Jana Hönke

Prof. Dr. Jana Hönke serves as Professor and Chair for Sociology in Africa at the University of Bayreuth within the Faculty of Humanities and Social Science, Department of Sociology. She currently directs the ERC INFRAGLOB project Africa's Infrastructure Globalities and the DFG project Crafting the space to govern: Non-state practices of legitimation in Africa. She also co-leads the Postcolonial Hierarchies in Peace and Conflict research network and the Conflicts.Meanings.Transitions network.

Her research focuses on governance practices, examining how they are co-produced, contested, and travel across borders. Her current work investigates how political geographies transform through South-South relations, with particular attention to social and security arrangements around multinational corporations and large-scale infrastructure projects in Africa. Her fieldwork spans Sub-Saharan Africa (South Africa, DRC, Zambia, Tanzania, Mozambique, Guinea), Europe, China, and Brazil.

Prof. Hönke's recent publications reveal a strong focus on infrastructure development, South-South cooperation, and the political implications of resource extraction. Her work increasingly examines Chinese and Brazilian engagements in Africa, exploring how these relationships reshape governance structures and political geographies. Her research combines postcolonial theory with empirical analysis of infrastructure projects, security arrangements, and corporate governance practices.

She is actively engaged in academic leadership as the founder of the UBT Peace and Conflict research network, Deputy Spokesperson of the Bavarian Research Alliance Conflict, Peace and Security, and member of the Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy Hamburg (IFSH). She also serves on editorial boards of prominent journals including International Political Sociology, European Journal of International Relations, and Security Dialogue.

Prof. Hönke previously held positions as Associate Professor and Rosalind Franklin Fellow at the University of Groningen, lecturer at the University of Edinburgh, and researcher at Freie Universität Berlin. Her educational background includes a Magister (MA) in African Studies, Political Science and Economics from the University of Leipzig and a PhD in Political Science from Freie Universität Berlin.