Staff at the Institute of Sociology
Picture: © Matthias Heyde

Dr. Claudia Ba

Research assistant

Working area(s)

Urban and Spatial Sociology

Contact

work +49 6151/16-57344

Work S3|13 310
Residenzschloss 1
64283 Darmstadt

  • Qualitative methods
  • Visual Methods and Research on Visual Methodology
  • Spatial Theory
  • Constructions of Identity and Heritage
  • Sociology of Tourism
  • West Africa

Iconic coherence

On inheriting the Kankurang in Senegal and The Gambia

The performative and materialized heritage of the Kankurang initiation rite in Senegal and The Gambia is safeguarded by the UNESCO as »Intangible Cultural Heritage«. Using this visualised heritage, Ba examines how dichotomous understandings of modernity and tradition are being reframed in the respective nation states. With her concept of iconic coherence, she situates globally fluctuating images of visual heritage constructions in contemporary societies. In doing so, she creates a new mode of memory research whose broad analytical potential is aimed at social, cultural and historical studies, but also at those who are interested in working with images that circulate globally.

Professional Training
since 2022 Post-Doc at the Chair of Urban Sociology and Sociology of Space, TU Darmstadt
2021 – 2022 Scholarship Holder Ingenium Career Bridging Grant, TU Darmstadt
2021 Post-Doc in the DFG-funded project “Berlin Quarters in the tourism trap” at the Chair of Urban Sociology and Sociology of Space, TU Darmstadt
2021 PhD “Iconic Coherence. On inheriting the Kankurang in Senegal and The Gambia” supervised by Martina Löw and Gabriele Dolff-Bonekämper, TU Berlin
2019 – 2021 Prae-Doc in the DFG-project “Berlin Quarters in the tourism trap” at the Chair of Urban Sociology and Sociology of Space, TU Darmstadt
2016 – 2019 Research Assistant with in the DFG Research Training Group “Identity and Heritage”, TU Berlin
Academic Education
2014 -2016 Master of Arts Vergleichende Kulturwissenschaft mit Schwerpunkt stadtethnologischer Forschung, Universität Regensburg
2012 – 2014 Bachelor of Arts Vergleichende Kulturwissenschaft mit Schwerpunkt Unesco Weltkulturerbe, Universität Regensburg
Semester Course
Summer term 2023 Spaces of Racism. Forms of sociospatial exclusion and their Consequences
Course for M.A.,
Institute of Sociology at the TU Darmstadt
Summer term 2023 Social Theory on Dis_Orientation
Course for B.A.,
Institute of Sociology at TU Darmstadt
Winter term 22/23 Spaces of Tourism
Course for B.A.,
Institute of Sociology at TU Darmstadt
Summer term 2022 A photo-based methodology for understanding belonging as a vital concept of mental health
Course for M.A.,
Berlin University Alliance (BUA) Student Research Group (StuROPx) Charité Berlin
Winter term 21/22 Introduction to: Henri Lefebvre
Course for M.A.,
Institute of Sociology at the TU Darmstadt
Summer term 2018 Photography-based methods and methodological criticism in sociology
Course for B.A.,
Institute of Sociology of the TU Berlin
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2023 “Possibilities and Limitations of Participatory Videography
Preliminary Pilot Phase results on initial spatial orientation from Dakar and Berlin”, Paper Session “Anth59 Visual tools to empower participatory research”, ECAS Conference 2023 African Futures, 2.06.2023, Universität zu Köln
2022 “Conceptualising Dis/Orientation and experienced cultural unfamiliarity from a sociology of space’ perspective”, Paper and Panel Organizer “The Psychology of Dis/Orientation and Dis/Integration on Urban Scales”, DeZIM Tagung, 07.10.2022, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
2022 „Participatory Videography in Interlinkeage with Theory of Science as Decolonial Praxis“, Joint Paper with Dr. Mame Birame Ndiaye in „S01. Ethnography as Spatial-Temporal Method“, Interdisciplinary Conference on Spatial Methods for Urban Sustainability (SMUS Conference), 8.09.2022, Global Center of Spatial Methods for Urban Sustainability at the University of Sao Paolo
2022 “Visualizations of heritagization – the Kankurang Festival in the Gambia as imagery of return migration”, Paper Session “The post-return knowledge gap – epistemological implications and featured realities”, VAD e.V. Konferenz Africa-Europe: Reciprocal Perspectives, 9.06.2022, Albert-Ludwig Universität Freiburg
2021 “Can tourists be good neighbours? On New Urban Tourism and the practices of temporary and permanent neighbours in Berlin”, Paper Session “Proximity, relationality and mediated encounters: co-constituting urban dynamic through the everyday practices of neighbouring”, RC 21, 15.07.2021, University of Antwerp
2019 „Iconic Coherence of an Initiation Rite in Senegambia. Visualized Historicities of the Invisible Intangible Cultural Heritage“, Jahreskonferenz „Instabile Konstruktionen“ des DFG-Graduiertenkollegs „Identität und Erbe“, 21.11.2019, Technische Universität Berlin
2017 „Ikonische Stadtstrategien. Das Fassadenplakat und die Musterfassade als Instrumente machtpolitischer Repräsentation“, Konferenz der deutschen Gesellschaft für Semiotik (DGS e.V.): Grenzen. Kontakt – Kommunikation – Kontraste, 15.09.2017, Universität Passau

ACHS – Association of Critical Heritage Studies, Heritage and Urban Space

VAD e.V. – Vereinigung für Afrikawissenschaften Deutschland