Team > Eileen Jahn
Eileen Jahn
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
Epistemologies of the Global South
Scientific career
- Since 12/2020: Doctoral Fellow at the Chair of Epistemologies of the Global South
- 2018–2020: M.Sc. Social Sciences, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands Thesis: Guardians of Trust:
An Ethnographic Account on Mistrust and Trust in Democratization (thesis research in South Africa)
- 2016–2018: B.A. Cultural Studies / Art-Media-Aesthetic Education, University of Bremen, Germany
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
Epistemologies of the Global South
Research areas and interests
- Central and Eastern Europe, South Africa, Southern Africa
- infrastructures, coloniality of power/knowledge, decolonization, social movements, anthropology of ethics, activism, critical urbanism
Current Project:
“Ugesi Ngowethu”: Politics of Access to Electricity Networks in South Africa
The Ph.D. project’s objective is to explore the politics of access to electricity networks as they are mobilized around struggles for electricity by undersupplied and precariously connected poor urban residents. The main focus rests on the experiences and knowledges employed by them through strategies of non-payment, self-connection, manipulation, and destruction of electricity infrastructures in the city of Johannesburg, South Africa. Thinking from and with the positions of people at the margins of the electricity network yields three key insights: (1) what electricity comes to signify for the residents; (2) what (un)fulfilled promises, expectations, and grievances residents assemble as parts of the demand for equitable, affordable and reliable access to electricity in South Africa; and (3) how current struggles and practices around the electricity undersupply relate to historical experiences and strategies resisting colonial power.
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
Epistemologies of the Global South
Publications
2025
Jahn, Eileen
How Hope Defi(n)es South Africa : Reimagining Hope in Johannesburg's Slovo Park Beyond State Fa ...
in The February Journal (2025) issue 4. - page 12-31
doi:10.60633/tfj.i04.100 ...
2024
Jahn, Eileen
Beyond Buzzwords: Unpacking Challenges in Activist Research
2024
https://nomadit.co.uk/conference/easa2024/paper/79 ...
European Association of Social Anthropologists (EASA): Doing and Undoing with Anthropology, Universidad de Barcelona, Spain
Jahn, Eileen
Beyond Power Lines: Electrification in Slovo Park and the Interplay of Promises and Fractures
2024
https://nomadit.co.uk/conference/easst-4s2024/pape ...
European Association for the Study of Science and Technology (EASST) and the Society for Social Studies of Science (4S): Making and Doing Transformations, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Jahn, Eileen
Unraveling Repair and Ownership in South Africa's Electricity System
2024
Melbourne Climate Futures (MCF) Seminar Series, University of Melbourne
Jahn, Eileen
Stromverweigerung
Klimageschichten : Planet. Krise. Fiction
Münster : edition assemblage, 2024. - page 71-74
rev.: Herms, Lydia, In: Deutschlandfunk Nova
2023
Jahn, Eileen
The Issue of Repair in Visions for Community-Owned Electricity Futures in South Africa
2023
Interdisciplinary Symposium: Decolonial Imaginaries in Literary and Urban Studies, University of Basel
2023
Jahn, Eileen
Why Cold Drinks Matter: Relieving Heat in South Africa
in Weather Matters
. November 2023
https://www.weathermatters.net/how-cold-drinks-mat ...
2022
Jahn, Eileen; Gupta, Pamila
Staying at the Margins : A Reflective Interview with Yongjia Liang
in American Anthropologist
08. Dezember 2022
https://www.americananthropologist.org/online-cont ...
2022
Rocha Lima, Pedro Silva; Jahn, Eileen; Gupta, Pamila; Papailias, Penelope
Call for Complaint. Part II: New Grammars for Worlding Anthropology
in American Anthropologist
22. August 2022
https://www.americananthropologist.org/online-cont ...
2022
Jahn, Eileen; Rocha Lima, Pedro Silva; Papailias, Penelope; Gupta, Pamila
Call for Complaint. Part I: Colonial Hauntings
in American Anthropologist
16. August 2022
https://www.americananthropologist.org/online-cont ...
2021
Papailias, Penelope; Gupta, Pamila; Jahn, Eileen; Rocha Lima, Pedro Silva
Against Gravity : A Worldly Interview with Gustavo Lins Ribeiro
in American Anthropologist
29. Juli 2021
https://www.americananthropologist.org/online-cont ...
Jahn, Eileen; Ndlovu, Patricia Pinky
The Prospects and Challenges of the Solidarity, Diversity and Inclusion Nexus
2021
Solidarity in Diversity : Highlighting Marginal Voices in Academia, Practice and Society, Melbourne, Australia (online)
Jahn, Eileen; Bastidas Meneses, Luis Bernardo
"The River is not to Blame" : Anthropomorphizing the agency of water and expanding solidarity
2021
Waterworlding: Reflecting on Multiple Waters, online
Jahn, Eileen
Access to energy for all in South Africa and the anthropologist's responsibility of care
2021
Responsibility: Association of Social Anthropologists of the UK's 2021 conference (Panel: Who speaks for Energy? Responsibility and authority in the ethnographies of energy in an era of anthropogenic climate change II), University of St Andrews (online)
2021
Burmester, Kolja; Jahn, Eileen; Käsmayr, Sarah; Schindler, Lena; Taleqani, Scherzad
Talking 'bout Your Generation : Wie die Welt den Bach runtergeht und dabei das Meer überläuft
Augsburg : MaroVerlag, 2021. - 36 page . - (MaroHeft; 6)
https://www.maroverlag.de/marohefte/249-talking-bo ...
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
Epistemologies of the Global South
Eileen Jahn
Doctoral Fellow
University of Bayreuth
Building: Zapf Haus 2
Nürnberger Straße 38
D-95448 Bayreuth
E-mail: eileen.jahn@uni-bayreuth.de
Homepage: Anthropology | Universität Bayreuth
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