Prof. Dr. Anne Storch
Professor of African Studies
Postal address:
Institute for African Studies
University of Cologne
Albertus-Magnus-Platz
50923 Cologne
Germany
Office address:
Meister-Ekkehart-Str. 7
2nd floor
E-Mail: Anne Storch
Phone: +49 (0)221 470 2708
Secretary: +49 (0)221 470 3504
Fax: +49 (0)221 470 5158
Office hours: by arrangement
Most Relevant Publications
- Storch, Anne 2026. Grammar of Loss. London: Routledge.
- Deumert, Ana, Anne Storch & Nick Shepherd (eds.). 2020. Colonial and Decolonial Linguistics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Storch, Anne. 2014. A Grammar of Luwo. An Anthropological Approach. Amsterdam: Benjamins.
- Storch, Anne. 2011. Secret Manipulations. New York: Oxford University Press.
Most Relevant Research Topics
- Sociolinguistics
- Colonial linguistics
- Ways of speaking, register variation, language creativity
More information
Research focus
African languages and communicative practices, in particular Jukun and Luwo.
My research combines language description, sociolinguistics, critical Africanistics, critical approaches to colonial linguistics, critical heritage studies and Indigenous theory. I have contributed widely to the analysis of complex repertoires, spiritually meaningful registers and creativity in language. I am interested in language in tourism and in semiotic landscapes in contexts of (neo)colonialism. My current research is about language and contingency, with a particular focus on magical practices and inscriptions on roof tiles.
Education and professional career
| 1987–1994 | Student of African Linguistics, Historical Anthropology, Archaeology at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt upon Main, student of African Studies, Oriental Studies, Archaeology, Anthropology at the Gutenberg-University in Mainz; Master of Arts in Frankfurt, Thesis: Die Anlautpermutation in den westatlantischen Sprachen. |
| 1995-1999 | Research fellow at the German Research Society interdisciplinary joint research project 268 ‘Kulturentwicklung und Sprachgeschichte im Naturraum Westafrikanische Savanne’, University of Frankfurt, Prof. Dr. H. Jungraithmayr. |
| 1999 | PhD, University of Frankfurt. Thesis: Das Hone und seine Stellung im Zentral-Jukunoid |
| 2000-2004 | Assistant professor, Institute for African Linguistics, University of Frankfurt, Prof. Dr. R. Vossen |
| 2004- | Full Professor, African Linguistics, Institute of African Studies, University of Cologne |
Awards
- Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz-Preis 2017
- Sebeok-Love Award for Best Paper in Language Sciences 2018
- Member of the Nordrhein-Westfälische Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Künste since 2018
- Member of the Academia Europaea since 2018
Projects
Ongoing projects
| funded by | co-applicant | ||
| 2025- | Semiotiken der Spur | ||
| 2022- | Language and contingency: on the linguistics of prayers and chants |
Completed projects
| funded by | co-applicant | ||
| 2017-2025 | Kritische Afrikanistik | N. Nassenstein A. Mietzner, A. Fanego Palat | |
| 2021-2025 | Opaque messages | DFG (Leibniz-Preis) | |
| 2021-2024 | AfroGastro | A. Mietzner | |
| 2021-2022 | Nachtlinguistik | N. Nassenstein | |
| 2017-2022 | Bad language: noises, silences, ruptures | DFG (Leibniz-Preis) | A. Mietzner, N. Nassenstein |
| 2016-2022 | Language and Tourism | DFG (Leibniz-Preis) | A. Mietzner, N. Nassenstein |
| 2016-2020 | Tourism, Language and Migration in Mallorca | DFG (Leibniz-Preis) | N. Nassenstein A. Mietzner, J. Traber, F. Cisse Kane |
| until 2017 | UoC Research Area ’Communicative practices’ | University of Cologne | N. Himmelmann C. Bongartz, T. Widlok, M. Zillinger, S. Kurfürst (Cologne) |
| 2016-2017 | Creativity in language: secret codes, special styles and linguistic taboo | DAAD | A. Aikhenvald (Cairns) |
| 2014-2016 | UoC Forum Cultural Heritage in Africa and Asia – Discourses and Practice | University of Cologne | H. Felber (Cologne) |
| 2010-2015 | Fading Delimitations: Language and Culture of the Maha | German Research Society | R. Leger (Frankfurt) |
| 2015 | British Academy Conference African Multilingualism: Motivations, modalities, movement and meaning | F. Lüpke (London) | |
| 2015 | Workshop "Exploring the Senses" | A. Majid (Nijmegen) | |
| 2014 | GSSC pilot study grant "Repertoires and the semantics of variation: an ethnography of communication in Chopi" | University of Cologne | |
| 2013 | Nilo-Saharan Linguistics Colloquium | German Research Society | |
| 2012 | Youth languages and urban languages in Africa | Thyssen Foundation | A. Wolvers N. Nassenstein |
| 2011 | Number in Africa and beyond | Thyssen Foundation | G. Dimmendaal |
| 2010-2013 | DoBeS project on Bubia and Isubu | VW Foundation | G. Atindogbé |
| 2010 | Directionality in African Languages | Thyssen Foundation | A. Mietzner U. Claudi |
| 2009-2011 | Deskription des Zande | German Research Society | H. Pasch |
| 2009 | DoBeS project on Bubia and Isubu | VW Foundation | G. Atindogbé |
| 2008 | Kontaktreise zur Vorbereitung einer Dokumentation des Mündü (Uganda) | German Research Society | H. Pasch |
| 2008-2011 | Beschreibung des Olusese unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der Grammatik der Sinne | German Research Society | |
| 2008 | New Approaches to Nubian Languages and History | Thyssen Foundation | |
| 2008-2009 | Nubien im Mittelalter | Thyssen Foundation | M. Bechhaus-Gerst |
| 2006-2012 | Dokumentation des Belanda Bor (West-Nilotisch) | German Research Society | |
| 2006-2008 | Historische Grammatik des Alt-Nubischen | Thyssen Foundation | M. Bechhaus-Gerst |
| 2009-2010 | Nominale Kategorisierung und Seinsart in afrikanischen Sprachen am Beispiel des Mbembe | German Research Society | |
| 2007-2009 | Nominale Kategorisierung und Seinsart in afrikanischen Sprachen am Beispiel des Mbembe | German Research Society | |
| 2007 | Perception of the Invisible | Thyssen Foundation | |
| 2005-2007 | Flussläufe als Korridore der Transmission typologischer Merkmale | German Research Society | |
| 2004 | Publication of Lehrbuch der Hausa-Sprache | Bilfinger and Berger funding | |
| 2000-2004 | Nominale Klassifikationssysteme im Nilotischen unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der westnilotischen Sprachen | German Research Society |
Residency Projects
| with | |||
| 2023 | Amorbach | Soy así | Angelika Mietzner, Nico Nassenstein |
| 2022 | Eberbach | Hospitable Linguistics | Angelika Mietzner, Janna Perbix, Janine Traber |
| 2022 | Diani | Critical African Studies | Nico Nassenstein, Axel Fanego Palat, Angelika MIetzner |
| 2019 | Vlatos | Being human | Nico Nassenstein |
| 2018 | Tamdakht | Hospitable Linguistics | Nick Faraclas |
| 2017 | Negril | Materialized Ideology and its Lively Places | Chris Bongartz |
Supervision of doctoral dissertations
Publications
Conferences and workshops
| co-organised | funded by | ||
| 2023 | Summer School Language and/ as Heritage | H. Felber | Santander DFG |
| 2023 | Nilo-Saharan Linguistics Colloquium | A. Mietzner A. Mitchell J.A.N. Oduor P. Jerono H. Schröder | DFG University of Nairobi |
| 2023 | Workshop on Hidden, Sacred, and Magical Semiotic Landscapes | H. Woldemariam H. Schefers | DFG UNESCO |
| 2023 | ECAS-Panel on No hay camino, hay que caminar | N. Farclas | DFG |
| 2019 | Sprache PREP Paradies | A. Mietzner | DFG |
| 2018 | The Colonial Autobiography of Linguistics | A. Deumert | DFG |
| 2018 | Language and intimacy: discourses and narratives | N. Nassenstein A. Mietzner J. Traber | DFG |
| 2018 | Daten, Sammlung, Kritik: Reflexion zu Disziplinarität und Absurdität | J. Traber A. Mietzner | DFG |
| 2018 | Talk and Silence – Language in Colonial Contexts | R. Bassiouney E. Sippola | DFG |
| 2017 | The secret and the sacred: working out hidden knowledge | A.Y. Aikhenvald | DAAD |
| 2017 | Taboo in Language and Discourse | A.Y. Aikhenvald | DAAD DFG |
| 2017 | Other’s Other | A. Hollington A. Mietzner N. Nassenstein S. Zavaree | DFG GSSC |
| 2016 | Tourism, Language and Migration in Mallorca: Artefacts from Various Souths and Norths | N. Nassenstein A. Mietzner, J. Traber | |
| 2016 | Workshop Linguistic entanglements, emblematic codes and languaging in tourism | A. Mietzner | |
| 2016 | Workshop on Disgust | A. Majid | |
| 2015 | Heritage in Practice - Conflicting Concepts and Changing Power Relations | H. Felber K. El-Noby Mohammed | |
| 2015 | GSSC conference grant: Swearing and Cursing | N. Nassenstein | |
| 2015 | British Academy Conference African Multilingualism: Motivations, modalities, movement and meaning | F. Lüpke (London) | |
| 2015 | Workshop "Exploring the Senses" | A. Majid (Nijmegen) | |
| 2014 | GSSC conference grant "Languages Ideologies" | A. Wolvers | |
| 2014 | GSSC conference grant "Consensus and Dissent: Negotiating emotion in the public space" | A. Wolvers | |
| 2014 | Conference "Colonial linguistics - Knowledge and Epistemes" (University of Cape Town) | A. Deumert N. Shepherd | |
| 2014 | Workshop Pluractionals und verbale Plurale | J. J. Coly | |
| 2013 | Nilo-Saharan Linguistics Colloquium | A. Mietzner G. Dimmendaal | |
| 2012 | Afrikanistentag | G. Dimmendaal | |
| 2012 | Youth languages and urban languages in Africa | A. Wolvers N. Nassenstein | |
| 2011 | Number in Africa and beyond | G. Dimmendaal | |
| 2010 | Perception and Cognition a Cross-Linguistic Investigation | A. Aikhenvald | |
| 2010 | Loss and Gain in Grammar, with a special focus on Jukunoid | ||
| 2009 | World Conference of African Linguistics | ||
| 2009 | New Approaches to Nubian Languages and History | ||
| 2007 | Perception of the Invisible | ||
| 2007 | Language Contact Along River Systems (Melbourne) | ||
| 2004 | IX. Nilo-Saharan Linguistics Colloquium (Khartoum) | A. Abu-Manga L. Gilley | |
| 2002 | 15. Afrikanistentag (Frankfurt am Main) (co-organiser) |
Media reports
Im Kölner Universitätsmagazin von Mai 2017 wird über die Forschung zu Sprachpraktiken von Migranten unter den extremen Bedingungen des Massentourismus berichtet.
