Research Projects
Numerous research projects at the Global South Studies Center (GSSC) are dedicated to the interdisciplinary analysis of social, economic, and ecological transformations in the Global South. At their core are questions of global inequality, dynamics of societal change, and complex human–environment relations.
The Center’s research is characterized by close collaboration across disciplines and strong international partnerships. Its aim is to systematically examine global interconnections and to develop nuanced, academically grounded perspectives on key challenges such as sustainable development, social justice, and structural transformation.
Past Research Projects
| CRC228 II: Future Rural Africa, II Phase | Micheal Bollig, Peter Dannenberg, Javier Revilla-Diez, Clemens Greiner, Thomas Widlok, Martin Zillinger, Ulrike Lindner | DFG | 2022-2025 |
| The Production and Reproduction of Social Inequalities: Global Contexts and Concepts of Labor Exploitation | Michaela Pelican, Ulrike Lindner | VolkswagenStiftung | 2020-2025 |
| Management of multiple risks of extreme events in fast growing (mega)cities of Myanmar | Frauke Kraas | BMBF | 2017-2025 |
| Comicforschung.nrw | Stephan Packard | NRW Wissenschaftsministerium (MKW) und Digitaler Hochschule in NRW (DH.NRW) | 2023-2025 |
| Kolonialismus ohne Kolonien –Der rheinische Kolonialrevisionismus in Weimarer Republik und NS-Zeit | Ulrike Lindner | Ministeriums für Kultur und WIssenschaften NRW | 2024-2025 |
| Rising sea and sinking land: Determining spatially resolved subsidence rates for the Ayeyarwady Delta (Myanmar) and developing strategic adaptation scenarios for the increased risk of flooding | Dominik Brill, Helmut Brückner, Frauke Kraas | DFG | 2024-2025 |
| The subaltern elites of the late Old Kingdom and early First Intermediate Period in the funerary landscape of Zawyet Sultan | Richard Bussmann | DFG | 2023-2025 |
| NamTip - Eine namibische Perspektive auf Desertifikationskipppunkte im Kontext des Klimawandels | Diego Menestrey Schwieger | BMBF | 2023-2025 |
| Integration und Prekarisierung- Beschäftigungsmöglichkeiten im Onlinehandel nach der Pandemie | Peter Dannenberg | Rheinenergie Stiftung | 2023-2025 |
| Kooperationsprojekt des Instituts für Altertumskunde mit dem Schokoladenmuseum Köln | Anja Bettenworth | Gateway ESC | 2023-2025 |
| Migrant understandings of health and their health-related practices in diverse neighbourhoods | Carsten Butsch, Frauke Kraas | DFG | 2023-2025 |
| Zukunft im ländlichen Afrika: Zukunft-Machen und sozial-ökologische Transformation Teilprojekt: Sozioökonomische Auswirkungen von Wachstumskorridoren | Javier Revilla Diez, Peter Dannenberg | DFG | 2022-2025 |
| Combined Farm & Household Survey | Peter Dannenberg | DFG | 2022-2025 |
| GSSP Graduate Scholarship Programme for foreign PhD students | Boris Braun | DAAD | 2021-2025 |
| Thinking at the Margins: Contemporary Literature and Arts in Brazil | Peter W. Schulze | Fritz-Thyssen Foundation | 2021-2025 |
| Future in Chains | Peter Dannenberg | DFG | 2018-2025 |
| The Uruguayan delegation demonstrated the benevolence and advanced character of its legislation”: A global history of labor policies in Uruguay (1903–1942) | Teresa Huhle | Feodor Lynen-Forschungsstipendium der Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung | 2023-2024 |
| Language and Contingency | Anne Storch | DFG (Leibniz-Preis) | 2022-2024 |
| Opaque messages | Anne Storch | DFG (Leibniz-Preis) | 2021-2024 |
| „gelB“: Unwahrscheinliche Bildungskarrieren – Der Beitrag der Kinder- und Jugendhilfe zu gelingender Bildung unter Bedingung von besonderer Benachteiligung | Marcus Gamper | BMBF | 2021-2024 |
| INGENIoS: Indo-German Network Interaction of Scientists | Karl Schneider, Boris Braun, Michael Bollig, Peter Dannenberg, et al. | DAAD | 2020-2024 |
| Driving factors for and societal effects of sea-level rise and delta flooding in the Ayeyarwady Delta (Myanmar) - Lessons from the past for disaster governance in the future | Frauke Kraas | DFG | 2019-2024 |
| Carbon Contradictions | Charlotte Bruckermann | BMBF | 2018-2024 |
| Documenting theories and practices of language socialization in the context of endangerment: A pilot study on Yurakaré. | Sonja Gipper | ELDP (Endangered Languages Documentation Programme) | 2024 |
| Documenting theories and practices of language socialization in the context of endangerment: A pilot study on Yurakaré | Sonja Gipper | ELDP (Endangered Languages Documentation Programme) | 2024 |
| Das Abenteuer als populärer Nomade. Transformationen von Abenteuererzählungen in Comics | Stephan Packard | DFG | 2021-2024 |
| MIGKNOW: Migrating Knowledge: The Global Networks of German Medic, Botanist and Migration Commissioner Wilhelm Hillebrand in Hawai’I (1821-1896 | Dr. Nicholas Miller and Prof. Dr. Ulrike Lindner | Marie-Curie Action | 2021-2023 |
| Socialising the landscape in the early ancient Egyptian state: the cemetery of the early Old Kingdom at Zawyet Sultan | Richard Bussmann | DFG | 2020-2023 |
| ForUm for Urban Future in Southeast Asia | Frauke Kraas | DAAD | 2020-2023 |
| Urbanisation and Migration in Myanmar | Frauke Kraas | DAAD | 2020-2023 |
| SFB 1187 „Medien der Kooperation“ Teilprojekt B04 „Digitale Öffentlichkeiten und gesellschaftliche Transformation im Maghreb“ | Martin Zillinger | DFG | 2020-2023 |
| Salafiyya leben. Religiöse Ideale und muslimische Praxis in der postmigrantischen Gesellschaft | Martin Zillinger, Sabine Damir-Geilsdorf | Ministerium für Kultur und Wissenschaft des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen | 2020-2023 |
| Recalibrating Afrikanistik | Anne Storch | Volkswagen Foundation | 2019-2023 |
| Indo-German Partnerships (IGP)- Environmental Interactions in Focus | Peter Dannenberg | DAAD | 2019-2023 |
| Museum of the Commons | Charlotte Bruckermann | Erich Auerbach Institute for Advanced Studies | 2023 |
| Surpassing the borders between domesticated and wild plants: Biology and Politics of Nutrition. | Peter Dannenberg, Boris Braun, Stanislav Kopriva | UoC Forum | 2021-2022 |
| Conversational priming in language change | Eugen Hill, Sonja Gipper & Martin Becker | UoC Forum | 2021-2022 |
| Digital database of the early inscriptions of Egypt | Richard Bussmann | DFG | 2020-2022 |
| Eine Zukunft ohne Wald? Future-Making, Umweltwandel und sozio-ökonomische Transformationsprozesse in Ost-Kalimantan, Indonesien | Michaela Haug | DFG | 2020-2022 |
| Between Enclaves and Integration - Chinese and African Special Economic Zones in Sub-Saharan Africa | Peter Dannenberg | DFG | 2019-2022 |
| Dualreg: Lokal verankert – weltweit vernetzt: Mexiko – Gelingensbedingungen für Berufsbildungstransfer und duale Praktiken | Martina Fuchs | BMBF | 2019-2022 |
| Die Qualität von Quantität: Ethnographische und experimentell-ökonomische Untersuchung über den Einfluss soziokultureller Faktoren auf die kognitive Wahrnehmung und Einordnung von Geldmengen in Westkenia | Mario Schmidt | DFG | 2019-2022 |
| Future in Chains: Socio Economic Impacts of Growth Corridors Teilprojekt im SFB 228 Future Rural Africa: Future-making and social-ecological transformation | Peter Dannenberg, Revilla Diez | DFG | 2018-2022 |
| Bad language: noises, silences, ruptures | Anne Storch | DFG (Leibniz-Preis) | 2017-2022 |
| DELTA – Volatile Waters and the Hydrosocial Anthropocene in Major River Deltas | Franz Krause | DFG (Emmy Noether Program) | 2016-2022 |
| Language and Tourism | Anne Storch | DFG (Leibniz-Preis) | 2016-2022 |
| EnerAct Evaluation | Boris Braun | Mercator Stiftung | 2020-2021 |
| Bestandsanalyse zur Situation der Wochenmärkte in Köln | Peter Dannenberg, Alexander Follmann | Stadt Köln | 2020-2021 |
| The new silk road as ‘Beltscapes´: Duisburg, Darwin and the cities in between | Peter Dannenberg | DAAD | 2020-2021 |
| Herrenhausen Symposium: North and South Forms of Inequality Within International Politics of Scientific Production | Barbara Potthast | VolkswagenStiftung | 2019-2021 |
| The Social Credit System as a Challenge for Law and Courts in China | Björn Ahl | Thyssen Foundation | 2019-2021 |
| Foreignization of Agricultural Land in Cotacachi, Ecuador | Peter Dannenberg | DAAD | 2019-2021 |
| Decisions for adaptive pathway design and the Integrative Development, Evaluation and Governance of Flood Risk Reduction Measures in Transforming Urban-Rural-Systems (DECIDER) | Javier Revilla-Diez | BMBF | 2019-2021 |
| Humboldt-Fello-Postdoc (PhD Sydney) | Susanne Brandtstädter | Alexander von Humboldt Stiftung | 2019-2021 |
| CRC228: Future Rural Africa | Micheal Bollig, Peter Dannenberg, Javier Revilla-Diez, Clemens Greiner, Thomas Widlok, Martin Zillinger | DFG | 2018-2021 |
| C06 “Testing Future: Cross-Scalar Linkages as Coping Strategies for Socioeconomic Exclusion” (CRC 228, Future Rural Africa) | Mario Schmidt, Martin Zillinger | DFG | 2018-2021 |
| H2O – Livelihoods in Urban Fringe Areas | Carsten Butsch | Belmont/BMBF | 2018-2021 |
| Chinese Fundamental Rights Jurisprudence: Constitutional Development under One-Party Rule | Björn Ahl | Thyssen Foundation | 2017-2021 |
| Reading Global: Constructions of World Literature and Latin America | Gesine Müller | ERC Consolidator Grant | 2015-2021 |
| Anthropological Models: A Reconstruction of the First African Frontier | Michael Bollig, Thomas Widlok | DFG | 2013-2021 |
| Making the Anthropology of Economy Global | Charlotte Bruckermann | European Association of Social Anthropology and University of St Gallen | 2021 |
| Kooperation mit der University of Western Cape | Martin Zillinger, Ciraj Rassol, Anna Brus, Michi Knecht | DAAD | 2021 |
| Scientific Network: Spaces of Global Production: The Territorial Dimensions of Global Production Networks and World City Networks | Peter Dannenberg, Jana Kleibert, Sabine Dörry, Alexander Follmann, et al. | DFG | 2018-2020 |
| Chinese Fundamental Rights Jurisprudence: Constitutional Development under One-Party Rule | Björn Ahl | Thyssen Foundation | 2017-2020 |
| SFB1252 C03 Reference management in bilingual narratives | Christiane Bongartz | DFG | 2017-2020 |
| SFB1252 Inf/3: Data, Design and Sustainability | Nikolaus P. Himmelmann | DFG | 2017-2020 |
| SFB1252 B05: Prominence related structures in Austronesian symmetrical voice languages | Nikolaus P. Himmelmann | DFG | 2017-2020 |
| SFB1252 B02: Split ergativity in Tima | Gerrit J. Dimmendaal | DFG | 2017-2020 |
| Spektren des salafitischen Diskurses in NRW – Kontroversen, Strategien, Machtverschiebungen | Sabine Damir-Geilsdorf | Ministerium für Innovation, Wissenschaft und Forschung NRW | 2017-2020 |
| SFB1252 A03: Prosodic prominence in cross-linguistic perspective | Nikolaus P. Himmelmann | DFG | 2017-2020 |
| Economic enterprises and their critics: Efforts to mitigate the negative impact of large-scale agricultural investments in Africa | Tijo Salverda | DFG | 2017-2020 |
| Tourism, Language and Migration in Mallorca | Anne Storch | DFG (Leibniz-Preis) | 2016-2020 |
| Digitale Öffentlichkeiten und gesellschaftliche Transformation im Maghreb | Martin Zillinger | DFG | 2016-2020 |
| DAAD Thematic Network: Remapping the Global South | Barbara Potthast | DAAD | 2015-2020 |
| KA3 - Kölner Zentrum Analyse und Archivierung von AV-Daten. Teilprojekt: Datenplattformen für audiovisuelle Daten und Dokumente | Nikolaus P. Himmelmann | BMBF | 2015-2020 |
| Evaluation des Projekts Stadtteileltern – Integration von langzeitarbeitslosen Migrant*innen | Markus Gamper | Lernende Regionen Köln | 2020 |
| Konstruktionsprozesse des Ethnischen in Michoacán, Mexiko und Cajamarca, Peru. Translokale Positionierungen indigener Migrant_innen unter der Kolonialherrschaft (Processes of construction of ‚the Ethnic‘ in Michoacan, Mexico, and Cajamarca, Peru. Translocational positionalities of indigenous migrants under colonial rule) | Sarah Albiez-Wieck | DFG | 2016-2019 |
| Standards 2.0. Livelihoods of Indian smallholder farmers between global and domestic value chains for organic and fair trade agri-food products | Amelie Bernzen | DFG | 2016-2019 |
| SeaLevel TRANSOCAP - Building adaptive capacity through translocal social capital. Sea level rise and resilience of coastal communities and households in Indonesia | Boris Braun | DFG (SPP 1889) | 2016-2019 |
| Augustinus-Darstellungen in Nordafrika als Formen spätantiker und postkolonialer Wissensproduktion | Anja Bettenworth | DFG | 2016-2019 |
| Variation und Spracheinstellungen im Yurakaré: Auf dem Weg zu einer sprachvergleichenden Perspektive | Sonja Gipper | DFG | 2016-2019 |
| Chinese immigration law and policy: perspectives of lawmakers, administrators and immigrants | Björn Ahl, Michaela Pelican | DFG | 2015-2019 |
| Herrenhausen Conference: World Editors. Dynamics of Global Publishing and the Latin American Case between the Archive and the Digital Age | Gesine Müller | VW Foundation | July 2019 |
| Transnationales Handeln indischer Migranten in Deutschland | Carsten Butsch | DFG | 2015-2018 |
| Graffiti of young Cairene artists as a mirror of political and social transformations: An analysis of iconographic dynamics and forms of self-positioning | Sabine Damir-Geilsdorf | DFG | 2015-2018 |
| Gateway Cities und ihr Hinterland: Weltstädte des Globalen Südens als Knoten in globalen Güterketten | Javier Revilla-Diez | DFG | 2015-2018 |
| DOBES (Dokumentation bedrohter Sprachen): Articulation Speed Variation Cross-Linguistically | Nikolaus P. Himmelmann | VW Foundation | 2015-2018 |
| ARCHIV.BR - Brasilianische Archive in deutscher Sprache | Gesine Müller | Deutsches Literatur Archiv Marbach, Instituto Martius-Staden, Sao Paulo, Instituto Cultural Judaico Marc Chagall, Porto Alegre | 2015-2018 |
| Naturwissenschaftliche Konzepte im Werk Émile Durkheims und Marcel Mauss‘ – Von der Gesellschaft als physiologisch-biologischen Organismus zum Sozialen als Milieu physikalisch-chemischer Kräfte | Mario Schmidt | Gerda Henkel Stiftung | 2017-2018 |
| “Wetlands in East Africa - Reconciling future food production with environmental protection”, work package A3 “Social Economic Evaluation” | Clemens Greiner | GlobE consortium (BMBF) | 2013-2018 |
| Globale Strategien und lokale Formen der technischen Aus- und Fortbildung in deutschen multinationalen Unternehmen | Martina Fuchs | DFG | 2015-2017 |
| Konversationsstrategien im Achooli (Uganda) | Gerrit J. Dimmendaal | DFG | 2014-2017 |
| REAL - Resilience and Adaptation in East African Landscape | Michael Bollig | Marie Curie Innovative Training Network (EU) | 2013-2017 |
| Internationale Studien- und Ausbildungspartnerschaften (ISAP): Mexico | Barbara Potthast | DAAD | 2007-2017 |
| Internationale Studien- und Ausbildungspartnerschaften (ISAP): Argentina | Barbara Potthast | DAAD | 2003-2017 |
| Urbane Systeme in Südostasien | Frauke Kraas | DAAD | 2015-2016 |
| Struggling for Social Justice. Concepts, agencies and networks from a cross-cultural perspective | Sabine Damir-Geilsdorf | DAAD Hochschuldialog | 2014-2016 |
| DOBES (Dokumentation bedrohter Sprachen): Language, Music and Place in Dél__n_, Northwest Territories, Canada | Nikolaus P. Himmelmann, Thomas Widlok | VW Foundation | 2014-2016 |
| GreenRegio – Green building in regional strategies for sustainability: multi-actor governance and innovative building technologies in Europe, Australia and Canada | Boris Braun | FNR/DFG | 2013-2016 |
| Information and communication technology in small scale business based agricultural value chains (Informations- und Kommunikationstechnologien in kleinbetriebsbasierten landwirtschaflichen Wertschöpfungsketten in Sub-Sahara Afrika - Beispiele aus dem kenianischen und tansanischen Gartenbau) | Peter Dannenberg | DFG | 2014-2016 |
| CLARIN-D: Linguistic Fieldwork, Anthropology, Language Typology | Nikolaus P. Himmelmann | BMBF | 2014-2016 |
| Economic and social drivers of land use change in coastal Bangladesh | Boris Braun | DFG | 2013-2016 |
| ValueSEC Value Chain Development for Food Security in the Context of Climate Change – A contribution to strengthening capacity in higher education in Eastern Africa | Peter Dannenberg | ACP-EU Co-operation programme in higher education EDULINK II | 2013-2016 |
| Deutungsmuster von Führungskräften bei Übernahmen und Beteiligungen durch ausländische Investoren, speziell Investoren aus China und Indien | Martina Fuchs | DFG | 2013-2016 |
| Translocal relations and the reorganization of socio-ecological systems in Kenya and South Africa | Clemens Greiner | DFG | 2013-2016 |
| DOBES (Dokumentation bedrohter Sprachen) Roots and ruins: A project to document the Aru languages | Nikolaus P. Himmelmann | VW Foundation | 2012-2016 |
| DOBES (Dokumentation bedrohter Sprachen): Documentation Summits in the Central Mountains of Papua | Nikolaus P. Himmelmann | VW Foundation | 2011-2016 |
| Resilience, Collapse and Reorganisation in the Social-Ecological Systems of Southern and Eastern African Savannahs | Michael Bollig | DFG | 2010-2016 |
| Lokale Institutionen in globalisierten Gesellschaften (LINGS) | Michael Bollig | DFG | 2010-2016 |
| Kompetenznetz Lateinamerika – Ethnizität. Teilprojekte: Aushandlung von Belonging und Citizenship unter Berücksichtigung sozialer Kategorisierungen | Barbara Potthast | BMBF | 2010-2016 |
| Mediality and local creativity in the negotiation of social-ecological resilience, collapse and reorganisation (RCR) | Dorothea Schulz | DFG | 2010-2016 |
| Wirtschaftsgeographische Potentialanalyse ausgewählter Regionalstädte in Myanmar | Frauke Kraas | BMZ | 2013-2015 |
| (Disasters Jakarta) Die ersten 72 Stunden überleben - Megaurbane disaster response in Zeiträumen begrenzter Staatlichkeit | Frauke Kraas | DFG | 2013-2015 |
| (Urban Heritage Delhi) Städtisches Kulturerbe und Cultural Governance in der südasiatischen Megastadt Delhi/Indien | Frauke Kraas | DFG | 2013-2015 |
| Urbanes Kulturerbe von Yangon/Myanmar: Aushandlungsprozesse im Transformationsprozess | Frauke Kraas | DFG | 2013-2015 |
| Das Städtesystem von Myanmar im Transformationsprozess: Sozio-ökonomische Bestandsanalyse der Städte Myanmars | Frauke Kraas | DFG | 2012-2015 |
| Konzeption, Implementierung u. Evaluation einer Gesundheitsberichterstattung im urbanen Indien am Beispiel der indischen Megastadt Pune (Pune Transfer) | Frauke Kraas | DFG | 2012-2015 |
| Ambivalente Bilder: Fotos und Bildpostkarten aus Südamerika im Deutschen Reich, ca. 1880-1930 | Barbara Potthast | DFG | 2012-2015 |
| Re-Islamisation between state influences and gobal muslim networks (project within the Crossroads Asia Network) | Boris Braun | BMBF | 2011-2015 |
| Megastädte, Patterns of migrant community formation. China's megaurban Pearl River Delta (PRD) | Frauke Kraas | DFG SPP3 | 2011-2015 |
| SPP3 Koordinationsarbeiten für SPP Megastädte: Informelle Dynamik des Globalen Wandels | Frauke Kraas | DFG SPP3 | 2011-2015 |
| Impact of shocks on regional economic development and local capacity building in Thailand and Vietnam | Javier Revilla-Diez | DFG | 2011-2014 |
| Fading Delimitations: Language, Culture and Ethno-Linguistics of the Maha in Northeast Nigeria | Anne Storch | DFG | 2010-2015 |
| Adaptation and Creativity in Africa – Technologies and Significations in the Production of Order and Disorder | Michael Bollig | DFG | 2010-2015 |
| Regional agility in the wake of crisis: Towards a new growth model in the Greater Pearl River Delta? | Javier Revilla-Diez | DFG, SPP | 2011-2014 |
| Sharing KnowledgE Assets: InteRegionally Cohesive NeigHborhoods (SEARCH) | Javier Revilla-Diez | EU Seventh Framework | 2011-2014 |
| Human Mobilitiy, Networks and Institutions in the Management of Natural Resources in Contemporary Africa | Michael Bollig | VW Foundation | 2008-2014 |
| Integration, Exklusion, Exzeption: Nationalidentitätsdiskurse gesellschaftliches Selbstverständnis in Chile und Argentinien (1780-1950) | Barbara Potthast | DFG | 2009-2013 |