Christine Hanke

Christine Hanke serves as Professor and Chair of Digital and Audiovisual Media at the University of Bayreuth since 2014, concurrently holding a Principal Investigator role in the Cluster of Excellence Africa multiple: Reconfiguring African Studies since 2019.

Her academic foundation includes a Doctorate in German Studies/Media Studies from the University of Trier (2005), with doctoral research conducted within the DFG Research Training Group Identity and Difference. Gender Construction and Interculturality (18th-21st Centuries), and a Master's degree in Theatre Studies (Film Studies focus) and Modern German Literature from Friedrich-Alexander University of Erlangen and Free University of Berlin (1985-1996).

Her research critically examines intersections of media theory, identity construction, and historical epistemology, particularly regarding race and gender formations in physical anthropology circa 1900. Current work through the Africa multiple Cluster explores decolonial approaches to African studies via digital and audiovisual methodologies, emphasizing interdisciplinary knowledge reconfiguration.

Prof. Hanke's career trajectory includes professorial appointments at BTK University of Art and Design (Hamburg), University of Potsdam, and Academy of Media Arts Cologne, alongside significant research collaborations with German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and German Research Foundation (DFG) projects focused on visualization in knowledge communication and gender relations.

She actively leads the University of Bayreuth's Media Studies department within the Cluster of Excellence framework, directing research teams investigating digital epistemologies and audiovisual knowledge production in transnational contexts.