The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and The British Academy Knowledge Frontiers Symposium Awards 2025

The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and The British Academy Knowledge Frontiers Symposium 2025 Seed Funding Awardees are:

Joanne Brueton (University of London in Paris), Benjamin Kirby (University of Bayreuth), Néhémie Strupler (University of Durham).

'Memory, space and knowledge production in North Africa'

Sixty years after independence from French colonial rule, North Africa’s entanglement with Europe remains a contested question of cultural belonging. As diplomatic tensions worsen between France and Algeria, re-opening the wounds of anticolonial resistance from 1962, France has been vocal in its literary support of two Algerian writers, Kamel Daoud and Boualem Sansal, facing prison for their critiques of authoritarian nationalism in Algeria. Using digital archives, literature, and religious history emerging from the Black Decade in the 1990s, these interdisciplinary, sandpit-style workshops will explore how colonial infrastructures continue to shape contemporary practices of knowledge-making and cultural belonging across the Mediterranean. Two outputs are envisaged: a cross-disciplinary research network that maps transcultural influences between North Africa and Europe; and a bid for a larger grant about cross-Mediterranean heritage, belonging, and knowledge production.

Ayesha Fuentes (University of Cambridge), Valentin Domann (Humboldt-Universitaet zu Berlin).

'Creative documentation and themes of belonging: hospitality, play and material change'

Abstract: This project proposes a two-and-a-half-day workshop on creative documentation through mapping, visual engagement and knowledge exchange on themes of belonging developed in conversation at the 2025 Humboldt Foundation/British Academy Knowledge Frontiers Symposium in Berlin in May 2025. The workshop will be held in Brussels, easily accessible by train for participants based in continental Europe and the UK and, at the same time characterised by global migration, linguistic diversity, and a dynamic urban landscape suitable for exploring the workshop’s themes and methods. Funding covers the cost of transport and accommodation for the two organizers and up to four additional participants from the 2025 KSF, as well as expenses for Kollectiv Orangotango – a group of Berlin-based specialists in critical mapping and public engagement – to share their skills and experiences in the creation, presentation and interpretation of non-textual documentation, visual storytelling and autoethnographic data.

Billy Holzberg (Kings College London), Megan Maruschke (Leipzig University).

'Belonging and deservingness at the nexus of migration, displacement, and homelessness'

Deservingness is key to the practices, representations and politics of belonging across different sites, contexts and historical periods. It is central to the study of migration and borders in how social and political distinctions are made between those who may enter, receive aid, and belong to the nation, while it also plays a key role in how questions of homelessness, poverty and material belonging play out, affecting who is deemed deserving of shelter and material security. This project aims to explore how deservingness and belonging play out at the nexus of migration, displacement and homelessness by questioning the binary between the refugee and the homeless, the politics of (forced) migration and the politics of material inequality. It brings together research on mobility and displacement, often studied in the context of national border crossing, with the study of homelessness and houselessness within local contexts.

Fabian Krautwald (University College London), Benjamin Kirby (University of Bayreuth), Salvatory Nyanto (University of Dar es Salaam).

'Between Dhows and Dukas: racial capitalism, religion, and belonging in the Western Indian Ocean 1884-1961'

This interdisciplinary workshop at the University of Dar es Salaam will explore histories of capitalism, religion, and belonging in the western Indian Ocean, yielding insights into the critical history of globalization, racial disparities, and legacies of colonialism. In the western Indian Ocean, one of the centres of premodern globalisation, British and German colonialism transformed long-standing ties of commerce and belonging through the assertion of colonial sovereignty, forcing individuals to navigate plural landscapes of power. Our workshop will bring together junior and senior scholars as well as postgraduate students from East Africa, Germany, and the United Kingdom to explore the resulting transformations of belonging among diasporic, racial, and religious communities in what is today Tanzania, which have been a frontier for re-thinking belonging beyond the nation state and across imperial boundaries. The two-day meeting will give participants the opportunity to present early works-in-progress of their new, major research projects.

Fabian Krautwald (University College London), Cicek Ilengiz (Forum Transregionale Studien, Berlin), Tristan Burke (Bangor University), Megan Maruschke (Leipzig University), Bhawani Buswala (University of Oxford).

'Sovereignty beyond the state – belonging, community, and power in interdisciplinary perspective'

This interdisciplinary workshop will discuss the nature of sovereignty and belonging beyond the traditional, Eurocentric conception of sovereignty as supreme power in a given territory. Based on this definition, state sovereignty is still often seen as a if not the central determinant of individual belonging. However, while the resulting scholarship has contributed to our understanding of the modern state, it has struggled to accurately represent the persistence of competing claims to and practices of sovereignty by individuals, communities, and organizations in relation to state power across the world. Participants will explore this issue focusing on contests over memories of colonialism, extraterritoriality and empire, the relationship between sovereignty and heritage, practices of bureaucratic power, and representations of sovereignty in art. The workshop will bring together junior scholars ranging from anthropologists and historians to literary scholars to think through the theoretical challenge of thinking sovereignty beyond the state.

Joseph Powell (University of Cambridge), Ayesha Fuentes (University of Cambridge), Ikechukwu Ejekwumadu (University of Tuebingen).

'African identities, the artefacts of Empire and the claims of belonging in European sporting spaces'

Objects, images and other symbolisms of national representation have been powerful signifiers irrespective of where they are found - from battlefields to sports arenas. African footballers in Europe have been very notable in this regard, donning wristbands in national colours, flying national flags or playing African genres of music in dressing rooms. Several questions arise. Firstly, how do such symbols and symbolisms originating in Empire become instruments in the claim to freedom? Second, what does the re-emergence of these flags and other symbolisms mean for our understanding of nationhood and collective identity of the African diaspora in Europe?

Néhémie Strupler, (University of Durham), Almuth Ebke (University of Mannheim), Matteo Baraldo (University of Essex), Çiçek İlengiz (Forum Transregionale Studien)

'Reproducing the past: data, empire, and the contested futures of heritage'

Our workshop explores how digital data, including digitised artefacts, databases, and metadata, influences contemporary debates on heritage and imperial legacies in Britain. While public attention often focuses on visible symbols like statues and museum collections, this initiative highlights the underexamined role of data in shaping narratives of identity, memory, and justice. By bringing together scholars and heritage professionals, the event aims to critically assess how data practices affect heritage interpretation and contribute to internal decolonisation. Follow-up museum visits will deepen engagement and support the development of future collaborative research on heritage, data, and post-imperial responsibilities.

Néhémie Strupler (University of Durham), Çiçek İlengiz (Forum Transregionale Studien).

'Digging the Orient, silencing belonging'

This project examines the often-overlooked contributions of local workers who carry out the physical labor of archaeological excavations. Emerging from a colonial history that separated intellectual and material ownership, archaeology has long marginalized these workers' roles. Focusing on Boğazköy/Hattusa, one of the world's oldest continuously active excavation sites, this study combines ethnographic interviews and archival research to document workers' lives, perspectives, and expertise. By highlighting their agency and knowledge, the project calls for a more inclusive and equitable approach to heritage-making, recognizing that the past belongs not only to scientists but also to those who unearth it.

Kingsley Ugwuanyi (SOAS University of London), Ikechukwu Ejekwumadu (University of Tuebingen).

'Performing diasporic belonging: West African migrants’ experiences in Europe'

This proposed symposium at SOAS University of London will bring together an interdisciplinary cohort of early career researchers examining belonging among West African migrants in Europe. Drawing from sociolinguistics, sport sociology, literature, music, heritage, and visual culture, the event investigates how West African diasporic identities are represented, performed, and negotiated across expressive and institutional domains. Centring on the UK and Germany, Europe’s main destinations for West African migrants, the symposium will provide a platform for comparative reflection on the politics, challenges, and aesthetics of belonging. Structured as a roundtable with pre-circulated papers, the symposium will promote critical dialogue and thematic synthesis across disciplines. Hosted in hybrid format, it will facilitate accessibility and sustainability. Ultimately, this collaboration seeks to strengthen UK-Germany scholarly exchange while generating new conversations on African diasporic belonging and demonstrating inclusive models of academic partnership and knowledge production.

Elena Violaris (University of Oxford), Joanne Brueton (University of London Institute in Paris), Almuth Ebke (University of Mannheim).

'Articulating the hyphen: narratives of belonging and the politics of multiculturalism'

This project explores the development and use of hyphenated identities across Britain and France from the 1990s onwards. From Black-British to Franco-Maghrebi, we investigate narrations of identity across nations and cultures. Our methods are multidisciplinary: we consider how literary and oral sources negotiate the ambivalence of belonging; how postcolonial theory ​identifies the possibilities of aphasia, amnesia and hybridity in hyphenated identities; and how historical perspectives reveal shifting political and public discourses on socio-cultural belonging. To investigate these themes, we will host a hyphenated pairing of symposia in two parts: one in Oxford, one in Paris. The symposia will bring together scholars working across history, literary studies and postcolonial studies to examine the cultural and political significance of hyphenated identities in Britain and France from the 1990s onwards, resulting in an open-access special issue with Modern Languages Open.

Cathy Wilcock (University of Manchester), Mariia Lupak (University of Cambridge) , Hanna Büdenbender (Saarland University).

'Art, resistance and solidarities in contested borderlands: poetry, music and photography in global contexts'

We propose to run a two-day workshop on the theme of art, resistance and solidarities. This interdisciplinary event will bring together discussions of poetry, music and photography which will speak to debates about the extent to which art can be a vector of resistance and a venue for solidarity. We situate these questions in the context of violent displacement, authoritarian control and neo-colonial imperialism where the need to resist and to form solidarities are urgently felt. This event will build on productive discussions which took place in the Working Paper session at the BA/AvH 6th UK-German Frontiers of Humanities Symposium on ‘Belonging’. The event will allow the three applicants to continue the conversations which began at the symposium, share them with a broader audience, and plan future collaborations on our common themes.

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Please note: Awards are arranged alphabetically by surname of the grant recipient. The institution is that given at the time of application.