Personal Profile - Institut für Ethnologie und Afrikastudien

Personal Profile - Institut für Ethnologie und Afrikastudien

Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) D 55099 Mainz
Faculty 07, Department of Anthropology and African Studies
Mareike Späth M.A:
Personal Profile
Mareike Späth is lecturer (Wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin) at the Department of Anthropology and African
Studies, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz. Her research interests include forms and contents of
commemoration and celebration, especially on national holidays. As member of the research group “The poetics
and politics of national commemoration in Africa” she currently prepares her PhD thesis on the 50th anniversary of
independence in Madagascar. She is particularly interested in the possibilities of utopia, nostalgia and alternation
within the timeframe of the not-everyday.
Academic training
Since 2013
Lecturer at the Department of Anthropology and African Studies at the Johannes
Gutenberg University of Mainz
2010-2013
Doctoral scholarship in the context of the programme of the University of Mainz “PRO
Geistes- und Sozialwissenschaften 2015”, member of the doctoral research group
“The poetics and politics of national commemoration in Africa”.
2009-2010
Lecturer at the Department of Anthropology and African Studies at the Johannes
Gutenberg University of Mainz
2008
Magistra Artium
Magister thesis (social anthropology): "Katuni. Eine ethnographische Untersuchung der
tansanischen Comic-Welt."
2002-2008
Studies in social anthropology, African language studies and public law in Mainz
Research experience
March – Sept. 2012
Madagascar (national days and national commemoration). Funded by the German
Academic Exchange Service.
May – Dec. 2010
Madagascar (50th anniversary jubilee of independence, associated with the research
group “The poetics and politics of national commemoration in Africa”)
Oct. 2006 - March 2007
Tanzania (Comics and popular culture). Funded by the Sulzmann-Stiftung.
July - Sept. 2005
Swahili language course at the Institute of Kiswahili and Foreign Languages, State
University of Zanzibar. Funded by the German Academic Exchange Service.
Feb. - April 2005
Ethiopia (Language and cultural studies)
Aug. - Oct. 2004
Ruanda (Women’s’ association)
Last update: 21.10.2014
Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) D 55099 Mainz
Faculty 07, Department of Anthropology and African Studies
Mareike Späth M.A:
Teaching activities
2014
Helden in Afrika; Klassiker der Ethnologie; Ethnologische Methodenübung.
Department of Anthropology and African Studies at the Johannes Gutenberg
University of Mainz.
2013
Moratorium des Alltags. Ethnologie der Ereignisse. Department of Anthropology and
African Studies at the Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz.
2012
Language course: Swahili. Comission malagasy des Langues Véhiculaires
Transfrontalières kiswahili et malagasy an Afrique de l’Est, Centre des Langues de
l’Académie Malgache.
2011
Unabhängigkeitsfeiern. Together with Carola Lentz. Department of Anthropology and
African Studies at the Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz.
2009/2010
Comics in Afrika. Department of Anthropology and African Studies at the Johannes
Gutenberg University of Mainz.
2009 - 2010
Language course: Swahili, Institute for Cultural and Social Anthropology, GeorgAugust-University Göttingen.
2007 - 2009
Tutor at the Department of Anthropology and African Studies at the Johannes
Gutenberg University of Mainz
Papers
9/2014
Caught in the crossfire of commemoration. Entangled histories of the tirailleurs sénégalais as
heroes in Francophone Africa and France. Paper presented together with Konstanze
N’Guessan at the NISE Conference “Heroes & Protagonists. Creating and interpreting heroes
and heroism in a national context”, Lithuanian Institute for History, Vilnius, 16. -18. September
(18. September).
9/2013
Emphatische Ethnographie des feste Feierns. DGV Summer School, Worms, 5.-8. September
2013.
7/2013
Roundtable Madagaskar: Kulturinsel zwischen den Kontinenten veranstaltet vom Verein
Freunde Madagaskars e.V., Weinheim, 21. July.
2/2013
Fihavanana 2010. Madagascar’s 50th anniversary of Independence. International workshop
‘Fihavanana: The vision of a peaceful society on Madagascar. Anthropological, historical, and
political perspectives’, Department of Anthropology, Martin-Luther-University Halle-Saale, 1.-2.
February 2013 (1. February 2013).
1/2012
‘Le départ c’est dans notre famille’. Nation building on Madagascar’s independence day
celebration. International Conference ‘Celebrating the nation, debating the nation:
independence jubilees, national days and the politics of commemoration in Africa’, Point Sud,
Bamako, 9.-12. January 2012 (10. January 2012).
11/2011
A Nation’s Holiday. Nation-building on Madagascar’s Independence Day. 54th African Studies
Association Annual Meeting, Washington DC, USA, 17.-20. November 2011 (18. November
2011).
Last update: 21.10.2014
Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) D 55099 Mainz
Faculty 07, Department of Anthropology and African Studies
Mareike Späth M.A:
6/2011
A Nation’s holiday. Madagascar’s independence in the private sphere. 4th European
Conference on African Studies, Uppsala, Sweden, 15.-18. June 2011 (16. June 2011).
6/2011
Nationale Helden. Geschichtskonstruktion in afrikanischen Unabhängigkeitsjubiläen. Together
with Carola Lentz and Svenja Haberecht, Konstanzer Kolloquium zur Erinnerungsforschung,
Forschungsgruppe Gedächtnis + Erinnerung, 7. June 2011.
3/2011
‚Ohne die Politik wäre Madagaskar ein glückliches Land‘. Freiheit und Unabhängigkeit in
Literatur, Politik und Alltag auf Madagaskar. Together with Dr. Almut Seiler Dietrich and Céline
Molter, Nord-Süd-Forum Bensheim, Bensheim, 10. March 2011.
12/2010
26. Juin 2010. Une commémoration de l’indépendance de Madagascar entre larmes et
effervescence? Together with Baholy Malala Ravonison, International conference ‚Madagascar:
50 ans d’Indépendance‘ CRECI, Antananarivo, Madagaskar, 1.-4. December 2010 (3.
December 2010).
11/2008
Katuni. Comics in Tansania. Third ComFor-Wissenschaftstagung ‚Comic als Gegenstand der
Kultur und Sozialwissenschaften‘, University Koblenz-Landau, 28.-29. November 2008 (29.
November 2008).
Conferences
Panel The making und unmaking of heroes in Africa at the Fifth European Conference on African Studies (ECAS
5), Lisbon, 27-29 June 2011 (with Konstanze N’Guessan, Mainz).
Panel Celebrating Independence Jubilees in Africa at the 54th Annual Meeting of the African Studies Association,
Washington DC, 17.-20. November 2011. (with Konstanze N’Guessan, Mainz).
Exhibitions
Independence ChaCha – Afrika feiert 50 Jahre Unabhängigkeit. Exhibition at the 10. Mainzer
Wissenschaftsmarkt, 4.-5. June 2011. Together with Carola Lentz, Hauke Dorsch and students at the Department
of Anthropology and African Studies.
Last update: 21.10.2014