Kien Nghi Ha
Postdoctoral Researcher in Postcolonial Asian German Studies, University of Tübingen (Germany)
Berlin, Germany
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Researcher, writer, curator, public speaker and community activist in Asian Germany since the 1990s
Education
2009 Ph.D. Cultural Studies (summa cum laude), University of Bremen (Germany)
1998 Diploma Political Sciences, Free University of Berlin
Academic and Professional Appointments
2023 Curator Asian Presences in Colonial Metropolis Berlin, Sinema Transtopia Berlin
Since 2020 Postdoctoral Researcher, Asian-Orient-Institute, University of Tübingen
2014-2016 Co-speaker of the Association for Intercultural Welfare, Empowerment and Diversity
2015 Senior Research Fellowship an der Bayreuth Academy of Advanced Studies, University of Bayreuth
Since 2012 Associated Fellow of the Institute for Postcolonial and Transcultural Studies, University of Bremen
2012 Co-curator of the Asia-Pacific Weeks at the House of World Cultures (Berlin)
2011 Visiting Professor at the Asia-Orient-Institute, University of Tübingen
2010 Curator Vietnamese Diaspora and Beyond, Hebbel am Ufer Theater (Berlin)
since 2010 Member of korientation. Network for German-Asian Perspectives
2009-2010 Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Cluster of Excellence “Asia and Europe in a Global Context”, University of Heidelberg
2009 Visiting Scholar at Asian/Pacific/America-Institute, New York University
Since 2001 Independent researcher, writer and public speaker frequently invited to universities, museums, cultural and art institutions
Academic Awards (selected)
2023 Conference grant from the Platform “Global Encounters” of the University of Tübingen, funded by Excellence Strategy of the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research
2022 Project grant from “Promotion of Contemporary History and Remembrance Culture” of the Berlin Senate
2011 Augsburg Science Prize for Intercultural Studies – Main Award
2009 Publication grant from the FAZIT-Foundation of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
2007 Conference travel grant from the German Research Foundation (DFG)
2001-2004 Doctoral scholarship of the Heinrich Böll Foundation
2001 European Commission’s “Human Potential Programme”
German Publications - Books (peer-reviewed)
2010 Impure and Mixed. Postcolonial Border Crossings through the Cultural History of Hybridity and Colonial “Racial Bastards” (Postcolonial Studies, Vol. 6), Münster: transcript
2005 Hype about Hybridity. Cultural Consumption of Difference and Postmodern Techniques of Utilization in Late Capitalism (Cultural Studies, Vol. 11), Bielefeld: transcript
1999 Ethnicity and Migration (Introductions: Basic Concepts of Social Philosophy and Social Theory, Vol. 9), Münster: Westfälisches Dampfboot
German Publications - Books (non peer-reviewed)
2025 Editor Anti-Asian Racism in Transatlantic Perspectives: History, Theory, Cultural Representations and Social Movements [in English in preparation]
2023 Editor Asian Presences in the Colonial Metropolis Berlin. Localizing Decolonialization. Berlin: Assoziation A [in print]
2012/2021 Editor Asian Germans [Extended]. Vietnamese Diaspora and Beyond. Berlin: Assoziation A
2014 Editor Asian Germany–Asian Diaspora in Germany.Heinrich Böll Foundation
2013 Leading guest editor of the special edition surfacing – Empowering Asian Germany, No. 21, April 2013, Transcultural magazine freitext
2007 Co-editor Re/visions. Postcolonial Perspectives of People of Color on Racism, Cultural Politics and Resistance in Germany. Münster: Unrast
2005 Vietnam Revisited. Berlin: Wissenschaftlicher Verlag Berlin
2004 Ethnicity and Migration Reloaded. Identity, Difference and Hybridity in Postcolonial Discourse. Berlin: Wissenschaftlicher Verlag Berlin
More than 60 Book Chapters and Articles in Academic Journals (translated)
In print: On the Colonial Matrix of Anti-Asian Racism: Yellow Danger, Invisibility and Exoticization. In: German Center for Integration and Migration Research (DeZIM) (ed.): Racism Research: Racisms, Communities and Anti-Racist Movements, Vol. 2, Bielefeld: transcript
In print: The Pogrom in Rostock-Lichtenhagen as Institutionalized Racism. In: Gudrun Heinrich/David Jünger/Oliver Plessow/Cornelia Sylla (eds.): Perspectives from Science on 30 Years of Lichtenhagen 1992. Berlin: Neofelis
2023 Coloniality and Asian-German perspectives in Hito Steyerl's “The Empty Middle” (1998). In: Kien Nghi Ha (ed.): Asian presences in the colonial metropolis of Berlin. Berlin-Hamburg: Association A [in print]
2023 Chinese community in Berlin. In: Kien Nghi Ha (ed.): Asian presences in the colonial metropolis of Berlin. Berlin-Hamburg: Association A [in print]
2023 Interwoven Concealment: Coloniality, Anti-Semitism and Racism in Hito Steyerl's The Empty Middle (1998). In: Ömer Alkin/Alena Strohmaier (eds.): Racism and Film. Marburg: Schüren Verlag [in print]
2023 Human Rights: Multiple (State) Citizenships, Democracy, Anti-Racism and Decolonization. In: new German organizations (ed.): Citizenship Reloaded. Critical perspectives on citizenship in post-migrant society. Berlin, pp. 48-66.
2023 Anti-racist Alliances and Self-designations. A Critical Reflection on the BIPoC Approach. In: Birgit Jagusch/Yasmine Chehata (eds.): Empowerment and Power Sharing. Anchor Points – Positioning – Arenas. Weinheim: Beltz Juventa, 2023, pp. 156-177.
2022 On the Transnational Coloniality of Anti-Asian Racism: Yellow Peril and Anti-Chinese Migration Policy in the Pacific. In: Mechthild Leutner/Pan Lu/Kimiko Suda (eds.): Anti-Chinese and Anti-Asian Racism. Münster: LIT-Verlag, pp. 38-58.
2021 Hybridity and resistance. Constructions of identity and culture in the age of colonial globalization. In: Frank Eckardt/Hamidou Maurice Bouguerra (eds.): City and racism. Analyzes and perspectives for anti-racist urbanity. Münster: Unrast, 2021, pp. 27-42.
2021 Looking back and looking forward: Decentralized communities and transnational solidarities. In: Kien Nghi Ha (ed.): Asian German Extended. Vietnamese Diaspora and Beyond. Berlin-Hamburg: Association A, 2021, pp. 11-20.
2021 The arrival of the Vietnamese boat people. Conjunctures and anomalies of an exceptional refugee and integration policy. In: Kien Nghi Ha (ed.): Asian German Extended. Vietnamese Diaspora and Beyond. Berlin-Hamburg: Association A, 2021, pp. 132-139.
2021 Nguyễn Ngọc Châu and Đỗ Anh Lân († Hamburg 1980): No two-class society in cultural and remembrance politics!. In: Kien Nghi Ha (ed.): Asian German Extended. Vietnamese Diaspora and Beyond. Berlin-Hamburg: Association A, 2021, pp. 140-149.
2021 Rostock-Lichtenhagen – The return of the repressed. In: Kien Nghi Ha (ed.): Asian German Extended. Vietnamese Diaspora and Beyond. Berlin-Hamburg: Association A, 2021, pp. 150-166.
2021 Decolonial commemoration: The Peace Statue in honor of Asian defiant women. In: Kien Nghi Ha (ed.): Asian German Extended. Vietnamese Diaspora and Beyond. Berlin-Hamburg: Association A, 2021, pp. 364-369.
2021 Solidarity and critique of power relationsships within the movement? Anti-Asian Violence and Intercommunal Alliances. In: Kien Nghi Ha (ed.): Asian German Extended. Vietnamese Diaspora and Beyond. Berlin-Hamburg: Association A, 2021, pp. 418-459.
2021 History and conception of Asian-German presences. In: Overview: Quarterly magazine of the IDA-NRW. No. 2/2021. June 2021, pp.3-9.
Full listing: See https://uni-tuebingen.de/en/208381
Area of Expertise
Topics
Disremembered and Unacknowledged: Anti-Asian Racism Before and After German Reunification
On August 22, 1980 two young Vietnamese Boat People were murdered by organized Neo-Nazis in Hamburg. Despite being the first officially documented racist murder recognized by a German court since 1945 this case was actually forgotten by the media and the civil society until 2012, when it was rediscovered by chance. Institutionalized racism is also a decisive factor to understand the pogrom in Rostock-Lichtenhagen against Roma refugees and Vietnamese contract workers, which lasted from August, 22-26, 1992. Reinforced by the social crisis within the German reunification process in the early 1990s discriminatory discourses and practices against racialized immigrants and asylum-seekers played a crucial role in the national political debate. These discourses were amplified in the mediascape and shaped the practices of local administrations and police forces.
I argue that the interaction of these institutions created an ideological and social climate in which racist violence was supported by broad sections of the German society and even enabled pogroms as the ultimate form of institutionalized racism. Its powerful effects shaped not only the events before and within the pogrom, but also its aftermaths like the largely failed police investigations and legal proceedings. Despite the immense societal and cultural-political importance of these events, the research and analysis are still emerging. The marginal status of both cases is also reflected in the delayed and contested public commemorations as well as in the marginalization of the perspectives of the victimized communities.
Kien Nghi Ha
Postdoctoral Researcher in Postcolonial Asian German Studies, University of Tübingen (Germany)
Berlin, Germany
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