Kaya de Wolff

Kaya de Wolff is a research associate (post-doc) at the Institute of English and American Studies, Goethe University Frankfurt. Her interdisciplinary research engages critically with the intersections of memory, media and communication, (post)colonialism and social justice.

Starting in October 2022, she will work – jointly with Prof. Dr. Astrid Erll – in a project on “Transformations of Political Violence“, more specifically on the interpretations and memories of political violence. In this context, her current research engages with the transformations of mediated memories of political violence related to the history of slavery, colonialism and dictatorship in Brazil.

Kaya de Wolff gained her PhD from the department of media studies at Eberhard Karls University Tuebingen, Germany, as a member of the research group “Transcultural public spheres and solidarity in media cultures”. Her dissertation focuses on the contested memories of German colonial history and the struggle for recognition of the genocide against the Ovaherero and Nama in the German press coverage. She received a doctorate-scholarship from the Hans-Boeckler-Foundation for three years, including field research in Namibia and South Africa. Her dissertation has been nominated for the German Dissertation Award 2023 in the section of cultural studies and humanities, funded by the Koerber Foundation.

Kaya de Wolff is an active member of the German-Research-Foundation network “Memory and Media“.

Project:

“Transformations of Political Violence” 

Research Area 3: Interpretations, Memories of Political Violence work 

Project profile

Monograph

(2021): Post-/koloniale Erinnerungsdiskurse in der Medienkultur. Der Genozid von Ovaherero und Nama in der deutschsprachigen Presse von 2001 bis 2016. Bielefeld: transcript (open access). https://www.transcript-verlag.de/978-3-8376-5978-8/post/koloniale-erinnerungsdiskurse-in-der-medienkultur/

Edited volumes:

Ed. With Tanja Thomas, Tanja, Lina Brink, and Elke Grittmann (2018): Anerkennung und Sichtbarkeit. Perspektiven für eine kritische Medienkulturforschung. Bielefeld: transcript. https://www.transcript-verlag.de/978-3-8376-4011-3/anerkennung-und-sichtbarkeit/

Book chapters:

Co-authored with Judith Lohner (2022, in print): Transnational Memory Cultures and Journalism. In: Netzwerk Kommunikationswissenschaftliche Erinnerungsforschung (eds) Handbuch kommunikationswissenschaftliche Erinnerungsforschung. De Gruyter. https://www.degruyter.com/document/isbn/9783110629743/html?lang=de

(2021): Namibia in den Medien In: Bechhaus-Gerst, Marianne/Zeller, Joachim (eds): Deutschland postkolonial? Die Gegenwart der imperialen Vergangenheit. 2. Rev. edition, Berlin: Metropol-Verlag, pp. 410-433. https://metropol-verlag.de/produkt/deutschland-postkolonial-die-gegenwart-der-imperialen-vergangenheit/

Co-authored with Lina Brink (2018): Kosmopolitismus, Anerkennung und Sichtbarkeit – postkoloniale und feministische Ansätze zur Konturierung einer kritischen Medienkulturforschung. In: Thomas, Tanja/Brink, Lina/ Grittmann, Elke/de Wolff, Kaya (eds) Anerkennung und Sichtbarkeit. Perspektiven für eine kritische Medienkulturforschung. Bielefeld: transcript, pp. 47-66.

Co-authored with Tanja Thomas, Tanja, Elke Grittmann, and Lina Brink: Anerkennung und Sichtbarkeit in gegenwärtigen Medienkulturen: Ausgangspunkte. In: Thomas, Tanja/Brink, Lina/ Grittmann, Elke/de Wolff, Kaya (eds): Anerkennung und Sichtbarkeit. Perspektiven für eine kritische Medienkulturforschung. Bielefeld: transcript, pp. 11-21.

(2017): The Politics of Cosmopolitan Memory from a Postcolonial Perspective: A Case Study on the Interplay of Holocaust Memory and the Herero’s Ongoing Struggle for Recognition and Restorative Justice. In: Henderson, Marius /Lange, Julia (eds.): Entangled Memories: Remembering the Holocaust in a Global Age. Heidelberg: Universitätsverlag Winter, pp. 387-427.

(2017): They say we have to forgive each other: Memory, Transitional Justice and (Post)colonialism in context of the Angolan Civil War in the documentary My Heart of Darkness. In: Jäger, Benedikt/Hobuß, Steffi (eds) (Post)Colonial Histories – Trauma, Memory and Reconciliation in the Context of the Angolan Civil War. Bielefeld: transcript, pp. 37-79. https://www.transcript-publishing.com/978-3-8376-3479-2/post-colonial-histories-trauma-memory-and-reconciliation-in-the-context-of-the-angolan-civil-war/