
Katrin Sowa, M.A.
Short Biography
since April 2020: Assistant Professorship at the Institute for Cultural and Social Anthropology, University of Cologne, Co-supervising the M.A. program "Culture and Environment in Africa"
2018-2019: fieldwork stay in Kenya, affiliation to Kenyatta University, Nairobi
2017-2020: EUmanities Research Fellow (a.r.t.e.s. Graduate School of the Humanities, Cologne)
2014: Research and Study at the Institute of Peace and Strategic Studies, Gulu University (Uganda)
July 2016: Award of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities, Cologne for the M.A. Thesis
2013-2016: M.A. Anthropology at the University of Cologne
2009-2012: B.A. Sociology, Anthropology & African Studies at the Johannes-Gutenberg University, Mainz
Thematic Interests and Regional Focus
Border Studies, Migration, Bureaucracy, Globalization, Political Anthropology.
East Africa.
Research Projects
Doing Border, Making Nation. Infrastructural Changes and Enforcement Practices at Kenyan Border Posts (Dissertation Project supervised by Prof. Michael Bollig)
Publications
2020. Cultural Profiling During Passport Control: Ugandan Migration Officers’ Informal Selection Practices. Sociologus: Journal of Social Anthropology vol 70, 1.
2017. Street-Level Bureaucrats and Passport Networking: Practices of Immigration Law Enforcement in Northern Uganda. Cologne African Studies Centre: Culture and Environment in Africa Series, Issue 10.
Presentations
2019. Enforcing the "Smooth Flow": Challenges of New Mobility Infrastructures at Kenyan Borders. Presentation at the European Conference on African Studies in Edinburgh.
2017. “When my Antennas come out”: Practices of Immigration Law Enforcement in Northern Uganda - Perspectives from the Global South. Presentation at the Tensions of Europe Conference in Athens.
2017. Passkontrolle als Kategorisierungsarbeit: Zur Umsetzung von Migrationsgesetzen in Norduganda. Presentation at the German Anthropological Association Conference in Berlin.