Research
My work sits at the intersection of global economic history, postcolonial business history, and the history of development. Why are some countries poorer than others, and how have we been dealing with this? And what role did companies play in this?
I focus on how developing economies in Africa, Asia and elsewhere were shaped by — and pushed back against — the global economic order after 1945. Across projects, I am interested in how organizations, industries, and individuals navigated colonial legacies in practice: in balance sheets, board meetings, hiring decisions, and on the shop floor.
Current Research
MAGIC — Manufacturing Modernity in Africa (ERC Starting Grant, PI)
MAGIC examines how Bata shoe factories became sites of industrial modernity in postcolonial Kenya, Malawi, and Zimbabwe. As a transnational company operating across colonial and postcolonial contexts, Bata offers a unique window into questions of labour, management, Africanisation, and the everyday experience of industrial capitalism in Africa. The project runs from 2026–2031 and involves archival and field research in Africa, Europe and North America.
TRIBECA (DFG-ANR, Co-PI)
TRIBECA (Tackling the Responsibility of International Business and Enterprises as a Transnational Cause) is a Franco-German research project tracing how corporate social responsibility became the dominant framework for understanding business’s role in society. My contribution examines how European multinationals in colonial and postcolonial Africa, Asia, and Latin America publicly championed workforce training and local staff promotion while internal records reveal a persistent reluctance to give up managerial control, showing that CSR has always been as much about power as it is about responsibility.
Aviation in Postcolonial Africa
Between 2019 and 2023, I led a DFG-funded research project on the history of aviation in postcolonial Africa, using Air Afrique and Ethiopian Airlines as case studies. I examined the decision-making processes, business operations, and political economies of these airlines as they competed in a global aviation market still shaped by colonial-era structures.
The project involved archival research in France, Ethiopia, Côte d’Ivoire, Senegal, and the Netherlands. I led a small team of one researcher and three assistants.
Findings have been published in the Zeitschrift für Unternehmensgeschichte, the Journal of Transport History, and Comparativ. A trade monograph, working title: The Problem of Flying, is in progress.
Journal of Transport History article · Comparativ article · Zeitschrift für Unternehmensgeschichte article
German Foreign Trade & Economic Security
As part of the SFB/TRR 138 “Dynamics of Security”, I examined the securitization of German foreign trade policy towards Africa and Asia during the postcolonial period. Case studies include German companies operating in developing countries, the expansion of Lufthansa’s international network, and industry lobbying around taxation and investment subsidies.
The research involved archival work in Germany and Ethiopia and a collaboration with Shakila Yacob (University of Malaya) on the history of German companies in Asia. I co-edited and contributed book chapters to two main publications: Security Strategies in International Business History and Security and Risk: Challenges for Economy and Business in the Global 20th Century.
Security and Risk · Security Strategies in International Business History
UNESCO World Heritage & Ethiopia (Doctoral Research)
My doctoral research, funded by the Gerda Henkel Foundation, examined the origins of UNESCO’s World Heritage programme through the lens of Ethiopian sites from the 1960s to the 1980s. I traced how UNESCO and Ethiopian elites collaborated to construct a “useful past” during the nation-building process, and how UNESCO shifted from knowledge producer to direct provider of development policy.
Research was conducted in Ethiopia, at UNESCO headquarters in Paris, and in the US, UK, and Switzerland. Findings are published in the monograph Developing Heritage, Developing Countries (De Gruyter, 2020) and four research articles.
Developing Heritage, Developing Countries · Journal of Contemporary History article · Comparativ article · Annales d’Éthiopie article
Past Workshops
Fractured Skies (2022) — co-organized with Waqar Zaidi (LUMS Pakistan), on the history of aviation in the Global South
Global History of State Enterprises (2020) — international workshop on the history of state-owned enterprises in developing countries