Affiliates

Phillippe Asanzi

Phillippe Asanzi is a PhD candidate in Political Science in the African Doctoral Academy, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Stellenbosch University, South Africa. His doctoral dissertation focuses on the role and effects of Chinese state-owned agricultural enterprises in Africa.

Phillippe holds a Masters degree from the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. His Masters research project was on Chinese investments in Angola’s Construction sector. Prior to his doctoral studies, Phillippe worked as a research intern at the Institute of Security Studies (ISS) in Pretoria. He is fluent in French, English and conversant in Portuguese.

Besides China-Africa relations, Phillippe also maintain research interests in African politics, with a particular emphasis on state formation and conflict prevention.

Email: josephasanzi@yahoo.fr

Christine Hackenesch

Christine Hackenesch is a researcher at the Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungspolitik / German Development Institute (DIE) in Bonn, Germany, and a doctoral candidate at the Berlin Graduate School for Transnational Studies. Her research focus is on Chinese engagement in African and consequences for European development cooperation in Africa.

Christine holds a diploma in political science from the Free University of Berlin and a Master degree in comparative regional politics from Sciences Po in Paris. She is fluent in German, English, French and has basic knowledge of Chinese.

Email: Christine.Hackenesch@die-gdi.de

Hermanno Ndenguino-Mpira

Hermanno Ndenguino-Mpira is a PhD candidate in General Linguistics in the African Doctoral Academy, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Stellenbosch University, South Africa.

He previously studied in Gabon where he received his Honour’s degree in General Linguistics from the Université Omar Bongo in Libreville in 2005 . A graduate student at Stellenbosch University since 2006, Hermanno obtained an MPhil degree in Intercultural Communication in 2009. He is fluent in Myéné Nkomi (his Gabonese mother tongue), French, and English.

Hermanno has been working on his PhD thesis in 2010, having been awarded a scholarship for full-time doctoral studies from the African Doctoral Academy, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Stellenbosch University. His research project is a linguistically-oriented critical discourse analysis of the People Republic of China’s current approach to relations with sub-Saharan African countries, as expressed in official documents.

His research interests include: China-Africa relations, China’s culture, political discourse, critical discourse analysis, intercultural communication.

Email: 15001997@sun.ac.za

Dr. Cobus van Staden

Dr. Cobus van Staden is a postdoctoral research fellow with the Department of Political Science and the Centre for Chinese Studies.

He received his BA from the University of Johannesburg in 1998, after which he worked as a journalist for the South African Broadcasting Corporation. In 2001 he was awarded the Japanese Government’s Monbukagakusho Scholarship for postgraduate work in Japan. He received his MA from Nagoya University in 2005. In 2008 he graduated with a PhD from Nagoya University’s Graduate School for Languages and Cultures. His dissertation concentrated on the international distribution of Japanese pop culture – particularly anime – as an instance of how capitalism is surpassing national culture in helping us to make sense of foreign culture. After graduating, he divided his time between research tracing the history of South African consumption of Japanese anime during apartheid, and documentary filmmaking. He worked as a documentary director and investigative journalist for the South African Broadcasting Corporation, producing twenty half-hour documentaries for the award-winning program ‘Special Assignment’.

Dr. Van Staden’s fields of interest include East Asia-driven cultural globalization, the expansion of Chinese influence in Africa and the contribution of Chinese and Japanese media to the formation of soft power networks. He is currently engaged in a research project tracking the expansion of Chinese and Japanese media in Africa.

Email: vstadenjfd@sun.ac.za