Projects & Collaborations

21 found

Show per page

Chieftaincy and National Identity in Ghana, 1981-2000

PhD Project | 2 Project Members

folgt

Death and Belongings. A History of Women’s Property, Spirits, and Deceased Estates in Southern Rhodesia, 1896-1953

PhD Project | 2 Project Members

The project investigates inheritance laws and practices concerning Shona-speaking women in colonial Zimbabwe from 1896 to 1953. Focusing on the complex and dynamic interplay between precolonial conventions, the emergence of “customary law” under colonial rule, and European legal traditions, it seeks to shed light on Shona women’s position and maneuverings in their attempts to protect, distribute, enjoy, and acquire belongings and rights. The projects aim is to analyze understandings of inheritance among Shona communities and the extent to which these were reshaped by colonial interventions while investigating Shona and colonial forms of patriarchy and the ways in which women navigated these two patriarchal settings.
Based on extensive archival research in Zimbabwean and British archives, as well as oral history, the project will offer fresh approaches to scholarship on legal history and inheritance. This case of Shona communities under colonial rule allows the research to challenge the dominant notions of “property,” which have often been taken for granted in the existing literature. It also enables us to draw out the importance of spiritual agency, the agency of the deceased, and the significance of not only material, but also immaterial inheritance. Thereby, it nuances and historicizes current debates on women’s unequal access to property in Africa and elsewhere. The perspectives and findings of this project will be made productive beyond academia by collaborating with women’s-rights-focused NGOs and traditional healers’ associations.

Imported from Grants Tool 4699700

A Global History of the Rwandan Genocide

PhD Project | 2 Project Members

Der Völkermord in Ruanda 1994 hat mehr als 1 Million Menschenleben gekostet und die internationale Gemeinschaft zutiefst erschüttert. Das Ausmaß des Verbrechens kann ohne Berücksichtigung der globalen Dimension nicht verstanden werden. Um der Komplexität des Verbrechens gegen die Menschlichkeit gerecht zu werden, untersucht dieses Promotionsprojekt die transnationalen Verflechtungen, internationale Rahmenbedingungen und geopolitische Interessenbeziehungen zu Ruanda, welche den Konflikt entscheidend geprägt und ermöglicht haben. Mit dem theoretischen Ansatz aus mikrogeschichtlicher Perspektive eine Globalgeschichte zu schreiben, untersucht die Promotion drei zentrale Entscheidungsmomente des Konflikts, die von nicht-ruandischen Akteuren und Strukturen signifikant geprägt wurden. Daraus resultieren folgende, konkreten Forschungsfragen. Welche Rolle spielten die Weltbank und der Internationale Währungsfond, die seit 1990 strukturelle Anpassungsmaßnahmen in Ruanda durchführten und trotz des Bürgerkrieges die Regierung mit hohen finanziellen Summen unterstützen? Wie kam es 15 Tage nach Ausbruch des Völkermordes zum Rückzug der Friedensmission UNAMIR aus Ruanda und welchen Einfluss hatte diese Entscheidung des UN-Sicherheitsrates auf die Täter und Opfer des Völkermordes? Wie ist Frankreichs Opération Turquoise während des Verbrechens im Licht französischer Interessenpolitik zu verstehen und welchen Zusammenhang hatte die Operation mit den Tätern? Anhand dieser Forschungsfragen soll die globale Dimension des Völkermordes erläutert und das dominante Narrativ eines lokalen, tribalen und unzivilisierten Konfliktes hinterfragt werden.

Out of Sight? Bilharzia, Sleeping Sickness and a Global History of "Neglected Tropical Diseases" in Africa, 1945 to the present

PhD Project | 2 Project Members

Interest in the history of diseases has burgeoned in recent years, both in research and among the public. However, so-called neglected tropical diseases (NTDs), which together affect more than one billion people in tropical and sub-tropical regions, are often absent from both academic and popular considerations. This dissertation project addresses this desideratum by investigating the historical construction and reconstruction of NTDs in local and global contexts, enquiring into the meaning of 'neglected' and the process through which certain diseases become designated as such. It does so through a focus on responses to the parasitic worm disease bilharzia in Madagascar from the 1950s to the present. The thesis proposes that the history of bilharzia in this setting serves as a telling example of how a disease came to be constructed as an NTD through (re)definition by various external actors - missionaries, international organisations, development aid workers, scientists, policy makers and pharmaceutical companies - during the late colonial and postcolonial periods. Through their plans and interventions, these actors have not only drastically increased the prevalence of a disease that was previously not very widespread, but also introduced bilharzia as a tangible, serious entity to the Malagasy people. Local auxiliaries also played a crucial role in the success and longevity of the related health interventions - an aspect that has received little attention in scholarship to date. The thesis is a historical epidemiology study that combines African local medical history with global history and analyses the different practices and bodies of knowledge that define NTDs on multiple levels. Through oral history interviews with contemporary witnesses and auxiliaries of international interventions, archival research and the review of biomedical literature, I will be able to examine the perceptions and course of the disease as well as the ways in which local practices, knowledge production, transnational collaboration and the institutionalisation of health care influenced the disease, its spread, and its effects.

The Last Missionary Frontier: Health Care, Power, and Development in Lesotho in the 20th Century

PhD Project | 2 Project Members

The research focuses on the health sector of Lesotho in the second half of the 20th century by examining
four Catholic mission hospitals run by the Catholic church of Lesotho, administrated by different orders of Franco-Canadian and Basotho nuns, and staffed by Swiss doctors recruited by the former “Schweizerischer Katholischer Missionsärztlicher Verein”. It is situated temporally between the 1950s and the 1990s. The aim of the study is to examine how decolonization, changing discourses on development and the nature of mission, and old and new medical challenges such as Tuberculosis or HIV transformed the hospitals as places of healing, as well as how they influenced the doctors, nurses, administrators, and patients. The relevance and aim of the research lie in the generation of historical knowledge on several topics: firstly, new insights into the health system of Lesotho throughout and after decolonization will be generated, thereby showing how the health system changed and coped with the end of colonial rule, lack of financing, and structural adjustment programs in the years after independence. Secondly, the study will generate insights into the history of Christian mission, especially after decolonization, and specifically on the role that mission played in building and maintaining a post-colonial health system. Here, questions of power relations will also play a role. Thirdly, historical knowledge on the impact of different disease will be generated, especially on the reaction of the Basotho health system to the emergence of HIV.

Development, Consultancy, and Cooperation - A Global History of Rwanda's Path to Genocide

PhD Project | 2 Project Members

The PhD project "Development, Consultancy, and Cooperation - A Global History of Rwanda's Path to Genocide" challenges the hegemonic understanding that the international community failed to halt the 1994 Genocide against Tutsi in Rwanda due to its isolated location, lack of interest, and unwillingness of states to invest finances into the country. Throughout the history of independent Rwanda, nation states such as France and Switzerland and institutions such as the World Bank and NGO's invested time, resources, personnel, and financial aid in order to promote their respective visions of development in Rwanda. Through a large expat community on the ground, intensive bilateral cooperation, and even foreign military presence, various historical actors maintained close connections to Rwanda. Thus, transnational actors were not outsiders, but an active part of society, which shaped Rwanda throughout the course of the conflict. Based on close examinations of a unique and extensive corpus of primary sources (including reports, protocols, letters, newspapers, radio broadcasts), the project aims to write a global history of Rwanda's path to genocide, without treating it as an inevitable outcome of the conflict. By focusing on development practices by the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the United Nations, France and Switzerland, the analysis addresses their institutional policies and its impact on Rwandan society, economy, and politics. Further, the project examines how the institutions perceived the country, what visions of development they embraced, and why they chose to invest their resources into the country. Understanding the nature and impact of development practices in Rwanda is necessary to come to terms with the role of the international community in Rwandan society and its involvement in the genocide, where inner 100 days of murder, rape, and destruction, over a million people's lives were erased in front of the eyes of millions of bystanders.

Drought - Drought coping strategies in southern Africa 1966-2016

Research Project | 2 Project Members

Abstract folgt

Engendering the Colony: Maternal Health, Indigenous Knowledge and European Medicine in Southwest Nigeria, 1925-1960

PhD Project | 2 Project Members

The significance of women and mothers in Yoruba society cannot be overemphasized. Iyaniwura , Baba nijigi [lit., mother is gold (symbol of a precious possession), father is mirror (symbol of identification] and Ori s a bi iyakosi, iya la ba ma a bo [lit., there is no Orisha (deity) like mother, it is mother that is worthy to be worshipped] are two prominent Yoruba proverbs that underscore the importance of mothers. However, "While motherhood is often a positive and fulfilling experience, for too many women it is associated with suffering, ill-health and even death." Possible health conditions such as puerperal psychosis, dizziness, fever, anaemia, postpartum hemorrhage, high blood pressure, eclampsia pulmonary, infection among others accounted for high rate of maternal mortality recorded in many African countries. The basis of Africans' reaction to western medicine might, in addition to other factors, have been guided by their use of and the perceived potency of established indigenous medical practices that predated the introduction of Western medicine in their communities. It is imperative this research examine the interface between African worldviews, as they relate to health and illness at the time Western medicine was introduced and used widely in southwest Nigeria. The ways by which Africans continued to appreciate their established medical practices, yet at the same time using, in different ways, Western medicine is important as it demonstrate their own agency within the colonial context that sought to narrow Africans' choices by condemning traditional healers' medical practices as unscientific, anti-Christian and primitive. Throughout most of the nation's history, the importance of traditional medicine had largely been ignored for centuries because of its primitive method within the medical system. Recently, this logic has been undermined as women's patronage of traditional medicine has dramatically increased. The view that maternal health was shaped by issues such as cultural, racial, and religious differences; the pace of medical professionalization; the general education of the African population; and the degree of financial investment into colonial health after World War II also remain largely unexplored. To leave such an important question unanswered, or so partially answered, is unsatisfactory. Bitte lesen Sie weiter auf der Projektseite: https://bgsh.geschichte.unibas.ch/projekte/projekt-detail/?L=712&tx_bgshprojectsext_projects%5Bproject%5D=200&tx_bgshprojectsext_projects%5Baction%5D=show&tx_bgshprojectsext_projects%5Bcontroller%5D=Project&cHash=a9b21abee23763511cb90b1add0499e2

German Colonial Heritage in Swiss Ethnographic Museums. Traces, Trajectories, and Transformations

PhD Project | 2 Project Members

The core interest of the Ph.D. is the investigation of colonial provenances of ethnographic collections in Switzerland. On the basis of a cross-institutional approach, with quantitative and qualitative collection surveys, the material heritage from colonial acquisition contexts of different ethnographic museums in Switzerland is assessed and related to one another. The two central areas of investigation are, on the one hand, the context and the events of collecting itself and, on the other hand, the institutionalization processes of resulting ethnographic collections. The surveys' samples, which simultaneously delimits the specific context of concern, consist of collections originating from African and Pacific regions that were part of the German Colonial Empire between 1883 and the end of the First World War. On the one hand, archival collection data in the concerned museums is analyzed as primary sources for the investigation of the moments of exchange in a colonial context. On the other hand, the analyses of the data serve to identify institutional histories of collecting, documentation, and outreach strategies, while object-focused provenance histories of certain artifacts are occasionally pursued as well. Eventually, this research is an investigation of the colonial entanglements of Swiss ethnographic museums. This goes hand in hand with an understanding of their potential as colonial archives, embeds this research in the debate on colonialism without colonies and provides a post-colonial approach to Swiss historiography.

African contributions to global health: Circulating knowledge and innovations

Research Project | 3 Project Members

Sinergia-Projekt zu Gesundheitsinnovationen aus Afrika geleitet von Prof. Dr. Julia Tischler (Department Geschichte, Basel), Prof. Dr. Jürg Utzinger (Swiss TPH) und Dr. Jérôme Chenal (EPFL) «What We Can Learn from S-Hole Countries», titelte die New York Times im Januar 2018 als Reaktion auf die Forderung des US-Präsidenten Trump, Einwanderer aus so bezeichneten Ländern abzulehnen. Der Artikel hob unter anderem hervor, dass Sierra Leone eine kostenlose Gesundheitsversorgung für Kleinkinder und Schwangere anbietet, während in Ruanda Mädchen systematisch gegen das Papillomavirus geimpft werden, so dass Gebärmutterhalskrebs in dem ostafrikanischen Land weniger verbreitet ist als in den USA. Gesundheitsinstitutionen in Afrika haben, den Empfehlungen der WHO folgend, das Stillen breit propagiert; 42 Prozent aller Neugeborenen in Afrika südlich der Sahara erhalten in ihren ersten sechs Lebensmonaten ausschliesslich Muttermilch, verglichen mit 20 Prozent ihrer Altersgenossen in den USA. Nicht nur im politischen, auch im wissenschaftlichen Diskurs ist die Vorstellung weit verbreitet, dass Innovationen stets von reichen Industrienationen ausgehen, während der globale Süden sie allenfalls adaptiert. Das Projekt «African Contributions to Global Health» stellt diese unidirektionalen Modelle in Frage und untersucht afrikanische Beiträge zur Fragen von Global Health. Ein interdisziplinäres Forscherteam aus HistorikerInnen (Departement Geschichte, Basel), Public Health (Swiss TPH) und Urban Planning (EPFL) untersucht Wissen, Praktiken und Anwendungen, die zur Verbesserung der Gesundheitsversorgung in Afrika entwickelt wurden, aber für Gesundheitsfragen weltweit relevant geworden sind - oder das Potenzial dazu haben. In einer Zeit schrumpfender öffentlicher Haushalte und alternder Gesellschaften im globalen Norden lässt sich viel von afrikanischen Ländern lernen, die in den letzten zwei Jahrzehnten bemerkenswerte Ergebnisse bei der Gesundheit der Bevölkerung erzielt haben. Gleichzeitig werden Konzepte wie "Innovation" kritisch überprüft und historisiert. Das Projekt adressiert aktuelle Herausforderungen in den Gesundheitssystemen, zeigt aber die historische Tiefe des interkontinentalen Austauschs, vom Kolonialismus hin zur internationalen Gesundheitspolitik nach der Dekolonisationsphase. Lernen war dabei nicht immer positiv und fand und findet in asymmetrischen Kontexten statt. Zwei historische Postdoc-Teilprojekte, die von Julia Tischler geleitet werden, untersuchen globale Austauschprozesse in der Kolonial- und Nachkolonialzeit in Bezug auf Malariaforschung in Sambia und die Entstehung eines öffentlichen Gesundheitswesens in Kenia und Côte d'Ivoire nach der Unabhängigkeit. Das in der Schweiz basierte Projektteam bestehend aus den drei AntragstellerInnen, zwei Postdocs und vier Doktorierenden arbeitet eng mit einer Vielzahl von Partnern an Forschungsinstitutionen in Kenia, Sambia, Tansania und Côte d'Ivoire zusammen. Forschungsergebnisse werden Wissenschaftlern, Studenten, Gesundheitsexperten, Verwaltungsfachleuten und der Öffentlichkeit durch verschiedene Formen der Veröffentlichung, Konferenzen und Lehrtätigkeiten zugänglich gemacht.