Dr. Leonie Benker

Postdoctoral Researcher

Address

University of Hamburg

Edmund-Siemers-Allee 1, West

20146 Hamburg

I am a social and cultural anthropologist specializing in political anthropology and contemporary African history. My regional focus is East Africa, especially Uganda. My research centers on questions of postcolonial governance, political affect and atmosphere, and historical-political storytelling. Methodologically, I combine long-term ethnography and historical approaches to investigate how the political is experienced, imagined, and practiced. At present, I am developing a project on borderland atmospheres between Uganda and South Sudan.

Curriculum Vitae

Positions

since 2026 PostDoc scholarship, Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology, Universität Hamburg.

2021-2025 PhD scholarship, Hans-Böckler-Foundation, Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology, Freie Universität Berlin.

Education

2026 PhD, Social and Cultural Anthropology, Freie Universität Berlin.

2020 Master of Arts (M.A.), Global History, Freie Universität Berlin and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.

2015 Bachelor of Arts (B.A.), Area Studies Asia/Africa, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.

Affiliations

2022 Affiliate Researcher and Lecturer, Department of History, Gulu University, Uganda.

Prize

2021 Rudolf-Virchow-Award for outstanding MA theses, Berlin Society for Anthropology, Ethnology and Prehistory (BGAEU).

Research Interests

Political Anthropology
Affect and Atmosphere
Memory Politics/Historical-Political Narration
Legal Anthropology
East Africa

Projects

Since 2026 Borderland Atmospheres: Materiality and Legal Pluralism in the Uganda–South Sudan Borderlands (Funding: Universität Hamburg; role: PostDoc).

2020-2026 Poisonous Politics: Political Atmosphere and Generational Conflict in Contemporary Uganda (Funding: Hans-Böckler-Stiftung; role: PreDoc).

2017-2019 “Not enough has yet been told about this war”: Competing Narratives About the Armed Conflict in Northern Uganda (Funding: PROMOS-Stipendium for final theses; role: M.A. candidate).

Publications

Journal Articles

2021 „Es ist noch nicht genug über diesen Krieg berichtet worden“: Konkurrierende Erzählungen über den LRA-Konflikt in Norduganda. Mitteilungen der Berliner Gesellschaft für Anthropologie, Ethnologie und Urgeschichte 42, 13-22.

2021 Koloniales Erbe und deutsche Erinnerungskultur: Die Restitutionsdebatte und ihre Fortläufer in deutschen Medien (2018-2020). Baessler-Archiv 67, 51-65.

2018 The Birth of Criminalistics and the Transition from Lay to Expert Witnesses in German Courts. Journal on European History of Law 9 (2): 59-66 (with Raluca Enescu).

Blog posts

2016 Donald Trump in Uganda, or: how we wanted to talk about Dominic Ongwen and ended up talking about Donald Trump. affective-societies.de, October 31 (with Jonas Bens).

Conference Papers & Talks

2025 Poisonous Politics: Political Atmosphere and Generational Conflict in Contemporary Uganda. Anthropological colloquium, Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology, Universität Hamburg. Germany, November 11.

2025 Challenging Stories: Youth and Narrative Hegemony in Museveni's Uganda. Conference of the EASA Linguistic Anthropology Network (ELAN), Universiteit Leiden. Netherlands, November 2.

2025 Poisonous Politics: Political Atmosphere in Contemporary Uganda. Conference of the German Association of Social and Cultural Anthropology (GASCA/DGSKA), Universität zu Köln. Germany, October 1.

2024 Challenging Curricular Limits: History and Political Contestation in Ugandan Classrooms. Conference of the African Studies Association in Germany (VAD), Universität Bayreuth. Germany, October 2.

2024 On Liberation and Care: Generational Conflict and Narrative Shifts in Contemporary Ugandan Politics. Conference of the European Association of Social Anthropologists (EASA), Universitat de Barcelona. Spain, July 23.

2021 Northern Ugandan Perspectives on the International Criminal Court: Pluralizing Local Voices. Conference of the African Studies Association in Germany (VAD), Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main. Germany, June 7.

2021 “Not enough has yet been told about this war”: Competing Narratives About the Armed Conflict in Northern Uganda”. Berlin Society for Anthropology, Ethnology and Prehistory (BGAEU), Freie Universität Berlin. Germany, July 5.

2016 Witnesses and Experts in the Judgments of the Imperial Court of Justice (1880–1938). 7th International Conference of the European Society for the History of Science, Univerzita Karlova. Czech Republic, September 24.