Visiting Researchers Start Fellowships at the College of the UA Ruhr

The College for Social Sciences and Humanities is welcoming its sixth cohort of international visiting scholars this September, who are coming to the UA Ruhr from universities in Australia, Austria, Bangladesh, Ghana, India, Japan, Nigeria, the UK, and the USA. They are distinguished by their outstanding research profiles across a wide range of disciplines in the humanities and social sciences. The ambitious projects on which they are working in collaboration with their tandem partners from the University Alliance Ruhr focus on the fields of sustainable development, media communication on climate change, rural transformation, cultural and political history, the sociology of childhood, the sociology of migration, science and technology studies, the anthropology of violence, global international relations, and environmental history.

The programme kicked off with a Welcome Day on 8 September: following a warm welcome from the College’s directorate and management, the Senior Fellows and tandem partners provided insights into their respective research projects. Over the next few weeks, the fellows will visit all three UA Ruhr universities and meet with members of the rectorates to explore key research areas and international connections.

About the International Senior Fellowship Programme
The international Senior Fellowship Programme promotes building sustainable international partnerships and research cooperation in the social sciences and the humanities. Through an annual call for applications, the College for Social Sciences and Humanities selects up to 20 internationally recognised scholars for research stays within the University Alliance Ruhr. 
The next call for applications for fellowships starting in 2028 will open in March 2027.

Current Senior Fellows and Tandem Projects

Albert Ahenkan is Professor of Sustainable Development at the University of Ghana. His work focuses on public policies, institutions, and governance systems that advance sustainable development and climate resilience. The project he is working on with Christof Hartmann (University of Duisburg-Essen) analyses how sustainability discourses and development strategies are being reshaped under the influence of EU policy shifts, assessing how selected African countries are responding to these changes.

Ijeoma D. Ajaero is Associate Professor in the Department of Mass Communication, University of Nigeria. Her research interests include environmental and health communication, media sociology, gender studies, peace and conflict reporting, media ethics, political communication, human trafficking, and social media. She is working with Susanne Fengler (TU Dortmund University) on how the media represent the linkages between climate change and migration in Nigeria.

Abdulrazaq K. Daudu, a senior lecturer at the University of Ilorin, Nigeria, specialises in gender and development, digital agriculture, agricultural extension, climate-smart agriculture, and rural transformation with a focus on Sub-Saharan Africa. In a joint project with Jakob Kapeller (University of Duisburg-Essen), he investigates to which extent inequalities in access to digital extension services affect wealth distribution among farming households in Nigeria, with particular consideration of gender aspects.

Alexander Etkind is Professor of Cultural and Political History at the Central European University in Vienna, Austria. His research interests include climate politics, comparative history of empires, colonialism and decolonisation in Eastern Europe, and critical theory of revanchism. Working with Sören Urbansky (Ruhr University Bochum), he tests concepts of imperialism and colonialism in the ongoing political situation marked by wars in Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and South Asia. In this context, he also revises concepts of critical theory in the analysis of war, peace, and polycrisis of the 21st century.

Xiaorong Gu, a sociologist of childhood, youth and education, is a senior lecturer at the University of Suffolk, UK. Her research examines children’s and youth’s migration and mobilities, education, socio-emotional lives, relationships, disabilities and wellbeing with a focus on contemporary China. The project on which she is collaborating with Alexandra König and Jessica Schwittek (University of Duisburg-Essen) seeks to critically examine how individuals growing up in Asian minority communities within European societies negotiate identity, belonging and agency.

Gracia Liu-Farrer is Professor of Sociology at Waseda University, Japan. Her research examines post-war immigration to Japan and the mobility of educational and labour migrants within and beyond Asia. Working together with Karen Shire (University of Duisburg-Essen), she investigates the ways in which Indonesian-German care labour migration is institutionally constructed and governed and analyses the cross-border mobility process of Indonesian healthcare workers using a transnational labour market approach.

Nancy Mauro Flude, a transdisciplinary researcher with expertise in computing arts, anthropology, and feminist science and technology studies (STS), is a Regenerative Future Fellow at RMIT University, Australia. In a tandem project with Estrid Sørensen (Ruhr University Bochum), she explores ways in which low-emission computing arts practices can influence adaptation behaviours and heighten risk perception among participants in the face of global commitments to a climate-neutral economy by 2050.

Zobaida Nasreen is Professor of Anthropology at the University of Dhaka, Bangladesh. Her research interests include anthropology of violence, forced displacement, sexuality and masculinity, social memory, social movements, as well as indigeneity and identity politics. The joint project with Christian Gudehus (Ruhr University Bochum) analyses the mechanisms through which children from South Asia sent for transnational adoption in Germany and France negotiate memories of violence, trauma and cultural memories and attempt to re-engage with familial and cultural networks.

Deepshikha Shahi is Professor of International Relations at the O. P. Jindal Global University, India. Her research interests include global international relations, non-Western intellectual resources, pedagogical practices, politics of knowledge-production, and global politics. She is collaborating with Andreas Niederberger (University of Duisburg-Essen) on a project that seeks to establish how ideas of pre-Socratic philosophy can supplement non-dualist concepts in global international Relations research and can help overcome ‘divided environmentalisms’ in current global politics.

David Stradling is Professor of Urban History at the University of Cincinnati, USA, whose research focuses on environmental history and, most recently, the global history of dredging. With tandem partners Jens Martin Gurr (University of Duisburg-Essen) and Thorsten Wiechmann (TU Dortmund University), he is working on a project that examines the history and changing meanings of industrial waste disposal sites in Germany’s Ruhr area as they evolve to spaces of recreation and artistic expression, seeking to understand how art and nature have come together to revalue the land.

Detailed information about the Senior Fellows and their projects is available on the College’s website: www.college-uaruhr.de/fellowship/tandem-projects.