experience in West and East Africa, particularly in southern Mali and southwestern Uganda.
    In my new book “Political Legitimacy in Postcolonial Mali”, I capitalize on my long-standing acquaintance with Malian politics and social history to make sense of the political crisis that has shaken the country for more than a decade. My analysis centers on the attitudes, judgments and practices by which inhabitants of a rural area in southwestern Mali attribute (or disclaim) the legitimacy of the state and of individual powerholders. I also draw on my earlier work on praise-singers – often referred to as "griots"– whose mass-mediated performances aimed to bestow praise and legitimacy on Mali’s changing political regimes, At the heart of this analytic endeavor is an effort to interrogate different dimensions, meanings and limits of political legitimacy in Mali.

    Since 2014, I have embarked on a research project that addresses questions pertaining to the broader thematic fields of religious pluralism and of spiritual and emotional well-being. Drawing on empirical research on Muslim minorities in two different regions of Uganda, I address the interplay between mental health, mourning, emotional coping, and future-making in a society haunted by traumatic experiences related to civil war. My analysis reaches beyond common approaches to „trauma“ through a sustained attention to the discursive and auditory practices and symbolic-aesthetic forms through which Muslims and Christians seek to achieve greater public prominence and to partake in debates over the ordering of moral and social life. By situating these dynamics in the broader context of Ugandan state politics, I explore points of articulations and tensions between local-level and national politics of religious difference, and between conflicting understandings of how past “trauma“ can be healed.

  • Research Focus

    • Anthropology of Religion
    • Health and Well-being
    • Political Anthropology
    • Islam in Africa
    • Gender Studies
    • Media Anthropology

  • Research Area

    Will follow soon

  • Teaching Approach

    Will follow soon

  • Teaching

     

    • Kolloquium: Research Colloquium [086880]
      [ - | | wöchentlich | Mo. | STU 105 (2.10) | Prof. Dorothea Schulz]
    • Kolloquium: Departmental Colloquium Series [086886]
      [ - | | 14-täglich | Mi. | STU 102 (2.4) | Prof. Dorothea Schulz]
    • Übung: Colloquium [086891]
      [ - | | wöchentlich | Mo. | STU 102 (2.4) | Prof. Dorothea Schulz]
    • Vorlesung: Areas and Fields of Research [086873]
      (in cooperation with Prof. Dr. Elisabeth Timm)
      [ - | | wöchentlich | Mi. | SCH 100.2 | Prof. Dorothea Schulz]

    • Kolloquium: Forschungskolloquium [082879]
    • Kolloquium: Departmental Colloquium Series [082885]
      (in cooperation with Prof. Dr. Helene Basu)
    • Kolloquium: Colloquium [082890]
    • Seminar: Transcultural encounters [082882]

    • Seminar: Transatlantic Health and Healing [080887]
      (in cooperation with Helmar Kurz)

    • Kolloquium: Master- and PhD-Colloquium [084896]
    • Kolloquium: Institutscolloquium [084891]
    • Kolloquium: Research Colloquium [084884]
    • Seminar: Writing a Project Proposal [084892]
    • Vorlesung: Research fields [084872]
      (in cooperation with Prof. Dr. Elisabeth Timm, Prof. Dr. Helene Basu)

    • Kolloquium: Institutscolloquium [082881]
      (in cooperation with Prof. Dr. Helene Basu)
    • Kolloquium: Master- and PhD-Colloquium [082889]
    • Seminar: Foundations of Empirical Research [082882]
    • Vorlesung: Theory and history of cultural and social anthropology [082831]
      (in cooperation with Prof. Dr. Elisabeth Timm)

    • Kolloquium: Master- and PhD-Colloquium [080896]
    • Kolloquium: Institute´s Colloquium [080890]
      (in cooperation with Prof. Dr. Helene Basu)
    • Kolloquium: Research Colloquium [080884]
    • Seminar: Writing a Project Proposal [080891]

    • Kolloquium: Institute´s Colloquium [088881]
      (in cooperation with Prof. Dr. Helene Basu)
    • Kolloquium: Master- and PhD-Colloquium [088889]
    • Seminar: Foundations of Empirical Research [088882]
    • Vorlesung: Theories, Concepts and Methods of Cultural and Social Anthropology [088820]
      (in cooperation with Prof. Dr. Elisabeth Timm)

    • Publications

      Books

      Books (Monographs)
      • Schulz, Dorothea. . Political Legitimacy in Postcolonial Mali. London: James Currey.
      • Schulz, Dorothea. . Culture and Customs of Mali . Santa Barbara, CA: Greenwood Publishers.
      • Schulz, Dorothea. . Muslims and New Media in West Africa. Pathways to God. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
      • Schulz, Dorothea. . Perpetuating the Politics of Praise. Jeli Singers, Radios, and Political Mediation in Mali. Köln: Rüdiger Köppe Verlag.
      Edited Collections
      Books (Edited Collections)
      • Röschenthaler, Ute; Schulz, Dorothea (Eds.): . Cultural Entrepreneurship in Africa. New York: Routledge.
      • Desplat, Patrick A.; Schulz, Dorothea (Eds.): . Prayer in the City. The Making of Muslim Sacred Places and Urban Life. Bielefeld: Transcript Verlag.
      Commemorative Publications
      • Schulz, Dorothea; Seebode, Jochen (Eds.): . Spiegel und Prisma. Ethnologie zwischen postkolonialer Kritik und Deutung der eigenen Gesellschaft. Hamburg: Argument Verlag.

      Articles

      Research Articles (Journals)
      • Schulz, Dorothea. . ‘Introduction: Rifle, Quill, Prayer Beads. Constructing Political Legitimacy in Mali.’ Africa Today 70, No. 1: 1–10.
      • Schulz, Dorothea. . ‘Introduction. Studying Muslim minorities in Subsaharan Africa. Preliminary Remarks.’ Islamic Africa 12, No. 2: 173–185.
      Research Article (Book Contributions)
      • Schulz, Dorothea. . ‘Aspiration and activism: Muslim students’ efforts of future-making in Mbarara, Southwestern Uganda.’ In Religiosity on University Campuses in Sub-Saharan Africa. , edited by Sounaye, Abdoulaye; Madore, Frédérick, 243–272. Münster: LIT Verlag.
      • Schulz, Dorothea; Diallo, Souleymane. . ‘Islamic Renewal, Muslim Divorce, and Gender Relations in Mali.’ In Islamic Divorce in the 21th century. A Global Perspective, edited by Stiles, Erin; Akin, Ayang Utriza, 143–165. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press.
      • Schulz, Dorothea. . ‘Media, the digital, and new connections. .’ In Routledge Handbook of Islam in Africa, edited by Østebø, Terja, 293–307. London, New York: Routledge.
      • Schulz, Dorothea. . ‘Religious practice and/ as future making in Africa: some cautionary remarks.’ In African Futures, edited by Greiner, Clemens; van Wolputte, Steven, Bollig, Michael, 47–55. Leiden: Brill.
      • Schulz, Dorothea. . ‘"Trusting is a Dicey Affair". Muslim Youth, Gender Relations, and Future Making in Southwestern Uganda.’ In Waithood: Gender, Education, and Global Delays in Marriage., edited by Inghorn, Marica; Smith-Hefner, Nancy, 60–87. Oxford, New York: Berghahn Books.
      • Schulz, Dorothea. . ‘The hunter hype. Producing "local culture" and particularity in Mali.’ In Ethnicity, Commodity, In/corporation, edited by Meiu, George; Comaroff, Jean; Comaroff, John L., 168–194. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
      • Schulz, Dorothea. . ‘"Shari’a” as a moving target? The reconfiguration of national and regional fields of debate in Mali.’ In Shari’a Law and Modern Ethics, edited by Hefner, Robert, 203–228. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

  • Scholarships and awards

    2016 Fellow, Center for AFrican Studies - Harvard University (USA)
    2011 Fellow, Berlin Graduate School "Muslim CUltures and Societes" (USA)
    2010 Prize for excellence in teaching, University of Colon
    2010 Visiting scholar, Dept. of Anthropology, University of Oslo (Norwegen)
    2005 Fellow, Society for the Humanities, Cornell University, Ithaca (USA)
    2000 Visiting Scholar, Dept. of Anthropology. University of Chicago (USA)
    1996 Prize Frobenius, University of Frankfurt

  • Editorial Board and other services

    2006- Lit Verlag Series “Mande Studies”
    2015- Konstanz University Press Series “Ethnographien”
    2015- Expert Representative “Anthropology/Islamic Studies”, Alexander-von-Humboldt-Program
    2019- Expert Representative/Member of the Senate, DFG (German Science Foundation)
    2019- Member of Scientific Board, Institute for Advanced Studies, Berlin

  • Current Projects / Research - (Third-party Funding)

    EXC 2060 B3-20 - Testing and contesting religious pluralism in Uganda (2019 - 2025)
    Drittmittel: DFG - Exzellenzcluster - Förderkennzeichnen: EXC 2060/1
    The auditory making of religious pluralism in Uganda (2019 - 2020)
    Drittmittel: DFG - Sachbeihilfe/Einzelfördrung - Förderkennzeichnen: SCHU 1276/14 -1
    Projecting Futures: Resource use conflict, intergenerational tensions, and competing visions of future-making in the Rift Valley, Kenya;
    Drittmittel DFG, Teilprojekt im SFB „Future Rural Africa“ (Köln/ Bonn) (2018-2022)

  • Completed projects (third-party funding)

    2011-2016 2 Funding periods: DFG FOR 1501, “Mediality and local creativity in the negotiation of social-ecological resilience, collapse, and reorganization”, Teilprojekt im Rahmen der Forschergruppe “Resilience, Collapse, and Reorganisation in Social-Ecological Systems in Africa’s Savannahs”
    2011-2016 2 Funding periods: DFG SCHU 1276-10/1-2: Mass-mediated trans local field of Senegalese migrants in Europe
    2012-2015

    DFG SCHU 1276-11/1: Migratory projects of immobile actors: Expectations, Discourse and practices of male youth in the port city of Mahajanga / Madagascar