Prof. Dr. Carola Lentz
Biography
Born on 21.04.1954 in Braunschweig
Short biographyCarola Lentz, born in Braunschweig in 1954, studied sociology, political science, German and education at the University of Göttingen and at Freie Universität Berlin. In 1987 she earned her doctorate at the University of Hanover und qualified as professor (Habilitation) in 1996 at the Freie Universität Berlin. From 1996 until 2002 she was professor of anthropology at Goethe University Frankfurt, and from 2002 until 2019 at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, where she is currently senior research professor. She served as president of the German Anthropological Association (2011-2015) and vice-president of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities (2018-2020). Visiting professorships and fellowships have taken her to France, the Netherlands, the United States and South Africa. As a fellow at the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin (Institute for Advanced Study Berlin) she led a focus group on the subject of Family History and Social Change in West Africa (2017-2018). Her research interests include ethnicity, nationalism, colonialism, politics of remembrance, middle classes in the Global South and labour migration. She conducted field research first in South America and, since 1987, regularly in West Africa. Her publications include Land, Mobility and Belonging in West Africa (2013), Remembering Independence (2018) and Imagining Futures: Memory and Belonging in an African Family (2022).
- 1972‑1979 Studied sociology, political science, German and education at the University of Göttingen and Freie Universität Berlin (first state examination for teaching at grammar schools)
- 1979‑1980 Studied sociology at the University of Göttingen
- 1981‑1982 Teaching internship and second state examination for teaching at grammar schools in Hamburg
- 1982‑1985 Postgraduate course in agricultural sciences of the tropics and subtropics, University of Göttingen (degree: Magister)
- 1987 Doctorate in sociology at the University of Hanover
- 1987‑1992 Lecturer at the Department of Anthropology at the Freie Universität Berlin
- 1992 Lecturer at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Marseille (ERASMUS programme)
- 1996 Qualified as professor at the Freie Universität Berlin (Habilitation)
- 1996–2002 Professor of anthropology at the Department of Historical Anthropology at the Goethe University Frankfurt
- 2002‑2019 Professor of anthropology at the Department of Anthropology and African Studies, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz
- Since 2019 Senior research professor at the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz
- Fellow at the International Research Center Work and Human Life Cycle at Humboldt Universität zu Berlin (2020 and 2012‑2013)
- Fellow at the Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study, South Africa (2019)
- Fellow at the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin, head of the focus group Family History and Social Change in West Africa (2017–2018)
- Fellow at the Hanse-Wissenschaftskolleg, Delmenhorst (2015)
- Melville J. Herskovits Prize of the African Studies Association for the book Land, Mobility and Belonging in West Africa (2014)
- Granted a chieftaincy title (Maalu Naa) in the Nandom Traditional Area, Ghana, Upper West Region (2013)
- Fellow at the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research and Fulbright scholar at Harvard University (2008‑2009)
- Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Halle/Saale (2003)
- Fellow at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences, Wassenaar (2000–2001)
- Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study and Research in the African Humanities, Northwestern University, Evanston (1993)
Carola Lentz was president of the Goethe-Institut as from mid-November 2020 to 2024. She is a member of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities and of the National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina. She is also a member of the advisory board of the German Federal Cultural Foundation, the German Language Council, the board of trustees of the German Academy for Language and Poetry, the board of #1014 New York, the board of trustees of the Giesecke & Devrient Foundation and the board of trustees of the Anne Frank Education Centre. She was furthermore a member of the academic advisory board of the Einstein Center Chronoi (2018-2019), secretary of the class of social sciences of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities (2016-2018), vice president of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities (2018-2020) and chair of the German Anthropological Association (2011-2015). She was also a co-editor of the Zeitschrift für Ethnologie and sat on the editorial boards of many other international journals.
