News

PolMig Fieldwork Diaries

Returning from fieldwork across Africa, PolMig team members share their reflections from the first fieldwork phase. Across five episodes, every team member speaks on their personal experience by sharing their most unexpected takeaway, an amusing anecdote and by summarizing their fieldwork in three words.

PolMig Project Team at the GAS/SSEA & VAD Conference in Basel

From 26 to 28 August 2026, the Swiss Society for African Studies (SGAS/SSEA) and the Association for African Studies in Germany (VAD) held their joint biennial conference in Basel, Switzerland. The PolMig project team, represented by Franzisca Zanker, Jamila Hamidu, Edwin Mutyenyoka, and Sophia Stille, made a strong contribution to the programme, reflecting the project’s commitment to advancing research on migrant political agency from an Afrocentric perspective.

Professor Mary B. Setrana visits PolMig and ABI from the University of Ghana

Professor Mary B. Setrana, Director of the Centre for Migration Studies at the University of Ghana, has spent the month of August with PolMig at the Arnold Bergstraesser Institute and ACT in Freiburg as an alumna of the Merian Institute for Advanced Studies in Africa (MIASA).

Franzisca Zanker: ERC Portraits

The German National Contact Point for the European Research Council (NKS ERC), part of the EU office of the German Ministry of Research, has featured PolMig Principal Investigator Dr. Franzisca Zanker in its ongoing series of ERC grantee portraits.
In the interview Franzisca highlights how PolMig puts an Africa-centred lens on questions of political agency, belonging, and migration, aiming to shift a field that has long been dominated by Eurocentric frameworks. Hosted at the Arnold Bergstraesser Institute at the University of Freiburg, the project is funded through an ERC Starting Grant (2024).

Participation in Workshop on Contextual Ethics and Power Relations in Leuven

Sophia Stille and Edwin Mutyenyoka were invited to participate in a workshop on Contextual Ethics and Power Relations: Rethinking Research Practices with Local Communities in May 2026 in Leuven, Belgium. This event convened researchers from multiple projects and partners and provided a safe space to collectively reflect on responsibility, power, equity and justice - beyond procedural formalities in research on/with people on the move.

PolMig in the field – insights from Malawi, Kenya, Liberia, and Ghana

The PolMig team has been conducting the first phase of fieldwork in Malawi, Kenya, Liberia, and Ghana, kicking off 2026 with new perspectives, enriching encounters and research data. Interviews were primarily conducted with migration and theatre experts in all four countries. Additionally, two pilot theatre workshops were carried out in Kenya (April 2026) and Ghana (May 2026).

PolMig at the Migration Policy Centre

PolMig’s principal investigator, Dr. Franzisca Zanker, presented the PolMig research project at the Migration Policy Centre Seminar Series, in Florence. In her talk, she explored and conceptualized one of PolMig‘s key themes: the political agency of migrants in Africa. A recording of the event is available on the MPC YouTube channel.

Participatory Research Methods Workshop

On the 27-28th November, we held a workshop on participatory research methods at the ABI aiming at learning about how such methods work in practice, in particular related to the theatre of the oppressed.

Successful Inaugural Meeting with Advisory Board

The PolMig project team is feeling invigorated following a highly successful inaugural meeting with the advisory board. The first annual advisory board meeting was dedicated in particular to joint reflections on topics related to questions of research ethics in preparation of our first fieldwork phase.

Summerschool in Basel: Honoring Mudimbe - Rethinking Research through African Thought

From 8-12 September PolMig’s PhD student Sophia Stille participated in the summer school of the Centre for African Studies (ZASB) at the University of Basel, Switzerland. The theme „Honoring Mudimbe: Rethinking Research through African Thought“ brought together seven PhD students from African and European universities to reflect on Valentin-Yves Mudimbe’s legacy and what it means for researchers in African Studies today.