Deborah Wockelmann M.A.

Deborah Wockelmann is a research assistant at the Department of Anthropology and African Studies at the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz. Holding a Master degree in African Studies (‘Afrikanistik’) from the University of Cologne, she has specialized in African sociolinguistics and anthropological linguistics, with a focus on East Africa.

During her studies, she investigated language in tourism along the East African coast (Kenya/Tanzania), exploring links between linguistic practices, identity construction, Othering, authenticity, and power dynamics. Since 2020, her work has centered on Uganda and Rwanda.

In the first phase of CRC 1482, she examined multilingualism, indexicality, and differentiation practices in Uganda — culminating in her 2026 dissertation entitled “Linguistic Practices and Human Differentiation in Kampala, Uganda”. Drawing on interdisciplinary methods, she combined qualitative approaches that foreground speakers’ lived experiences — assessing linguistic dimensions in interpersonal and societal relations from processual and ontological angles.

In the second project phase, her focus sharpens on the impact of Rwanda’s language policy measures and speakers' self- and external categorizations. Central to her research is how the post-genocidal regime's strategic language policies shape actual linguistic practices and category constructions — and how speakers performatively adopt or reject these through language.

Foto: Stephanie Füssenich