Heike Becker

Prof. Heike Becker is a sociocultural anthropologist and author. She is Chair of the Anthropology Department of the University of the Western Cape in South Africa, where she teaches courses about anthropological theory, visual culture, popular culture, and the politics of difference. Her research interests have focused on the politics of memory, popular and visual culture, and social movements of resistance in southern Africa (South Africa and Namibia). She currently also works on decolonizing the public space, memory activism and anti-racist politics in Germany and the United Kingdom. She has published widely on monuments, commemorations and public art in Namibia and South Africa, among others, ‘Changing Urbanscapes: Colonial and postcolonial monuments in Windhoek’ (Nordic Journal of African Studies), ‘Commemorating heroes in Windhoek and Eenhana: memory, culture and nationalism in Namibia, 1990-2010’ (Africa. Journal of the International African Institute), and ‘Remembering Marikana: public art intervention and the right to the city in Cape Town’ (Social Dynamics), and together with Carola Lentz a special issue on ‘The politics and aesthetics of commemoration: National days in southern Africa’, (Anthropology Southern Africa).

Ringvorlesung vom 22.11.2021:
Falling Monuments, Rising Memories: The Politics and Aesthetics of Postcolonial Memory Cultures and Urbanscape in Southern Africa.