{"id":23614,"date":"2025-05-16T09:09:12","date_gmt":"2025-05-16T07:09:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ifeas.uni-mainz.de\/?page_id=23614"},"modified":"2026-02-23T10:24:34","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T09:24:34","slug":"prof-dr-carola-lentz","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.ifeas.uni-mainz.de\/en\/prof-dr-carola-lentz\/","title":{"rendered":"Profile – Carola Lentz"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/jgu-base-pageheader>\n\n\n
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Academic training<\/strong><\/th><\/tr><\/thead>
1996<\/strong>
Habilitation, Venia legendi for Anthropology, Faculty of Philosophy and Social Sciences II, Free University of Berlin <\/td><\/tr>
1987<\/strong>
Doctorate (PhD) at Leibniz University of Hanover<\/td><\/tr>
1985<\/strong>
MA in Agricultural Sciences of the Tropics and Subtropics, Georg-August University of G\u00f6ttingen<\/td><\/tr>
1982<\/strong>
Second state examination for the teaching profession at grammar schools, Hamburg<\/td><\/tr>
1979<\/strong>
First state examination for teaching at grammar schools, Georg August University G\u00f6ttingen<\/td><\/tr>
1972-1979
<\/strong>Studies of sociology, political science, German studies and education at Georg August-University G\u00f6ttingen and Free University Berlin<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Academic positions<\/strong><\/th><\/tr><\/thead>
since 2019
<\/strong>Senior Research professor at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz<\/td><\/tr>
2002-2019
<\/strong>Professor of Anthropology at the Department for Anthropology and African Studies, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz<\/td><\/tr>
1995-2002
<\/strong>Professor of Anthropology at the Department for Historical Ethnology at Goethe University Frankfurt<\/td><\/tr>
1987-1992
<\/strong>Lecturer at the Department for Anthropology, Free University Berlin<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Honorary positions, memberships, prizes and awards<\/strong><\/th><\/tr><\/thead>
since 2024<\/strong>
Member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Friedenstein Foundation Gotha<\/td><\/tr>
since 2021<\/strong>
Member of the Board of Trustees of the German Academy for Language and Literature<\/td><\/tr>
2023
<\/strong>Award of the honorary membership of the German Association of Social and Cultural Anthropology <\/td><\/tr>
since 2020
<\/strong>Member of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina<\/td><\/tr>
since 2014
<\/strong>Member of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities<\/td><\/tr>
2023-2026<\/strong>
Member of the Board of Trustees of the Anne Frank Educational Centre<\/td><\/tr>
2020-2024
<\/strong>President of the Goethe-Institut<\/a><\/td><\/tr>
2018-2020
<\/strong>Vice President of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities<\/td><\/tr>
2016-2018
<\/strong>Secretary of the German Academy of the Social Sciences Class of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities<\/td><\/tr>
2011-2015
<\/strong>President of the German Association of Social and Cultural Anthropology<\/td><\/tr>
2014
<\/strong>Melville J. Herskovits Prize of the African Studies Association (USA) for the book Land, Mobility and Belonging in West Africa<\/em> (Indiana University Press, 2013) <\/td><\/tr>
2013
<\/strong>Award of a Chieftaincy title (Maalu Naa) in the Nandom Traditional Area, Upper West Region, Ghana<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody>
<\/td><\/tr><\/tfoot><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Media appearances, interviews, podcasts<\/strong><\/th><\/tr><\/thead>
only English language appearances; for German language appearances, see German version<\/a> of this web site<\/td><\/tr>
Interviews and speeches as President of the Goethe-Institut, 2020-2024<\/a><\/td><\/tr>
“As a German, you’re not always at the centre of the world.”<\/a> Interview with Berliner Zeitung, 18.03.2021<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n \n<\/jgu-base-buttonitem>\n\n<\/jgu-base-button>\n\n<\/jgu-base-accordionitem>\n\n\n \n\n\n<\/jgu-base-imagegallery>\n\n\n\n

Publications at a glance<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recently published<\/strong><\/a><\/th><\/tr><\/thead>
2026. Aus der Wissenschaft in die Kulturpolitik (und zur\u00fcck). Eine Ethnologin als Pr\u00e4sidentin des Goethe-Instituts.<\/a> Arbeitspapiere des Instituts f\u00fcr Ethnologie und Afrikastudien der Johannes Gutenberg-Universit\u00e4t Mainz (Working Papers of the Department of Anthropology and African Studies of the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz)<\/em> 215.<\/td><\/tr>
2025. Musical nationalism: the indigenisation of military marches in Ghana<\/a>. Arbeitspapiere des Instituts f\u00fcr Ethnologie und Afrikastudien der Johannes Gutenberg-Universit\u00e4t Mainz (Working Papers of the Department of Anthropology and African Studies of the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz)<\/em> 214 (with Hauke Dorsch).\u00a0<\/td><\/tr>
2025.\u00a0The future of remembering<\/a>.\u00a0Eurozine\u00a0<\/em>19 Feb. (with Teresa Koloma Beck und Omri Boehm).<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Monographs and edited volumes (selection)<\/strong><\/a><\/th><\/tr><\/thead>
2023. Josef Ehmer and Carola Lentz (eds.): Life Course, Work and Labor in Global History<\/em>. Berlin \/ Boston: De Gruyter \/ Oldenbourg <\/td><\/tr>
2022 Imagining Futures: Memory and Belonging in an African Family <\/em>(with Isidore Lobnibe). <\/em>Bloomington: Indiana University Press. <\/td><\/tr>
2021. Das Goethe-Institut. Eine Geschichte von 1951 bis heute <\/em>(with Marie-Christin Gabriel). Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta. <\/td><\/tr>
2018. Remembering Independence <\/em>(with David Lowe). London: Routledge. <\/td><\/tr>
2013. Land, Mobility and Belonging in West Africa<\/em>. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.<\/td><\/tr>
2013. Thomas Bierschenk, Matthias Krings und Carola Lentz (Hg.): Ethnologie im 21. Jahrhundert.<\/em> Berlin: Reimer.<\/td><\/tr>
2011. Carola Lentz and Godwin Kornes (eds.): Staatsinszenierung, Erinnerungsmarathon und Volksfest. Afrika feiert 50 Jahre Unabh\u00e4ngigkeit. <\/em>Frankfurt a. M.: Brandes & Apsel.<\/td><\/tr>
2006. Ethnicity and the Making of History in Northern Ghana. <\/em>Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press (International African Library 33).<\/td><\/tr>
2006. Richard Kuba and Carola Lentz (eds.): Land and the Politics of Belonging in West Africa. <\/em>Leiden: Brill.<\/td><\/tr>
2000. Carola Lentz and Paul Nugent (eds.): Ethnicity in Ghana: The Limits of Invention <\/em>. London: Macmillan.<\/td><\/tr>
1999. Carola Lentz (ed.): Changing Food Habits: Case Studies from Africa, South America and Europe.<\/em> Amsterdam: Harwood Academic Publishers. <\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Articles in peer-reviewed journals and edited volumes (selection)<\/strong><\/th><\/tr><\/thead>
2025 <\/a>:The future of remembering<\/a>. Eurozine <\/em>19 Feb. (with Teresa Koloma Beck and Omri Boehm). <\/td><\/tr>
2024. early-career funding in German-African academic cooperation: achievements, challenges, perspectives<\/a>. Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities: Food for thought from the Academy <\/em>16, January (with Andrea Noll) <\/td><\/tr>
2022 Performing the nation and staging ethnic diversity in Ghanaian national-day celebrations<\/a>. Ghana Studies<\/em> 25 (1): 3-32.<\/td><\/tr>
2022. Things that place names do: comparative perspectives from West Africa and Iceland. Anthropos <\/em>117: 453-466 (with Matthias Egeler).<\/td><\/tr>
2021. Across regional disparities and beyond family ties: a Ghanaian middle class in the making<\/a> (with Andrea Noll). History and Anthropology<\/em>.<\/td><\/tr>
2020. Studying national commemoration and political celebrations in Africa: The Online Archive African Independence Days.<\/a> Africa Bibliography<\/em> (with Marie-Christin Gabriel).<\/td><\/tr>
2020 Doing being middle-class in the global South: comparative perspectives and conceptual challenges<\/a>. Africa <\/em>90 (3): 439-69.2018.<\/td><\/tr>
2020 Embodying the nation: the production of sameness and difference in national-day parades<\/a> (with Marie-Christin Gabriel and Konstanze N’Guessan). Ethnography<\/em> 21(4): 506-536.<\/td><\/tr>
2017 Culture: the making, unmaking and remaking of an anthropological concept<\/a>. Journal of Cultural Anthropology<\/em> 142 (2), 2017: 181-204<\/td><\/tr>
2017 Performing the national territory: the geography of national-day celebrations<\/a> (with Konstanze N’Guessan and Marie-Christin Gabriel). Nations and Nationalism<\/em> 23 (4): 686-706.<\/td><\/tr>
2017. Ghanaian ‘monument wars’: the contested history of the Nkrumah statues<\/a>. Cahiers d’Etudes Africaines <\/em>227: 551-82<\/td><\/tr>
2017. ‘Kakube has come to stay’: the making of a cultural festival in Northern Ghana, 1989-2015<\/a> (with Trevor Wiggins). Africa<\/em> 87 (1): 180-210.<\/td><\/tr>
2016. World anthropology with an accent: the discipline in Germany since the 1970s<\/a> (with Thomas Bierschenk and Matthias Krings). American Anthropologist<\/em> 118 (2): 364-80.<\/td><\/tr>
2015. Die Deutsche Gesellschaft f\u00fcr V\u00f6lkerkunde. Geschichte und aktuelle Herausforderungen <\/a> (with Silja Thomas). Zeitschrift f\u00fcr Ethnologie<\/em> 140: 225\u221253.<\/td><\/tr>
2014. ‘I take an oath to the state, not the government’: career trajectories and professional ethics of Ghanaian public servants. In: Thomas Bierschenk and Jean-Pierre Olivier de Sardan (eds.), States at Work: Dynamics of African Bureaucracies<\/em>. Leiden: Brill, 175-204. <\/td><\/tr>
2013 The 2010 independence jubilees: the politics and aesthetics of national commemoration in Africa.<\/a> Nations and Nationalism<\/em> 19 (2): 217-37.<\/td><\/tr>
2013. Ghana@50: celebrating the nation, debating the nation.<\/a> Cahiers d’\u00c9tudes Africaines211<\/em>: 519-46.<\/td><\/tr>
2012 Education, careers and home ties: the ethnography of an emerging middle class from Northern Ghana<\/a> (with Andrea Behrends). Journal of Cultural Anthropology<\/em> 137 (2): 139-64.<\/td><\/tr>
2010 Travelling emblems of power: the Ghanaian ‘Seat of State’.<\/a> Critical Interventions<\/em> 7: 45-64.<\/td><\/tr>
2010. Hard work, luck and determination: biographical narratives of a Northern Ghanaian elite.<\/a> Ghana Studies 11: 47-76.<\/em><\/td><\/tr>
2009. Der Kampf um die Kultur. Zur Ent- und Re-Soziologisierung eines ethnologischen Konzepts <\/a>. Soziale Welt<\/em> 60: 305\u2212324.<\/td><\/tr>
2006 Decentralization, the state and conflicts over local boundaries in Northern Ghana.<\/a>Development and Change<\/em> 37 (4): 909-19.<\/td><\/tr>
2003. Afrikaner in Frankfurt \u2013 Migration, Netzwerke, Identit\u00e4tspolitik. Ergebnisse einer Lehrforschung. <\/a> Sociologus <\/em>53: 43-80.<\/td><\/tr>
2002 Arrows and earth shrines: towards a history of Dagara expansion in southern Burkina Faso<\/a> (with Richard Kuba). Journal of African History <\/em>43: 377-406.<\/td><\/tr>
2002. ‘The time when politics came’: Ghana’s decolonization from the perspective of a rural periphery<\/a>. Journal of Contemporary African Studies <\/em>20: 245-74.<\/td><\/tr>
2001 The political uses of ethnography: a workshop report.<\/a> Paideuma<\/em> 47: 147-160.<\/td><\/tr>
2001. local culture in the national arena: the politics of cultural festivals in Ghana.<\/a> African Studies Review <\/em>44 (3): 47-72.<\/td><\/tr>
1999. Colonial ethnography and political reform: the works of A.C. Duncan-Johnstone, R.S. Rattray, J. Eyre-Smith and J. Guiness on northern Ghana. Ghana Studies<\/em> 2: 119-69.<\/td><\/tr>
1999. Alcohol consumption between community ritual and political economy: case studies from Ecuador and Ghana. In Carola Lentz (ed.), Changing Food Habits: Case Studies from Africa, South America and Europe<\/em>, Amsterdam: Harwood Academic Publishers, 155-79. <\/td><\/tr>
1998. The chief, the mine captain and the politician: legitimating power in northern Ghana. Africa <\/em>68: 46-67.<\/td><\/tr>
1995. ‘Tribalism’ and ethnicity in Africa: a review of four decades of Anglophone research. Cahiers des Sciences Humaines<\/em> 31: 303-28.<\/td><\/tr>
1995. ‘Unity for development’: youth associations in north-western Ghana. Africa<\/em> 65: 395-429.<\/td><\/tr>
1994. Home, death and leadership: discourses of an educated elite from northwestern Ghana. Social Anthropology<\/em> 2: 149-69.<\/td><\/tr>
1989. Feldforschung als Interaktionsproze\u00df \u2013 Erfahrungen in indianischen D\u00f6rfern in Ecuador. Sociologus<\/em> 39: 123\u201351.<\/td><\/tr>
1989. A working class in formation? Economic crisis and strategies of survival among Dagara mine workers in Ghana (with Veit Erlmann). Cahiers d’\u00c9tudes Africaines<\/em> 113: 69-111. <\/td><\/tr>
1988. Zwischen \u2018Zivilisation\u2019 und \u2018eigener Kultur\u2019. Neue Funktionen ethnischer Identit\u00e4t bei indianischen Arbeitsmigranten in Ecuador. Zeitschrift f\u00fcr Soziologie<\/em> 17: 34\u201346. <\/td><\/tr>
1988. Why the most incompetent are on the village council: development projects in an Indian village in Ecuador. Sociologia Ruralis<\/em> 27: 199-215.<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n \n<\/jgu-base-buttonitem>\n\n<\/jgu-base-button>\n\n<\/jgu-base-accordionitem>\n\n\n \n\n
2024 – 2026<\/strong>
Biography, generation and historical time in the making of an African middle class
Research and publication project with financial support from the JGU Mainz Research Fund; Fellowship at the Einstein Center Chronoi, Berlin (9\/2025-12\/2025)<\/td><\/tr>
2019 – 2021<\/strong>
Early-Career-F\u00f6rderung in der deutsch-afrikanischen Wissenschaftskooperation. Eine Statuserhebung
<\/a>Project manager: Prof. Dr. Carola Lentz, project assistant: Andrea Noll. Project funding: BMBF. <\/td><\/tr>
2013 – 2019<\/strong>
The Performance of the Nation and the Handling of Subnational Differences in African National Celebrations<\/a> Subproject within the framework of the DFG Forschergruppe 1939 “Un\/doing Differences. Praktiken der Humandifferenzierung” <\/a> at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz Project manager: Carola Lentz; project managers: Marie-Christin Gabriel and Konstanze N’Guessan. Project funding: DFG. <\/td><\/tr>
2009 – 2014<\/strong>
Boundary work<\/em>: Police in West Africa<\/a>. Project manager: Prof. Dr. Carola Lentz (employees: Jan Beek, M.A., Mirco G\u00f6pfert, M.A. and Agnes Badou), funding: DFG, Research Fund of the Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz. <\/td><\/tr>
2009 – 2013<\/strong>
Remembrance politics and national celebrations in Africa. Doctoral group as part of the program “Pro Humanities and Social Sciences 2015” of the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz <\/a> Coordinator: Prof. Dr. Carola Lentz; Funding: Program “PRO Humanities and Social Sciences 2015.<\/td><\/tr>
2006 – 2013<\/strong>
States at Work. Public Services and Civil Servants in West Africa: Education and Justice in Benin, Ghana, Mali and Niger <\/a>. Project managers: Prof. Dr. Thomas Bierschenk, Mahaman Tidjani Alou (LASDEL Niamey), Funding: Volkswagen Foundation.<\/td><\/tr>
2003 – 2006<\/strong>
The local appropriation of global products – the stock cube in Senegal<\/a> Funding: DFG. Collaborator: Ruth Frackmann, M.A. <\/td><\/tr>
2003 – 2004<\/strong>
Gemeinschaft im Exil. Eritreische Netzwerke in Deutschland <\/a>. Funding: Center for Intercultural Programs of Study, University of Mainz. Staff member: Nina von Nolting, M.A. <\/td><\/tr>
2000 – 2002<\/strong>
Land appropriation: appropriation of space and local identity in southern Burkina Faso.<\/a> Subproject A 9. Funding: DFG within the framework of the SFB 268 “West African Savannah”. Employees: Dr. Richard Kuba, Dr. Katja Werthman. <\/td><\/tr>
1998 – 2001<\/strong>
On the political and economic significance of purchasable alliances in the Cross River region (Cameroon\/Nigeria). Funding: DFG. Collaborator: Dr. Ute R\u00f6schenthaler. <\/td><\/tr>
1996 – 1999<\/strong>
Politics and history of mobile cults in southwestern Burkina Faso<\/a>. Subproject A8. Funding: DFG within the framework of the SFB 268 “West African Savannah”. Employees: Volker Linz, M.A.; Michaela Oberhofer, M.A.; Kerstin Pinther, M.A. <\/td><\/tr>
1996 – 1999<\/strong>
History of settlement and rule in the southwest of Burkina Faso<\/a>. Subproject A9. Funding: DFG within the framework of the SFB 268 “West African Savannah”. Employees: Dr. Richard Kuba, Dr. Katja Werthmann. (Duration: 1996-1999) <\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n<\/jgu-base-accordionitem>\n\n\n \n\n

Prof. Dr. Carola Lentz
Room 01-688
Forum universitatis 6
55099 Mainz
Tel.: 06131-39 20124
E-Mail: lentz@uni-mainz.de<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n<\/jgu-base-accordionitem>\n\n<\/jgu-base-accordion>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/jgu-base-section>

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Portrait<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Carola Lentz is an anthropologist and senior research professor at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz. Her work focuses on ethnicity and nationalism, colonialism and decolonisation, state and family politics of memory, educational biographies and the middle classes in the Global South. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After initial field work in South America, Carola Lentz has conducted research in West Africa for the past forty years. In one of her current book projects, she is tracing her ancestral roots and studying family networks in Germany and Ghana. A second book project is based on long-term research on the biographies, social affiliations and self-images of four generations of educated men and their families from North-Western Ghana. She is also involved in a cooperative American Ghanaian exhibition project on \u2018Ghana 1957\u2019. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Carola Lentz was president of the Goethe-Institut from 2020 to 2024. She is a member of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities and the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Academic training<\/strong><\/th><\/tr><\/thead>
1996<\/strong>
Habilitation, Venia legendi for Anthropology, Faculty of Philosophy and Social Sciences II, Free University of Berlin <\/td><\/tr>
1987<\/strong>
Doctorate (PhD) at Leibniz University of Hanover<\/td><\/tr>
1985<\/strong>
MA in Agricultural Sciences of the Tropics and Subtropics, Georg-August University of G\u00f6ttingen<\/td><\/tr>
1982<\/strong>
Second state examination for the teaching profession at grammar schools, Hamburg<\/td><\/tr>
1979<\/strong>
First state examination for teaching at grammar schools, Georg August University G\u00f6ttingen<\/td><\/tr>
1972-1979
<\/strong>Studies of sociology, political science, German studies and education at Georg August-University G\u00f6ttingen and Free University Berlin<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Academic positions<\/strong><\/th><\/tr><\/thead>
since 2019
<\/strong>Senior Research professor at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz<\/td><\/tr>
2002-2019
<\/strong>Professor of Anthropology at the Department for Anthropology and African Studies, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz<\/td><\/tr>
1995-2002
<\/strong>Professor of Anthropology at the Department for Historical Ethnology at Goethe University Frankfurt<\/td><\/tr>
1987-1992
<\/strong>Lecturer at the Department for Anthropology, Free University Berlin<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Honorary positions, memberships, prizes and awards<\/strong><\/th><\/tr><\/thead>
since 2024<\/strong>
Member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Friedenstein Foundation Gotha<\/td><\/tr>
since 2021<\/strong>
Member of the Board of Trustees of the German Academy for Language and Literature<\/td><\/tr>
2023
<\/strong>Award of the honorary membership of the German Association of Social and Cultural Anthropology <\/td><\/tr>
since 2020
<\/strong>Member of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina<\/td><\/tr>
since 2014
<\/strong>Member of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities<\/td><\/tr>
2023-2026<\/strong>
Member of the Board of Trustees of the Anne Frank Educational Centre<\/td><\/tr>
2020-2024
<\/strong>President of the Goethe-Institut<\/a><\/td><\/tr>
2018-2020
<\/strong>Vice President of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities<\/td><\/tr>
2016-2018
<\/strong>Secretary of the German Academy of the Social Sciences Class of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities<\/td><\/tr>
2011-2015
<\/strong>President of the German Association of Social and Cultural Anthropology<\/td><\/tr>
2014
<\/strong>Melville J. Herskovits Prize of the African Studies Association (USA) for the book Land, Mobility and Belonging in West Africa<\/em> (Indiana University Press, 2013) <\/td><\/tr>
2013
<\/strong>Award of a Chieftaincy title (Maalu Naa) in the Nandom Traditional Area, Upper West Region, Ghana<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody>
<\/td><\/tr><\/tfoot><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Media appearances, interviews, podcasts<\/strong><\/th><\/tr><\/thead>
only English language appearances; for German language appearances, see German version<\/a> of this web site<\/td><\/tr>
Interviews and speeches as President of the Goethe-Institut, 2020-2024<\/a><\/td><\/tr>
\"As a German, you're not always at the centre of the world.\"<\/a> Interview with Berliner Zeitung, 18.03.2021<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Publications at a glance<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recently published<\/strong><\/a><\/th><\/tr><\/thead>
2026. Aus der Wissenschaft in die Kulturpolitik (und zur\u00fcck). Eine Ethnologin als Pr\u00e4sidentin des Goethe-Instituts.<\/a> Arbeitspapiere des Instituts f\u00fcr Ethnologie und Afrikastudien der Johannes Gutenberg-Universit\u00e4t Mainz (Working Papers of the Department of Anthropology and African Studies of the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz)<\/em> 215.<\/td><\/tr>
2025. Musical nationalism: the indigenisation of military marches in Ghana<\/a>. Arbeitspapiere des Instituts f\u00fcr Ethnologie und Afrikastudien der Johannes Gutenberg-Universit\u00e4t Mainz (Working Papers of the Department of Anthropology and African Studies of the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz)<\/em> 214 (with Hauke Dorsch).\u00a0<\/td><\/tr>
2025.\u00a0The future of remembering<\/a>.\u00a0Eurozine\u00a0<\/em>19 Feb. (with Teresa Koloma Beck und Omri Boehm).<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Monographs and edited volumes (selection)<\/strong><\/a><\/th><\/tr><\/thead>
2023. Josef Ehmer and Carola Lentz (eds.): Life Course, Work and Labor in Global History<\/em>. Berlin \/ Boston: De Gruyter \/ Oldenbourg <\/td><\/tr>
2022 Imagining Futures: Memory and Belonging in an African Family <\/em>(with Isidore Lobnibe). <\/em>Bloomington: Indiana University Press. <\/td><\/tr>
2021. Das Goethe-Institut. Eine Geschichte von 1951 bis heute <\/em>(with Marie-Christin Gabriel). Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta. <\/td><\/tr>
2018. Remembering Independence <\/em>(with David Lowe). London: Routledge. <\/td><\/tr>
2013. Land, Mobility and Belonging in West Africa<\/em>. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.<\/td><\/tr>
2013. Thomas Bierschenk, Matthias Krings und Carola Lentz (Hg.): Ethnologie im 21. Jahrhundert.<\/em> Berlin: Reimer.<\/td><\/tr>
2011. Carola Lentz and Godwin Kornes (eds.): Staatsinszenierung, Erinnerungsmarathon und Volksfest. Afrika feiert 50 Jahre Unabh\u00e4ngigkeit. <\/em>Frankfurt a. M.: Brandes & Apsel.<\/td><\/tr>
2006. Ethnicity and the Making of History in Northern Ghana. <\/em>Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press (International African Library 33).<\/td><\/tr>
2006. Richard Kuba and Carola Lentz (eds.): Land and the Politics of Belonging in West Africa. <\/em>Leiden: Brill.<\/td><\/tr>
2000. Carola Lentz and Paul Nugent (eds.): Ethnicity in Ghana: The Limits of Invention <\/em>. London: Macmillan.<\/td><\/tr>
1999. Carola Lentz (ed.): Changing Food Habits: Case Studies from Africa, South America and Europe.<\/em> Amsterdam: Harwood Academic Publishers. <\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Articles in peer-reviewed journals and edited volumes (selection)<\/strong><\/th><\/tr><\/thead>
2025 <\/a>:The future of remembering<\/a>. Eurozine <\/em>19 Feb. (with Teresa Koloma Beck and Omri Boehm). <\/td><\/tr>
2024. early-career funding in German-African academic cooperation: achievements, challenges, perspectives<\/a>. Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities: Food for thought from the Academy <\/em>16, January (with Andrea Noll) <\/td><\/tr>
2022 Performing the nation and staging ethnic diversity in Ghanaian national-day celebrations<\/a>. Ghana Studies<\/em> 25 (1): 3-32.<\/td><\/tr>
2022. Things that place names do: comparative perspectives from West Africa and Iceland. Anthropos <\/em>117: 453-466 (with Matthias Egeler).<\/td><\/tr>
2021. Across regional disparities and beyond family ties: a Ghanaian middle class in the making<\/a> (with Andrea Noll). History and Anthropology<\/em>.<\/td><\/tr>
2020. Studying national commemoration and political celebrations in Africa: The Online Archive African Independence Days.<\/a> Africa Bibliography<\/em> (with Marie-Christin Gabriel).<\/td><\/tr>
2020 Doing being middle-class in the global South: comparative perspectives and conceptual challenges<\/a>. Africa <\/em>90 (3): 439-69.2018.<\/td><\/tr>
2020 Embodying the nation: the production of sameness and difference in national-day parades<\/a> (with Marie-Christin Gabriel and Konstanze N'Guessan). Ethnography<\/em> 21(4): 506-536.<\/td><\/tr>
2017 Culture: the making, unmaking and remaking of an anthropological concept<\/a>. Journal of Cultural Anthropology<\/em> 142 (2), 2017: 181-204<\/td><\/tr>
2017 Performing the national territory: the geography of national-day celebrations<\/a> (with Konstanze N'Guessan and Marie-Christin Gabriel). Nations and Nationalism<\/em> 23 (4): 686-706.<\/td><\/tr>
2017. Ghanaian 'monument wars': the contested history of the Nkrumah statues<\/a>. Cahiers d'Etudes Africaines <\/em>227: 551-82<\/td><\/tr>
2017. 'Kakube has come to stay': the making of a cultural festival in Northern Ghana, 1989-2015<\/a> (with Trevor Wiggins). Africa<\/em> 87 (1): 180-210.<\/td><\/tr>
2016. World anthropology with an accent: the discipline in Germany since the 1970s<\/a> (with Thomas Bierschenk and Matthias Krings). American Anthropologist<\/em> 118 (2): 364-80.<\/td><\/tr>
2015. Die Deutsche Gesellschaft f\u00fcr V\u00f6lkerkunde. Geschichte und aktuelle Herausforderungen <\/a> (with Silja Thomas). Zeitschrift f\u00fcr Ethnologie<\/em> 140: 225\u221253.<\/td><\/tr>
2014. 'I take an oath to the state, not the government': career trajectories and professional ethics of Ghanaian public servants. In: Thomas Bierschenk and Jean-Pierre Olivier de Sardan (eds.), States at Work: Dynamics of African Bureaucracies<\/em>. Leiden: Brill, 175-204. <\/td><\/tr>
2013 The 2010 independence jubilees: the politics and aesthetics of national commemoration in Africa.<\/a> Nations and Nationalism<\/em> 19 (2): 217-37.<\/td><\/tr>
2013. Ghana@50: celebrating the nation, debating the nation.<\/a> Cahiers d'\u00c9tudes Africaines211<\/em>: 519-46.<\/td><\/tr>
2012 Education, careers and home ties: the ethnography of an emerging middle class from Northern Ghana<\/a> (with Andrea Behrends). Journal of Cultural Anthropology<\/em> 137 (2): 139-64.<\/td><\/tr>
2010 Travelling emblems of power: the Ghanaian 'Seat of State'.<\/a> Critical Interventions<\/em> 7: 45-64.<\/td><\/tr>
2010. Hard work, luck and determination: biographical narratives of a Northern Ghanaian elite.<\/a> Ghana Studies 11: 47-76.<\/em><\/td><\/tr>
2009. Der Kampf um die Kultur. Zur Ent- und Re-Soziologisierung eines ethnologischen Konzepts <\/a>. Soziale Welt<\/em> 60: 305\u2212324.<\/td><\/tr>
2006 Decentralization, the state and conflicts over local boundaries in Northern Ghana.<\/a>Development and Change<\/em> 37 (4): 909-19.<\/td><\/tr>
2003. Afrikaner in Frankfurt \u2013 Migration, Netzwerke, Identit\u00e4tspolitik. Ergebnisse einer Lehrforschung. <\/a> Sociologus <\/em>53: 43-80.<\/td><\/tr>
2002 Arrows and earth shrines: towards a history of Dagara expansion in southern Burkina Faso<\/a> (with Richard Kuba). Journal of African History <\/em>43: 377-406.<\/td><\/tr>
2002. 'The time when politics came': Ghana's decolonization from the perspective of a rural periphery<\/a>. Journal of Contemporary African Studies <\/em>20: 245-74.<\/td><\/tr>
2001 The political uses of ethnography: a workshop report.<\/a> Paideuma<\/em> 47: 147-160.<\/td><\/tr>
2001. local culture in the national arena: the politics of cultural festivals in Ghana.<\/a> African Studies Review <\/em>44 (3): 47-72.<\/td><\/tr>
1999. Colonial ethnography and political reform: the works of A.C. Duncan-Johnstone, R.S. Rattray, J. Eyre-Smith and J. Guiness on northern Ghana. Ghana Studies<\/em> 2: 119-69.<\/td><\/tr>
1999. Alcohol consumption between community ritual and political economy: case studies from Ecuador and Ghana. In Carola Lentz (ed.), Changing Food Habits: Case Studies from Africa, South America and Europe<\/em>, Amsterdam: Harwood Academic Publishers, 155-79. <\/td><\/tr>
1998. The chief, the mine captain and the politician: legitimating power in northern Ghana. Africa <\/em>68: 46-67.<\/td><\/tr>
1995. 'Tribalism' and ethnicity in Africa: a review of four decades of Anglophone research. Cahiers des Sciences Humaines<\/em> 31: 303-28.<\/td><\/tr>
1995. 'Unity for development': youth associations in north-western Ghana. Africa<\/em> 65: 395-429.<\/td><\/tr>
1994. Home, death and leadership: discourses of an educated elite from northwestern Ghana. Social Anthropology<\/em> 2: 149-69.<\/td><\/tr>
1989. Feldforschung als Interaktionsproze\u00df \u2013 Erfahrungen in indianischen D\u00f6rfern in Ecuador. Sociologus<\/em> 39: 123\u201351.<\/td><\/tr>
1989. A working class in formation? Economic crisis and strategies of survival among Dagara mine workers in Ghana (with Veit Erlmann). Cahiers d'\u00c9tudes Africaines<\/em> 113: 69-111. <\/td><\/tr>
1988. Zwischen \u2018Zivilisation\u2019 und \u2018eigener Kultur\u2019. Neue Funktionen ethnischer Identit\u00e4t bei indianischen Arbeitsmigranten in Ecuador. Zeitschrift f\u00fcr Soziologie<\/em> 17: 34\u201346. <\/td><\/tr>
1988. Why the most incompetent are on the village council: development projects in an Indian village in Ecuador. Sociologia Ruralis<\/em> 27: 199-215.<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
2024 - 2026<\/strong>
Biography, generation and historical time in the making of an African middle class
Research and publication project with financial support from the JGU Mainz Research Fund; Fellowship at the Einstein Center Chronoi, Berlin (9\/2025-12\/2025)<\/td><\/tr>
2019 - 2021<\/strong>
Early-Career-F\u00f6rderung in der deutsch-afrikanischen Wissenschaftskooperation. Eine Statuserhebung
<\/a>Project manager: Prof. Dr. Carola Lentz, project assistant: Andrea Noll. Project funding: BMBF. <\/td><\/tr>
2013 - 2019<\/strong>
The Performance of the Nation and the Handling of Subnational Differences in African National Celebrations<\/a> Subproject within the framework of the DFG Forschergruppe 1939 \"Un\/doing Differences. Praktiken der Humandifferenzierung\" <\/a> at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz Project manager: Carola Lentz; project managers: Marie-Christin Gabriel and Konstanze N'Guessan. Project funding: DFG. <\/td><\/tr>
2009 - 2014<\/strong>
Boundary work<\/em>: Police in West Africa<\/a>. Project manager: Prof. Dr. Carola Lentz (employees: Jan Beek, M.A., Mirco G\u00f6pfert, M.A. and Agnes Badou), funding: DFG, Research Fund of the Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz. <\/td><\/tr>
2009 - 2013<\/strong>
Remembrance politics and national celebrations in Africa. Doctoral group as part of the program \"Pro Humanities and Social Sciences 2015\" of the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz <\/a> Coordinator: Prof. Dr. Carola Lentz; Funding: Program \"PRO Humanities and Social Sciences 2015.<\/td><\/tr>
2006 - 2013<\/strong>
States at Work. Public Services and Civil Servants in West Africa: Education and Justice in Benin, Ghana, Mali and Niger <\/a>. Project managers: Prof. Dr. Thomas Bierschenk, Mahaman Tidjani Alou (LASDEL Niamey), Funding: Volkswagen Foundation.<\/td><\/tr>
2003 - 2006<\/strong>
The local appropriation of global products - the stock cube in Senegal<\/a> Funding: DFG. Collaborator: Ruth Frackmann, M.A. <\/td><\/tr>
2003 - 2004<\/strong>
Gemeinschaft im Exil. Eritreische Netzwerke in Deutschland <\/a>. Funding: Center for Intercultural Programs of Study, University of Mainz. Staff member: Nina von Nolting, M.A. <\/td><\/tr>
2000 - 2002<\/strong>
Land appropriation: appropriation of space and local identity in southern Burkina Faso.<\/a> Subproject A 9. Funding: DFG within the framework of the SFB 268 \"West African Savannah\". Employees: Dr. Richard Kuba, Dr. Katja Werthman. <\/td><\/tr>
1998 - 2001<\/strong>
On the political and economic significance of purchasable alliances in the Cross River region (Cameroon\/Nigeria). Funding: DFG. Collaborator: Dr. Ute R\u00f6schenthaler. <\/td><\/tr>
1996 - 1999<\/strong>
Politics and history of mobile cults in southwestern Burkina Faso<\/a>. Subproject A8. Funding: DFG within the framework of the SFB 268 \"West African Savannah\". Employees: Volker Linz, M.A.; Michaela Oberhofer, M.A.; Kerstin Pinther, M.A. <\/td><\/tr>
1996 - 1999<\/strong>
History of settlement and rule in the southwest of Burkina Faso<\/a>. Subproject A9. Funding: DFG within the framework of the SFB 268 \"West African Savannah\". Employees: Dr. Richard Kuba, Dr. Katja Werthmann. (Duration: 1996-1999) <\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n\n\n

Prof. Dr. Carola Lentz
Room 01-688
Forum universitatis 6
55099 Mainz
Tel.: 06131-39 20124
E-Mail: lentz@uni-mainz.de<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ifeas.uni-mainz.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/23614","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ifeas.uni-mainz.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ifeas.uni-mainz.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ifeas.uni-mainz.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/852"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ifeas.uni-mainz.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23614"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.ifeas.uni-mainz.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/23614\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27310,"href":"https:\/\/www.ifeas.uni-mainz.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/23614\/revisions\/27310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ifeas.uni-mainz.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ifeas.uni-mainz.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ifeas.uni-mainz.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}