Natasha A. Kelly is a communications scholar, sociologist, author, curator, artist and networker – and now also Professor of Global African Arts at the University of Bayreuth as well as the academic and artistic director of the Iwalewahaus. With her interdisciplinary approach, which connects scholarship, art and social engagement, she brings fresh impetus to research and teaching related to African Studies at the University of Bayreuth.
Kelly’s research interests range from Black German history, intersectionality and feminism to Afrofuturism. Her publications, including Afrokultur, Millis Erwachen and Schwarz. Deutsch. Weiblich, are regarded as seminal contributions to the critical examination of structural racism and cultural representation. Forty years ago, she herself moved from London, England, to Germany. “Migration is not a deficit but an asset for society as a whole,” she emphasises in conversation with UBTaktuell.
Her academic career began at the University of Münster, where she studied communications, sociology and English philology. After completing her doctorate in communications and sociology in Münster, she taught and lectured at numerous renowned national and international institutions, including Harvard and Oxford. With her appointment to the University of Bayreuth, Kelly now joins an excellent academic environment: “African Studies are among the founding pillars of the University of Bayreuth. They are not merely an add-on nor precariously funded; instead, there is a genuine structure here that can be built upon in the long term. That is unique in Germany,” she says.
The Chair of Global African Arts is also unique in Germany. “At a time when African art history is being cut back or disappearing entirely at other universities, my chair holds major significance both nationally and internationally,” Kelly notes. She aims to open up the research field of African art, rethink it globally, and in doing so create worldwide visibility for this important subject. For Kelly, art is a broad concept that does not only encompass history, but also serves as a space for action that can help shape society.
