Papers and Conference since 2006

Papers

Independence jubilees: the poetics and politics of national commemoration in Africa. Paper for the conference „Vivre les indépendances africaines au tournant des années 60“, Laboratoire SEDET, Université Paris Diderot/Paris 7, December 2010.

Die Nation feiern, die Nation debattieren. Fünfzig Jahre Unabhängigkeit und Nationenbildung in Afrika. Paper at the Arnold-Bergstraesser-Institut, Freiburg, November 2010.

Die Nation feiern, die Nation debattieren. 50 Jahre Unabhängigkeit in Afrika. Paper at the Evangelische Erwachsenenbildung, Sachsen-Anhalt, Dessau, October 2010.

‘Unity in diversity?’ Ethnicity, nationalism and the politics of belonging in Ghana. Paper presented at the Ibadan Interdisciplinary Discourse, Monthly Seminar Series, Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Ibadan, Nigeria, September 2010.

‘Unity in diversity’? Nationale Erinnerungspolitik und Differenzierungspraktiken in afrikanischen Unabhängigkeitsjubiläen. Paper presented during the workshop ‘Un/doing differences: Die Herstellung und Aufhebung soziokultureller Differenzen’, Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz, Centre for Social and Cultural Studies Mainz (Socum), July 2010.

Ethnizität und Nationalismus. Das Beispiel Ghana. Paper presented in the seminar series ‘Africa’ of the Department of Anthropology and African Studies, Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz, June 2010.

Elusive boundaries, negotiable identities: researching Northern Ghanaian ethnicities in historical perspective. Paper presented during the PhD workshop ‘Theoretical and methdological approaches to the study of local politics in developing countries’, Roskilde University, Graduate School of International Development Studies, May 2010 (ERASMUS programme).

Celebrating the nation, debating the nation. Introduction to the Panel ‘New states, new nations, and the politics of memory’ at the biannual conference of the German Association for African Studies (VAD), Mainz, April 2010.

Independence celebrations as „sites of memory“. Contribution to the Roundtable ‘Continuities and breaks: historical perspectives on independent Africa’ at the biannual conference of the German Association for African Studies (VAD), Mainz, April 2010.

 ‘Unity in diversity’: ethnicity, nationalism, and the politics of belonging in Ghana. Paper presented at the conference ‘Transcultural Perspectives on Nationalism and Ethnicity in the Twentieth Century’, Heidelberg Center for American Studies, University of Heidelberg, February 2010.

‘I take an oath to the state, not the government’: Career trajectories and professional ethics of Ghanaian public servants. Paper presented at the conference ‘States at work’, organised by LASDEL, Niamey, and the Department of Anthropology and African Studies, Mainz University, in Niamey, 7−9 December 2009.

Shifting boundaries, negotiable communities: ethnicity in Northern Ghana − a historical approach. Paper presented at the Research Colloquium ‘Ethnic boundary-making’, Transnationalisation and Development Research Centre, Bielefeld University, November 2009.

The lonely hunter: first-comer claims, property conflicts and the politics of memory on a West African frontier. Paper presented in the Research Seminar African History, University of Basel, October 2009.

‘I take an oath to the state, not the government’: Career trajectories and professional ethics of Ghanaian public servants. Paper presented in the departmental seminar series at the Department of Anthropology and African Studies, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, July 2009.

Zentralisierung und Staatsbildung aus ethnologischer Perspektive. Die Asante. Paper presented at the workshop Reiterkrieger − Burgenbauer…: Zentralisierungsprozesse in der Zeit des Ungarnsturm, Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum, Mainz, July 2009.

Local commitments, naitonal aspirations: the history of a Ghanaian elite. Paper presented in the Colloquium Series, W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research, Harvard University, Cambridge, April 2009.

Local commitments, national aspirations: the history of a Ghanaian elite. Paper presented at the Center for African Studies and Department of Anthropology, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, February 2009.

Mobility, land and belonging: the politics of property in West Africa. Paper presented at the Center for African Studies and Department of Anthropology, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, February 2009

Land, Power, and Citizenship in West Africa. In this episode of Illinois International, moderator Nicole Tami is joined by Professor Carola Lentz to discuss Ghana, which celebrated its 50th anniversary of independence in 2007, and land ownership rights in Ghana and on the African continent. Interview with Illinois International, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, 25 February 2009.

National aspirations, local commitments: the history of a West African elite. Paper presented at the Center for Africana Studies, Johns Hopkins University, 4 December 2008.

First-comers and late-comers: land, mobility and belonging in the West African savanna. Paper in the Harvard Africa Seminar, Committee on African Studies, Harvard University, October; also at Oxford University, African History, Politics and Geography Seminar, February 2008.

New conflicts, customary claims: land, mobility and belonging in the West African savanna. Paper at LASDEL, Parakou (Benin), June 2008.

Constructing ethnicity: elite biographies in Ghana. Keynote address at the conference ‘Ethnicity, Belonging, Biography and Ethnography’, University of Göttingen, December 2007.

Kultur(en): Konzepte, Kontroversen, Perspektiven. Paper presented for the seminar series ‘Kultur. Ein (Un-)Begriff und seine Dimensionen’, Philosophisches Seminar, and during the conference ‘Historische Kulturwissenschaften. Konzepte und Methoden’, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, November 2007.

New conflicts, customary claims: paradoxes in West African land tenure. Paper presented at the Graduate Center, City University of New York, October 2007.

Local commitments, national aspirations: the history of an African elite. Paper presented for the panel ‘ Governance from the Top to the Bottom (or Vice Versa): Questions of Recruitment, (Il)legitimacy, Capacity, Punishment, and Impunity’, during the annual conference of the African Studies Association, New York, October 2007.

Ghana@50: celebrating the nation. Paper presented for the panel ‘Comparative perspectives on postcolonial nation-building and concepts of nationhood in Africa’, during the conference of the German Anthropological Association, Halle, October 2007.

Earth shrines and property rights: the sacred/secular connection in West African land litigation. Paper presented for the panel ‘Religious law in the 21st century: rights and identities’, during the conference ‘Law and Society in the 21st century’, Berlin, July 2007.

Ein Thron im ghanaischen Parlament. Paper presented during the academic graduation ceremony of the Faculty of Historical and Cultural Studies, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, July 2007.

Travelling political models. Paper presented for presentation of the Initiative for Excellence Graduate School of Social and Cultural Studies Mainz (SOCUM), Bonn, July 2007.

Lokales Engagement, nationale Karrieren. Afrikanische Elitebiographien. Paper presented during the Research Day at the Philosophicum ‘Zwischen historischen Kulturwissenschaften und der Zukunft der Medien’, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, June 2007.

Käuflichkeit versus Moralökonomie? Die kulturelle Einbettung von Wirtschaft in Afrika und anderswo. Paper presented during the interdisciplinary Rottendorf-Symposium ‘Ökonomie und Kultur. Globales Wirtschaften im Spannungsfeld kultureller Vielfalt’, Hochschule für Philosophie, München, May 2007.

New conflicts, customary claims: paradoxes in West African land tenure. Paper presented at the Nordiska Afrikainstitutet Research Forum ‘New agrarian questions in Africa’, Uppsala, May 2007.

Local commitments, national aspirations: three generations of Dagara elite men and women. Paper presented at the Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana, Legon, Februar 2007.

Ethnicity: primordial attachment or social construction? Towards a historical perspective. Paper presented at the Graduate Centre of the University of Development Studies, Navrongo, Ghana, November 2006.

First-comer claims and changing property regimes in the West African Savannah. Paper presented at the Graduate Centre of the University of Development Studies, Navrongo, Ghana, November 2006.

Is land inalienable? Historical and current debates on land transfers in Northern Ghana. Paper presented during the international conference ‘The frontiers of land issues: embeddedness of rights and public policies’, Montpellier, May 2006.

Ethnicity: primordial attachment or social construction? Towards a historical perspective. Paper presented during the annual conference of DAAD scholarship holder in Mainz, April 2006.

Organisation of conferences and workshops

Together with Isidore Lobnibe (Western Oregon University): panel Ghana@50: celebrating the nation at the annual conference of the African Studies Association, Chicago, November 2008.

Together with Richard Werbner (University of Manchester): panel Elite strategies of distinction and mutuality at the biennial conference of the European Association of Social Anthropology, Ljubljana, August 2008.

Together with Thomas Bierschenk ( Mainz) and Mahaman Tidjani Alou ( Niamey): Organisation of the Panel States at work: African public services in comparative perspective at the AEGIS (African-European Group of Interdisciplinary Studies) conference, Leiden, July 2007.