Immanuel Harisch

Immanuel R. Harisch is a historian with a special interest in labor, education, and economic relations. His dissertation focused on educational institutions, networks and mobilities of African trade unions and/within the international labor movement during the Cold War. He is currently the managing editor of the open access journal Stichproben - Vienna Journal of African Studies. In addition to an edited volume he co-authored on GDR-Africa relations during the Cold War, he has published journal articles on organized labor in Africa and the international trade union movement, socialisms in Africa, and knowledge production in African universities. As part of yuworkzambia, he is curious to unearth aspects of Yugoslav-Zambian relations and to deepen his knowledge of the history and languages of southern Africa.

 

 

 

 

Current research project:

A Socialist Workplace in Postcolonial Africa: A Connected History of the Yugoslav Workforce in Zambia (Post-Doc)

Research interests:

  •     Global labour history, African trade unions and the international labor movement
  •     East-South exchanges in the field of labor, education, and economics
  •     African Socialisms
  •     Historical knowledge production at African universities

Selected publications:

  • “The Missing Link? Western Communists as Mediators between the East German FDGB and African Trade Unions in the Late 1950s and Early 1960s.” International Labor and Working-Class History, forthcoming 2023 (co-authored with Eric Burton).
  • “Nkrumahism, East Germany, and the South-East Ties of Ghanaian Trade Unionist J.A. Osei during the Cold War 1960s.” International Journal of African Historical Studies 54, no. 3 (2021): 309–32.
  • Navigating Socialist Encounters: Moorings and (Dis)Entanglements between Africa and East Germany during the Cold War. Boston: De Gruyter Oldenbourg, 2021 (co-edited with Eric Burton, Anne Dietrich, and Marcia Schenck).
  • “East German Friendship-Brigades and Specialists in Angola: A Socialist Globalization Project in the Global Cold War.” In Transregional Connections in the History of East-Central Europe, edited by Naumann Katja, 291–324. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2021.
  • “L’UGTAN, Une Expérience de Syndicalisme Révolutionnaire (1957-1961).” Revue Ivoirienne d’histoire 38 (2021): 32–49 (co-authored with Gédéon N’goran  Bangali).
  •  “Facets of Walter Rodney‘s Pan-African Intellectual Activism during His Dar Es Salaam Years, 1966-1974.” Stichproben: Vienna Journal of African Studies 20, no. 38 (2020): 101–29. https://doi.org/10.25365/PHAIDRA.137.
  •  “‘Mit Gewerkschaftlichem Gruß!’ Afrikanische GewerkschafterInnen an Der FDGB-Gewerkschaftshochschule Fritz Heckert in Der DDR.” Stichproben: Vienna Journal of African Studies 18, no. 43 (2018): 77–109.
  • “Bartering Coffee, Cocoa and W50 Trucks: The Trade Relationships of the GDR, Angola and São Tomé in a Comparative Perspective.” Global Histories 3, no. 2 (2017): 43–60.