Becher, Dr. Anika (University of Freiburg)

Position:

Executive Director of the Africa Centre for Transregional Research (ACT)

Email:

anika.becher [at] act.uni-freiburg.de

Phone:

+49 761 88878-38

Areas of Research:

Conflict studies, ethnic conflict, electoral violence, violent conflict at the local level, democratic transition, party politics, human rights

Regional Focus:

Subsaharan Afrika, with a focus on East and Southern Africa

Education:

2016	PhD in political science at the University of Duisburg-Essen: "Disaggregating violence. The impact of ethnic politics, land access and inequalities on ethnic and electoral violence in Kenya and Malawi”
1999 - 2005	German-French Double-Diploma in Social Science at the University of Stuttgart and the Institut d’études politiques de Bordeaux

Professional Experience / Applied Research:

Seit 2021	Executive Director at the Africa Centre for Transregional Research (ACT)
2016 –2019	Amnesty International Deutschland, Berlin, Asia desk
2015 – 2016	Amnesty International Deutschland, Berlin, Africa desk
2013 – 2015	Civil Peace Service, Peace Brigades International Kenya, Nairobi, project coordinator
2008 – 2015	PhD student, political science, University of Duisburg-Essen, 22 months of field research in Kenya und Malawi between 2010 – 2013
2009 – 2010	Visiting scholar at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, USA
2006 – 2008	German Institute of Global and Area Studies (GIGA), Institute for African Studies, Berlin, Germany, research fellow in the research project „Managing Ethnic Conflict through Institutional Engineering: Ethnic Party Bans in Africa“
2005 – 2007	Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena, Institute for political science, lecturer and research fellow

Networks:

Vereinigung für Afrikawissenschaften in Deutschland (VAD e.V.)

Selected publications:

2016 Disaggregating violence. The impact of ethnic politics, land access and inequalities on ethnic and electoral violence in Kenya and Malawi, Nomos Verlag

2014 (with Matthijs Bogaards and Sebastian Elischer) Ethnic party bans in Africa: Can party regulation create national parties?, in Jacques Bertrand and Oded Haklai (eds.) Democratization and Ethnic Minorities: Conflict or Compromise? London: Routledge, 39-57.

2011 (with Matthias Basedau) Parties in chains – do party bans in Africa promote peace?, in: Party Politics, Vol. 17, Nr. 2, 205 - 222.

2010 Comparing ethnic party regulation in East Africa, in: Democratization, Vol. 17, Nr. 4, 750 - 768.

2010 (with Matthias Basedau) An effective measure of institutional engineering? Ethnic party bans in Africa, in: Democratization, Vol. 17, Nr. 4, 666 - 686.

2010 Party bans in Africa - an empirical overview, in: Democratization, Vol. 17, Nr. 4, 618 - 641.

2008 (with Matthias Basedau) Promoting peace and democracy through party regulation? Ethnic party bans in Africa, GIGA Working Paper Nr. 66, Hamburg.

Freelance Academic Staff