Katharina A. Oke

Katharina A. Oke is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Global Fellow at the University of Graz, Austria and the University of Ibadan, Nigeria. She studied Journalism and African Studies in Vienna and obtained her PhD in History from the University of Oxford. Before coming to Graz as a University Assistant (post-doc), she was as a Lecturer in Modern African History at King’s College, London.

The Marie Curie project that brings Katharina to Leiden is entitled “A history of ‘Making Things’ in West Africa, 1920-1980: creating, meaning making, and experience”. It studies artisans and craftspeople in Accra and Lagos, in particular bakers and goldsmiths. This project focuses on ‘making’ as a way of thinking through the relationship between materials, knowledge, people and productive processes. It is interested in meaning making and creating, in people’s engagements with various technologies, and studying artisanal and craft practices through the lens of entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial practices. As a self-financed visiting fellow at the ASCL, Katharina will focus in particular on the these entrepreneurial perspectives on artisanal labour and crafts practices.