PD Dr. Julia Vorhölter

Research Profile

Throughout my career, both in research and teaching, I have been interested in a wide range of topics and have carried out ethnographic fieldwork in Niger, South Africa, Uganda, and Germany. My earlier work was situated at the interface between socio-cultural anthropology and African studies, exploring contemporary dynamics on the African continent which are shaped both by local histories and political struggles as well as external interventions and global forms of structural violence. My Magister thesis (2008, University of Hamburg) focused on a faith-based organization in Pretoria which attempted to implement participatory forms of social work amidst complex race, gender, and class dynamics in South African society. My doctoral dissertation (2014, Göttingen University) analyzed the situation of youth in Gulu, Northern Uganda, in the aftermath of the war between the Lord’s Resistance Army and the Ugandan Government (1986–2006). My habilitation thesis (2022, Leipzig University), examined the recent emergence and popularization of psychotherapy and related discourses, practices and institutions in Uganda. My current research, is based on ethnographic fieldwork in Germany and focuses on sleep. The project draws attention to the dilemmas of sleep knowledge production and follows technological interventions which are designed to reveal, manage, and/or overcome sleep problems.