Prof. Dr. Christof Hartmann

Christof Hartmann is Professor of Political Science, in particular International Relations and African Politics at the Institute of Political Science at the University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany. He is also Director of the Institute for Peace and Development (INEF) at the same university. He received his Ph.D. from University of Heidelberg (Germany) and has been a Visiting Professor at the University of the Western Cape (South Africa), and working at IEE between 1999 and 2006. His main research interests are the change of political institutions in Sub-Saharan Africa, and its main driving domestic and international factors, as well as regionalism on the African continent. He has published and edited several books with Oxford UP and Routledge, and contributed to a wide range of international academic journals. He is currently PI within two broader research projects on African Non-Military Intervention Practices (ANCIP) and China and the Transformation of Political Order in Africa (ChiTA).

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Prof. Dr. Dr. Nele Noesselt

Nele Noesselt holds the chair of Political Science & Politics of East Asia/China at the University of Duisburg-Essen. Since 2017, she is the speaker of the AREA Ruhr Graduate School Transnational Institution Building and Transnational Identities in East Asia (joint PhD program of the University of Duisburg-Essen and the Ruhr University Bochum). Her research agenda ranges from general issues of comparative politics and domestic governance to world politics and theories of international relations. Her current research project focuses on visualized narratives of world politics and global role contestations.

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Dr. Georg Lammich 

Georg Lammich is Researcher in International Relations and African Politics at the University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany. He holds a diploma in East Asian Studies and a PhD in Political Science. His research focuses on African regionalism, interregionalism, and China's impact on regional integration, development, and security in Sub-Saharan Africa. He has been a visiting research fellow at the Centre for Chinese Studies in Stellenbosch, South Africa, and at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing. Additionally, he is an affiliated researcher at the University of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania. He has conducted extensive fieldwork in China and various countries across the African continent.

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Dr. Cao Ruixing 

Ruixing Cao is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Institute of East Asian Studies and the Institute of Political Science, University of Duisburg-Essen. His research focuses on Chinese Foreign Policy, Civil War, and Political Violence. He holds a PhD in Foreign Affairs from the University of Virginia and a BA in International Relations from the College of William & Mary.

full profile on the website of the University of Duisburg-Essen

Erik Rien

Erik Rien is a student in the IN-EAST master programme "Modern East Asian Studies". He has a background in economics and political science and is working on China-Africa relations. In 2023 he obtained a qualifying fellowship from the GRK 2833 "East Asian Futures: Vision and Realizations on National, Transregional and Global Scales".