Ms. Apin, MA graduated with a master’s degree in International Development from the University of Vienna. Her focus is on critical development and race studies. Her research focuses on racism, intersectionality and the African diaspora. She wrote her master’s thesis on the topic “Black EU citizens with othering experiences in the Austrian white dominance society: the meaning of perceptions and appearances from an anti-racist perspective”. She is mainly concerned with the visibility of Black narratives and People of African Descent in Europe (Germany & Austria), anti-discrimination and approaches that deconstruct power structures. She is active in the field of political education and deals with the visibility of Black narratives in Europe (Germany & Austria). She also publishes articles on these topics in professional journals. In 2021 she started working as an assistant to the first Afro-German MEP Dr. Pierrette Herzberger-Fofana..

Dr Gomes Is an African Studies scholar with a focus in Critical Racism Studies. Since October 2019 she is a retired member at the University of Vienna. 

She has several publications, including:

Themenheft “Rassistische Dimensionen afrikanischer Geschichte und Gegenwart” (2004, ed. Bea Gomes, Veronika Bilger, Arno Sonderegger) Stichproben – Wiener Zeitschrift für kritische Afrikastudien 4 (6).  “Rassismus – Beiträge zu einem vielgesichtigen Phänomen” (2008, eds. Bea Gomes, Walter Schicho, Arno Sonderegger) Vienna: Mandelbaum Verlag.

Mr Harisch completed his MA studies in African Studies (focus on African History, language training Kiswahili) and International Development (focus on Global Development Policies, Racism Studies) at the University of Vienna and University of Dar es Salaam (Tanzania) with distinction.
He is currently pursuing a PhD in History with a scholöarship of the Doctoral School of Historical Studies at the University of Vienna. Between 2018 and 2021 he was employed as a university assistant (Pre-Doc) at the research platform “Mobile Cultures and Societies”. Other activities include working as an managing editor of the academic journal “Stichproben. Vienna Journal of African Studies“ and organizer of numerous high-profile events at the Institute of African Studies at the University of Vienna.
Mr Harisch’s main research interests are in the field of African history with a focus on the modern era as well as on the processes of interdependence and interaction between Africa and other world regions. He is the co-editor of an international academic anthology dedicated to these topics on a broad empirical and transdisciplinary basis and has published several peer-reviewed articles in academic journals.

Dominik Spörker graduated in African Studies (BA, MA with distinction, focus on African History, language training Swahili) and History (BA) at the University of Vienna. During his studies, he worked as a study assistant at the Institute for African Studies, where he also organised several events. He is currently working on several provenance research projects at the Weltmuseum Wien and the Naturhistorisches Museum Wien, investigating colonial acquisition contexts. In the context of his dissertation, he is examining the collections of the Imperial and Royal Navy from East Africa. Since 2017, Dominik Spörker has been a member of the editorial team of the “Stichproben. Vienna Journal of African Studies”.

His research interests include the history of East Africa in the 19th century and (post)colonial provenance research.

Anna Lönhard, MA graduated in African Studies at the University of Leipzig and the University of Dar es Salaam (Tanzania).

She has obtained her Master’s degree in International Development at the University of Vienna and is writing her Master’s thesis on “Wahrnehmung des weißen Engagements in antirassistischen Initiativen in Wien”.

In addition to AEWTASS, she is involved with the Initiative für ein diskriminierungsfreies Bildungswesen (IDB).

From November 2021, Lönhard will be working for the non-profit association FAIRTRADE Austria.

Modupe Laja graduated in Anglophone Literatures (specialising herself in African and Diasporean, Black Studies, respectively), English and Hispanic Studies, and Economics from Justus Liebig University in Giessen. She is an educational consultant and a process guide leading multipliers workshops on discriminatory and racism sensitive topics in schools and in social work, among other places. As a scholar, author and editor she participated in a book project of the academic network “Black Diaspora and Germany”. The book of the same name was published by Edition Assemblage. Modupe Laja is co-author in the German publication “Wie Rassismus aus Schulbüchern spricht” (How Racism within schoolbooks speaks to us) and co-authored a didactic race critcal educational training and learning manual on “Reflecting the image of Blackness, Africa and her Diaspora” within the framework of the academic project IMAFREDU.

Maida Schuller, MA studied Social Work at the University of Applied Sciences St. Pölten and at the Alice-Salomon-Hochschule Berlin and completed her Master’s degree in International Development at the University of Vienna. During her academic career she has worked on topics such as political economy, intersectionality, critical race studies, Blackness in Austria and on a global scale, anti-discrimination and equality. She has also held workshops on topics such as racism and political education with students aged 14 years and older. Furthermore, she was a tutor at the University of Vienna from 2018 to 2021. Maida Schuller currently works as a social worker in the field of long-term unemployment, is an external lecturer at the FH Campus Wien and an employee at the Mattersburger Kreis für Entwicklungspolitik.Presentations to teachers and school assemblies on African Achievement as well as African history and its misrepresentation in schools. Active for 11 years specifically in the Austrian school system for lower and upper grades at a Gymnasium and in freelance teaching; was named Teacher of the Year by WBS in 2012
Qualified Teacher Status QTS; BSc Chemistry).

Dr Klein holds a PhD in Social Anthropology from the University of Manchester, where she spent four years researching multiculturalism and anti-racism in the education system. During a twelve-month research stay in Brazil, she studied both classroom materials and classes in two public high schools concerning the construction of images of Africa and the reproduction of racisms. In addition to academic publications on racism in the education system, she has been discussing racism in Austria in the newspaper “Augustin” on a quarterly basis since 2016. Apart from teaching at the university, she taught philosophy in a public middle school in England and coordinated anti-racism workshops in Rio De Janeiro. As of September 2020 she has been teaching at a Neue Mittelschule in Vienna as part of Teach for Austria.

MMag. Anna Steinbauer studied Geography and Economics (GE), Spanish and and the University of Seville. Psychology and Philosophy at the University of Vienna. In her diploma thesis entitled “Das Afrikabild in österreichischen GW-Schulbüchern der fünften und achten Schulstufe” (The image of Africa in Austrian textbooks for fifth and eighth grade), she analysed GE-textbooks for their portrayal of the African continent and interviewed students about their perception of African political, economic and social structures. The result of the research suggests a correlation between biased representations in GE-textbooks and students’ stereotypical images of Africa.

iShe is currently working as an AEWTASS member at the Veritas publishing house on a textbook for upper secondary schools and teaches in an International School