Survey: Africans in Vienna

At the moment we are conducting a survey about the African diaspora in Vienna. The objective of the questionnaire is to explore the linguistic contact and cultural relationships between Africa and Austria by focusing on the emergence of an African community in Vienna.

All the information provided will be kept strictly confidential and used for research purposes only. If you are interested in participating, kindly contact Ms. Caroline Pajancic via E-mail.

2016 Overview

The research platform GADS aims to build a centre of excellence in the study of Africa and its relations with the rest of the world, particularly focusing on how diaspora African communities impact their host countries and the socio-cultural development of their countries of origin in Africa. 

Our aims, which are clearly stated on our website, were largely achieved through activities, including workshops, seminar series, occasional festivities, and publications in international journals, all involving both local and international scholars.

Workshops
We organized two workshops, one on the syntax and semantics of questions (with Katharina Hartmann of Frankfurt University), and another (with Dalina Kallulli here in Vienna) on the linguistics of West African languages attended by scholars from Norway, Ghana, the Netherlands, and the US.
 

Occasional events: Africa Day
African Liberation Day (Africa Day, for short), as designated by the African Union, falls on May 25 each year. We commemorated Africa Day at the Department of African Studies. The theme for this year and until 2020 is: “Agenda 2063: The Africa We Want” and included a panel discussion on “Diaspora African Contributions to African Development”  by Ms. Louise Deininger, President of Kenyans in the Diaspora, Austria  and Dr. Martina Kopf, Lecturer, African Studies, University of Vienna. There was also poetry reading on the theme of African unity and identity.

GADS seminar series
The Research Platform Global African Diaspora Studies (GADS)  also runs  a fortnighly seminar series that has included topics on museums as resources for global and African studies (featuring Prof. Rathkolb, Prof. Sauer, Dr. Engelsman and Mag. Nadja Haumberger as panelists) , diaspora linguistics (Adams Bodomo), Africans in Austria (Anissa Strommr) and other parts of Europe (Birgit Englert and her team), and literature as an intercultural vehicle given by  guest lecturer, Prof Christa Knellwolf,  from West Asia. There have also been occasional lectures from scholars in Ghana (Michael Okyerefo, University of Ghana) and Poland (Wioleta Gierszewska, Institute of Political Science, University of Gdansk).