Profile

Professional career

• 01/2018 - 12/2021
  director Graduate Centre Humanities and Social Sciences, Research Academy Leipzig
• since 01/2016
  co-director of the Integrated Doctoral Training Programme of the DFG CRC 1199 (with U. Wardenga, IfL Leipzig)
• since 01/2012
  visiting professor at the Institute for Peace and Security Studies (IPSS), Addis Ababa U, Ethiopia
• 01/2011 - 01/2018
  co-director of the DFG Priority Programme 1448 “Adaptation and Creativity in Africa. Technologies and Significations in the Production of Order and Disorder” (with R. Rottenburg, U Halle)
• since 01/2011
  professor extraordinary in the Dept. of Political Science, Stellenbosch U, South Africa
• since 01/2008
  dual membership in the faculties of Social Science and Philosophy as well as History, Arts and Regional Studies, resp.
• since 07/2006
  Professor for "Politics in Africa" at the Institute of African Studies, Faculty of History, Art and Regional Studies (GKO), Leipzig U
• 01/2006 - 01/2016
  director of DFG Doctoral Training Programme (Graduiertenkolleg) 1261 “Critical Junctures of Globalisation”
• 10/2005 - 01/2010
  appointment as DAAD Willy Brandt professor, Stellenbosch U, South Africa (not able to accept)
• 04/1999 - 06/2006
  assistant professor „Politics in Africa“ at the Institute of African Studies, Faculty of History, Art and Oriental Studies (GKO), Leipzig U (10/1998-03/1999 acting)
• 01/1994 - 01/1997
  research associate at the Dept. of History, U Hannover & Institute for African Studies (Hamburg)
• 01/1989 - 01/1992
  research associate, Institute of Political Science, U Hamburg

Education

• 06/1998 - 10/1999
  Habilitation (“The Africa policy of the Federal Republic of Germany 1949-1999”; venia legendi: political science), U Hamburg
• 09/1989 - 01/1994
  Dr. phil. (“The Policy of Zimbabwe”), U Hamburg Foreign
• 10/1981 - 01/1987
  Diploma political science (“The developmental programme discussion in the SPD 1982-1987”), U Hamburg

Research interests

• international and regional organisations, in particular the African Union and the RECs/RMs, African Peace and Security Architecture, African Governance Architecture
• conflict prevention, early warning, preventive diplomacy, and conflict analysis
• German Africa policy (foreign affairs, development assistance, security policy)
• political developments in South Africa (and Southern Africa) as well as in Ethiopia (and the Horn of Africa, East Africa)

Methodological focus

Global Studies, International Studies, critical area studies, transregional studies, spatial turn

Selected publications (past 5 years)

• (eds.) 2023. Globalization Projects of Regional Organizations. Göttingen: Vandenhoek & Ruprecht (mit J. Herpolsheimer & F. Mattheis) (in print).
• (ed.) 2023. Yearbook on the African Union. Volume 3. Leiden, Boston MA: Brill (in print).
• (ed.) 2022. Yearbook on the African Union. Volume 2. Leiden, Boston MA: Brill.
• (ed.) 2021. Yearbook on the African Union. Volume 1. Leiden, Boston MA: Brill.
• (eds.) 2021. Researching the Inner Life of the African Peace and Security Architecture. APSA Inside-out. Leiden, Boston MA: Brill (with K.P.W. Döring, L. Gelot and J. Herpolsheimer) [French translation: 2023].
• (eds.) 2020. The Finances of Regional Organisations in the Global South – Follow the Money. Abingdon: Routledge (with F. Mattheis).

For some PDFs have a look at <www.academia.edu>.

• PREVEX – Preventing violent extremism in the Balkans and the broader MENA region

  Engel, Ulf

  Duration: 01/2020 - 12/2021

  Funded by: EU Europäische Union

  Involved organisational units of Leipzig University: Leipzig Research Centre Global Dynamics (ReCentGlobe)
  show details
• Interregionalism and Security in the Sahel: The African Union, ECOWAS, and the European Union

  Engel, Ulf

  Duration: 01/2020 - 12/2023

  Funded by: DFG Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft

  Involved organisational units of Leipzig University: Leipzig Research Centre Global Dynamics (ReCentGlobe); Institut für Afrikastudien; SFB 1199: Verräumlichungsprozesse unter Globalisierungsbedingungen
  show details

more projects

• Engel, U. (Ed.)

  Africa’s Transregional Conflict Complexes

  Comparativ. Zeitschrift für Globalgeschichte und vergleichende Gesellschaftsforschung. 2018. 28 (6)
  show details
• Engel, U.

  Early Warning

  In: Middell, M. (Ed.)

  Routledge Handbook on Transregional Studies. London: Routledge. 2019. pp. 573-581
  show details
• Engel, U.

  International Studies

  In: Klemm, K.; Middell, M. (Eds.)

  The Many Facets of Global Studies. Perspectives from the Erasmus Mundus Global Studies Programme. Leipzig: Leipziger Universitätsverlag. 2019. pp. 46-50
  show details
• Engel, U.

  Peace and Security

  In: Middell, M. (Ed.)

  Routledge Handbook on Transregional Studies. London: Routledge. 2019. pp. 295-302
  show details
• Engel, U.

  The 2007 African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance: Trying to Make Sense of Late Ratification of the Charter and Non-Implementation of Its Compliance Mechanism

  Africa Spectrum. 2019. 54 (2). pp. 127-146
  show details

more publications

I am teaching in the following programmes: BA Afrikastudien, MA African Studies, MA Global Studies and MA Global Studies with a special emphasis on peace and security (in Addis Ababa). Furthermore, I am teaching in the PhD programmes of the Graduate School of Global and Area Studies (GSGAS), the Integrated Graduate School of the CRC 1199 and at the Institute for Peace and Security Studies (Addis Ababa).

In the winter term I am offering the following classes:

• BA AFR 1300 "Einführung Politik in Afrika" (lecture)
• BA AFR 1302 "Afrika in der Welt - Die Welt in Afrika" (seminar)
• BA AFR 1300 "African Futures: Aktuelle Debatten" (seminar)
• MA AFR 2101 (= GS 920) "The State in Africa: Perspectives from Southern Africa" (seminar)
• MA AFR 2102 (= GS 720) "International Studies: Introduction to Social Science Theories on Globalization" (lecture)
• plus two MA colloquia (GS, ADD) and GSGAS classes (AG International Studies, winter school, etc.)

And in the summer term I am offering:

• MA AFR 2111 "Governance, Peace and Security in Africa" (seminar)
• plus three MA colloquia (AFR, GS, GS ADD), the EMGS summer school and GSGAS classes (Working group International Studies, summer school, etc.).

All seminars are supported by the university’s e-learning portal, Moodle 2.0.