welcome
Here you can find some information about me, my phd-project and my publications - in English.
about me
My name is Henriette, i am 32 years old, i live in the countryside near Munich, Germany, with my husband and our two sons.
I have studied 'European Studies' at University Passau (Bachelor) and sociology and political science respectively 'conflicts in politics and society' at University Augsburg. Currently, I’m pursuing my PhD and working on my dissertation. As a white, educated woman and mother, I recognize the privileges I hold as well as the structural discrimination that comes with this position.
I have been to Tanzania several times, and i volunteer at the organization Tanzania-Network as a chair woman, board member and as editor of HABARI-magazine. I founded Augsburg Postkolonial and worked as a one-world- networker at "Werkstatt Solidarische Welt e.V." (Augsburg) for two years..
I love coffee and can't say no to sweets. I play board games and do yoga. 2020 I started learning Kiswahili.
See more here:
- Villigst - evangelisches Studienwerk (scholarship)
- Graduiertenschule für Geistes- und Sozialwissenschaften (member)
- Netzwerk Wissenssoziologische Diskursforschung (member)
- Tanzania-Network (board member)
- ResearchGate (profile)
- LinkedIn (profile)
about my PhD-project
Sociology of Knowledge Approach to Discourse (SKAD) on (Heritage) Tourism in Tanzania with a Focus on Memory Policies regarding German Colonial History
Tanzania was part of the colony "German East Africa" from 1885 to 1918. Violence, illegitimate land grabbing, civilizing mission, exploitative politics as well as interference in established socio-cultural social systems have left their traces in Tanzania as well as in Germany: colonial heritage consists today of infrastructures, economic-neocolonial dependencies, stereotypes and prejudices, global political power (im)equalities, hero narratives, traumatic family stories, looted artworks or post-colonial knowledge structures. Tanzania is also a popular vacation destination. During a trip to Tanzania, the intertwined collectives of Germany and Tanzania encounter each other, embedded in ambivalent, contradictory, heterogeneous discourses and debates about memory of the shared colonial heritage.
This PhD project will empirically investigate the discursive negotiations on how to deal with colonial heritage in Tanzania - in the (cultural and heritage) tourism sector.
What are the attitudes of the different stakeholders towards transnational memory work and tourism? Is - and if so how, where and why - the German-Tanzanian colonial history in Tanzania received, reflected, remembered and/or used for tourism? And which patterns of argumentation and conflicts of interpretation result from this?
The empirical work follows the research program of the Sociology of Knowledge Approach to Discourse (Reiner Keller) which investigates constructions of reality on the level of institutional actors as well as traces and contextualizes interpretations and knowledge politics. Memory policies of forgetting, ignoring, capitalizing, commemorating or reinterpretation as well as the debate about the appropriate use of colonial history in the field of tourism will be focused. In a combination of text analysis, participatory observation and guideline based expert interviews this research will be conducted with qualitative methods of social science.
publications and lectures
Most of my publications and lectures/workshops are in German. However, the Decolonial Travel Guide Tanzania (2025) is in English as well as my thesis will be ;) Please feel free to to reach out to me! I’m available for workshops on critical tourism, preparing your travels, moderating partnership conferences, or giving talks on colonial heritage tourism in Tanzania.
Herzensprojekt: Dekolonialer Reiseführer Tansania
September 2025: I am so proud of myself. I can hardly believe it. My passion project, a decolonial travel guide for Tanzania, has come true. With 20 authors from Tanzania and Germany presenting colonial traces in Tanzania and reflecting on inequalities in tourism, this book and website contribute to a critical discourse on tourism and decolonization.
This idea has been maturing in my mind since my trip to Tanzania in 2023/2024 for my phd project on colonial heritage tourism. Because after all, who is going to read my sociological doctoral thesis? I believe this knowledge should be accessible to everyone. And I didn't want to write a book like this alone. And it shouldn't only be in German but Swahili and English as well. So I drafted a project plan, applied for funding, consulted various experts, wrote articles, edited some, searched for images, had the texts translated, hired a graphic designer, worked together with a layout artist to make the book beautiful, and created the website. And I did all this while the baby was asleep or in the evenings with a cup of coffee at my desk surrounded by moving boxes because i recently shifted from Munich to the country side. What a wild time the last nine months have been. I guess it was worth the hustle.
contact me
I will be glad to hear your comments or questions. Please send me a message using the form.