Madeline J. Bass

Dr. Madeline J. Bass serves as a Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development, where she has been affiliated since June 2025 within Dr. Johanna Lukate’s Minerva Fast Track Research Group on Migration, Identity, and Blackness in Europe.

Her academic credentials include:

• PhD from the MOVES European Joint Doctorate (Horizon 2020/Marie Skłodowska-Curie Program), jointly awarded by Freie Universität Berlin and the University of Kent
• M.S. in Sociology from Portland State University through the Peace Corps Master’s International program, featuring three years of fieldwork in Western Oromia

Her research critically bridges Black Studies and Critical Indigenous Studies, examining African diaspora identities in Germany through interdisciplinary social science lenses. She investigates spatiotemporal resistance among Oromo women, hybrid liberation practices in post-imperial contexts, and Black femme spatial politics in urban Germany, contributing to decolonial and anti-racist scholarship.

Analysis of her 2020-2024 publications reveals consistent engagement with migration studies, critical race theory, and feminist geography. Key thematic patterns include archival explorations of diaspora organizing, critiques of neoliberal academia through scholar-activism, and investigations of indigenous economic alternatives to capitalism, often employing collaborative and decolonial methodologies.

No scientific awards are documented in the provided materials.

Information regarding student advising and research grants remains unspecified in the available documentation.

She actively contributes to the Minerva Fast Track Research Group’s collaborative projects on European Blackness, migration, and identity formation at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development.