Since 1 April, Dr Kaya de Wolff has held the position of Visiting Professor for Gender and Diversity at the Institute of Communication and Media Studies.

Her research is situated at the intersection of media and communication studies, memory studies, postcolonial and decolonial theory, political violence research.

Kaya de Wolff studied Applied Cultural Studies (Magister degree) with majors in media and communication, art and visual culture, and architecture and urbanism at Leuphana University Lüneburg, Université Rennes 2 (France), and the University of São Paulo (USP) in São Carlos, Brazil.

Following the completion of her studies, she worked as a research associate at the Institute of Communication and Media (IfKM) at Leuphana University Lüneburg. At the same time, she developed exhibition projects and film festivals as an independent curator, collaborating with institutions including Halle für Kunst Lüneburg and the Goethe-Institute Portugal in Lisbon.

Supported by a scholarship from the Hans-Böckler-Foundation, Dr de Wolff pursued her doctoral research from 2014 to 2017 under the supervision of Prof. Dr Tanja Thomas at the Department of Media Studies, University of Tübingen. From 2018 to 2022, she was a member of the German Research Foundation (DFG) network Memory and Media / Communication and Media Memory Studies, coordinated by Prof. Dr. Christine Lohmeier and Prof. Dr. Christian Pentzold.

In 2021, she published her study on the recognition of the Ovaherero and Nama genocide in German-language press coverage with transcript Verlag in the series Critical Studies in Media and Communication, supported by an Open Access Grant. Her doctoral dissertation was shortlisted for the German Study Prize awarded by the Körber Foundation, and she remains a member of the foundation’s alumni network.

Between 2020 and 2022, Dr de Wolff served as Programme Manager and Deputy Regional Director at the Hamburger Volkshochschule, where she contributed to institutional strategies for diversity and digital transformation.

From 2022 to 2026, she worked as a postdoctoral researcher with Prof. Dr Dr h.c. Astrid Erll in the regional network Transformations of Political Violence Centre (TraCe) at Goethe University Frankfurt. Within this interdisciplinary research context, she investigated transformations in media cultures and collective memories of histories of violence—including military dictatorship, enslavement, and violence against Indigenous communities—as well as contemporary struggles for recognition in Brazil. Kaya de Wolff continues to be affiliated with the TraCe network and is a member of the Frankfurt Memory Studies Platform (FMSP).

Her current research has been published in leading international journals, including Cultural Dynamics, Memory Studies, Journal of Genocide Research, and International Journal of Transitional Justice, as well as in several edited volumes and handbooks.

• BA “Postcolonial und Decolonial Studies - Theorie und Kritik für die Kommunikations- und Medienwissenschaft”
• BA “Erinnerung, Macht und Gender in Medienkulturen”
• BA “Colonial History and Diversity in Journalism” (mit Dr. Christina Haritos)
• MA “Indigenous Women Rise Up: Memory and Activism in the Digital Era”
• MA “Re-Mediating Memories of Dictatorship: Intersectional Perspectives”

• Collective Memory in media and communication studies
• Postcolonial and decolonial theory
• Colonial violence, with a focus on German colonialism and the Ovaherero and Nama genocide
• Imperial press and media systems
• Political violence, social movements and digital media, with a focus on Brazil
• Discourse theory and discourse analysis
• Film analysis

Monograph

de Wolff, Kaya: Post-/koloniale Erinnerungsdiskurse in der Medienkultur. Der Genozid von Ovaherero und Nama in der deutschsprachigen Presse von 2001 bis 2016. Bielefeld: transcript, 2021.

Co-edited volumes

Thomas, Tanja, Lina Brink, Elke Grittmann and Kaya de Wolff (eds): Anerkennung und Sichtbarkeit. Perspektiven für eine kritische Medienkulturforschung. Bielefeld: transcript, 2018.

Journal articles (peer-reviewed)

de Wolff, Kaya Alice and Jephta U. Nguherimo. (2025): The Ovaherero and Nama People’s Struggle for Restorative Justice: An Activist-Scholar Lens. Journal of Genocide Research, 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1080/14623528.2025.2559463

de Wolff, Kaya, and Rebeca Lopes Cabral (2025): Democratizing memories of the Brazilian dictatorship: Permanent and temporary exhibitions in the Memorial da Resistência de São Paulo. Cultural Dynamics, 37 (1-2), 14-32. https://doi.org/10.1177/09213740251323353

de Wolff, Kaya, and Robbert-Jan Adriaansen (2024): Digitale und globale Erinnerungskulturen als Ausgangspunkt einer selbstreflexiven Pädagogik des Zuhörens. Forum Erwachsenenbildung (Themenheft: Kollektives Erinnern und Vergessen), 57 (1), 20-24.

Pamplona, Pablo, Beatriz Besen, Kaya de Wolff, Soraia Ansara, and Luis Galeão-Silva (2024): Racial (In)justice in Brazil: Reconstructing the Subaltern Memories of Poor and Black Women in the Brazilian Dictatorship, International Journal of Transitional Justice 18 (1), 49–65.

Chapters in handbooks and anthologies

de Wolff, Kaya (2026): Post-/koloniale Presse: Der Ovaherero-Genozid in der Berichterstattung des Deutschen Kaiserreichs bis zur Gegenwart. In: Nicole Garretón, Johannes Jansen, Alina Marktanner (eds): Zum Umgang mit der deutschen Kolonialvergangenheit. Gegenwärtige und historische Perspektiven. Wallstein Verlag, S. 83-102.

Lohner, Judith, and Kaya de Wolff (2022): Transnational Memory Cultures and Journalism. In: Handbuch kommunikationswissenschaftliche Erinnerungsforschung,eds. Christian Pentzold and Christine Lohmeier. De Gruyter.

de Wolff, Kaya (2021): Namibia in den Medien. In: Bechhaus-Gerst, Marianne/Zeller, Joachim (eds): Deutschland postkolonial? Die Gegenwart der imperialen Vergangenheit. 2. überarb. Auflage, Berlin: Metropol-Verlag, pp. 410-433.

de Wolff, Kaya, and Lina Brink (2018): Kosmopolitismus, Anerkennung und Sichtbarkeit – postkoloniale und feministische Ansätze zur Konturierung einer kritischen Medienkulturforschung. In: Thomas, Tanja/Brink, Lina/Grittmann, Elke/de Wolff, Kaya (eds) Anerkennung und Sichtbarkeit. Perspektiven für eine kritische Medienkulturforschung. Bielefeld: transcript, pp. 47-66.

Thomas, Tanja, Elke Grittmann, Kaya de Wolff, and Lina Brink (2018): Anerkennung und Sichtbarkeit in gegenwärtigen Medienkulturen: Ausgangspunkte. In: Thomas, Tanja/Brink, Lina/Grittmann, Elke/de Wolff, Kaya (eds): Anerkennung und Sichtbarkeit. Perspektiven für eine kritische Medienkulturforschung. Bielefeld: transcript, pp. 11-21.

de Wolff, Kaya (2017): The Politics of Cosmopolitan Memory from a Postcolonial Perspective: A Case Study on the Interplay of Holocaust Memory and the Herero’s Ongoing Struggle for Recognition and Restorative Justice. In: Henderson, Marius /Lange, Julia (eds.): Entangled Memories: Remembering the Holocaust in a Global Age. Heidelberg: Universitätsverlag Winter, pp. 387-427.

de Wolff, Kaya (2017): They say we have to forgive each other: Memory, Transitional Justice and (Post)colonialism in the context of the Angolan Civil War in the documentary My Heart of Darkness. In: Jäger, Benedikt/Hobuß, Steffi (eds) (Post)Colonial Histories – Trauma, Memory and Reconciliation in the Context of the Angolan Civil War. Bielefeld: transcript, pp. 37-79.

Working papers, guest contributions, and media outreach

Buckley-Zistel, Susanne/de Wolff, Kaya/Erll, Astrid/Frank, Sybille/Hannig, Nicolai/Mannitz, Sabine/Reiss, Mariel/Schwerer, Jona/Spittler, Sara-Luise/Wingender, Monika (2024): Memory Before Violence. Frankfurt/Main, TraCe Working Paper No. 5, DOI: 10.48809/PRIFTraCeWP2405.

de Wolff, Kaya: Gastbeitrag (2024): Ein missglückter Film und die umkämpfte Erinnerung an den Völkermord in Namibia. Übermedien 3.1.2024. URL: Ein missglückter Film und die umkämpfte Erinnerung an den Völkermord in Namibia | Übermedien (uebermedien.de)

de Wolff, Kaya, and Verena Lasso Mena (2024): Podcast #008 // Auf den Spuren politischer Gewalt – PRIF Talk (Podcast des Leibniz Peace Research Institute, 29.2.2024) https://blog.prif.org/2024/02/29/podcast-008-auf-den-spuren-politischer-gewalt

Forthcoming publications (all accepted, in print):

de Wolff, Kaya, and Jephta U. Nguherimo: “Our problem is that we don’t write papers”. Co-authoring as a decolonial strategy. A Conversation, in: Memory Studies, special issue: Decolonising the Study of Memory, accepted, forthcoming, October 2026.

de Wolff, Kaya: DisRemembering Colonial Violence in Journalism. An emergent field of research, in: Routledge Companion to Media and Memory, eds. Joanne Garde-Hansen and Red Chidgey, London: Routledge, forthcoming 2026.

de Wolff, Kaya, and Astrid Erll: Transformations of Media, Memory and Political Violence. In: The Routledge Handbook on Transformations of Political Violence, eds. Bonacker, Thorsten, Christopher Daase, Jonas Driedger, Lam-Phuong Nguyen Pham, and Jannik Pfister. New York: Routledge, forthcoming, 2026.

de Wolff, Kaya and Jephta U. Nguerimo: Memory and Activism after Colonial Genocide: the transnational Ovaherero and Nama people’s reparation movement, in Handbook of Memory Studies in Africa, co-edited with Sakiru Adebayo, Fabian Krautwald, Nancy Rushohora, and Hanna Teichler. De Gruyter/Brill, forthcoming in 2027.

Lopes Cabral, Rebeca, and Kaya de Wolff: Re-Constructing Black-Indigenous Spaces of Memory in São Paulo. In: Empire and the City: Migrations and Memories in the Lusophone World, eds. Elsa Peralta, Christoph Kalter, Jonas Prinzleve, Routledge, forthcoming, 2026.