Jan Dammel
Doctoral Fellow
Campus am Neuen Palais
Am Neuen Palais 10
Building 1, Room 0.15
14469 Potsdam
Germany
consulting hours
by appointment only
Dissertation Project
Entanglements of Theatre and Performance with German Colonialism in East Africa
The research project seeks to investigate entanglements of theatre and performance with German colonialism in East Africa, in particular today’s Mainland Tanzania, focusing on the period from 1905 to 1916.
Based on archival research in Tanzania and Germany, the study investigates as key research questions: If any, what kind of theatre practices were organized, or co-organized, by Germans in East Africa during the German colonial period? How did these theatre practices contribute to German colonialism and its consolidation? How were theatre and performance practices in the colony connected to modes of anti-colonial resistance? Which other prevalent dynamics in the field of theatre and performance did the contact of German institutions and communities with African and Indian communities result in?
Biography
I studied Theatre and Performance Studies at the Freie Universität Berlin, l’Université Lille III and the Universiteit van Amsterdam, graduating in 2016 with an M.A. in Theatre Studies.
Between 2017 and 2020, I have supported activities by Berlin Postkolonial as a volunteer, such as events, conferences and archival research on acts of anti-colonial resistance by citizens of former “German East Africa” residing in Berlin. I am also an event organizer with ten years of experience in organizing events in varying roles with and for different groups, organizations and institutions. In 2019, I joined the RTG Minor Cosmopolitanisms.
Research Interests
- Postcolonial Historiography
- Tanzanian Theatre History
- History and Legacies of German Colonialism
- Theatre and (Anti-)Racism
Events
Conceptualized and Organized Events
Listening for Black Feminism. A conversation as mixtape with Romi Ron Morrison and Layla Zami, organized by Layla Zami and Jan Dammel, and Screening of selected video work by Vicensia Shule as part of MCA FILM program, Minor Cosmopolitan Assembly, 10-12 November, 2022, Silent Green Berlin.
Detours – Approaches to Doing Decolonial Work During a Pandemic; a roaming workshop series with Jewish Museum Berlin, Floating University Berlin and xart splitta, September and October 2021, organized together with Yael Attia, Sofia Apostolidou, Anne Mikkelsen, Kathleen Samson and Johanna Heide.
Embodied Practices - Looking From Small Places - an online event with Sruti Bala and Dylan Kerrigan, November 19 2020, conceptualized and organized together with Tori Sinanan, Johanna Heide. Access the edited transcript, published in June 2021 with Potsdam University Press, on the Minor Constellations blog.
Event management for several events for BDP, amongst them Tag der Psychologie 2018 (Lecture, panel discussion and barcamp).
Panel discussion on decolonial student movements, Humboldt-University Berlin, September 2017.
Symposium How To Dance with Art, Foreign Affairs Festival, Berliner Festspiele, July 2014.
Organizational Support
“Restorative Justice after Genocide – Non-Governmental Congress on the Ovaherero and Nama Genocides, 1904-1908”, organized by Berlin Postkolonial and Alliance No Amnesty on Genocide, Berlin, October 2016.
International Symposium-Festival Moving Memory. Erinnerung in Bewegung, curated by Dr. Layla Zami and Oxana Chi, Technical University Berlin, October 2016.
Performatik festival, curated by Katleen van Langendonck, Kaaitheater Brussels, March 2015.
Conference Papers
“Performing Resistance”, Uhambo Luyazilawula: Embodied Wandering Practices, Performances Studies international Conference, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, August 2-5, 2023 (online participation).
“Performing Anti-Colonial Resistance: Tanzanian Post-Independence Theatre Practice” as part of Panel: “Decolonization as Theater - Decentering and Disrupting Colonial Spaces and Narratives”; 28th International Conference of Europeanists, ISCTE Lisbon, June 29-July 2, 2022.
„The Case of British Colonial Theatre in Tanzania”, Symposium UNDOING MASTERY in Science and Practice, Free University Berlin, February 25-26, 2022.
"Negotiating Positions: Performance Analysis as a Collaborative Practice", THE YES CONFERENCE, Justus-Liebig-University, Gießen, February 12-13, 2016.
“Aktion im Kasten, Aktion mit dem Kasten’. Zu Peter Weibels tele-aktionen.“, Conference “Kunst (im) Fernsehen: Akteure, Formate und Rahmungen von Fernsehperformances”, Free University Berlin, September 6 –7, 2014.
Publications
Dammel, Jan, Anika Marschall, Alexandra Portmann, Azadeh Sharifi, Ann-Christine Simke and Lisa Skwirblies. “Permanent Urgency. Beiträge zu einer macht- und rassismuskritischen Theaterwissenschaft.” Matters of Urgency – Herausforderungen der Gegenwart in Theater und Wissenschaft, edited by Doris Kolesch et al., Berlin Universities Publishing, 2025, pp. 268-284.
Dammel, Jan. “Review: Azadeh Sharifi, Lisa Skirblies (Ed.): Theaterwissenschaft postkolonial/dekolonial.” rezens.tfm, no. 2 (November 2022) https://doi.org/10.25365/rezens-2022-2-0
Bala, Sruti and Dylan Kerrigan. “Embodied Practices - Looking from Small Places.” Minor Constellations in Conversation Lecture Series, edited by Johanna Heide, Universitätsverlag Potsdam, 2021, pp. 1-11. https://doi.org/10.25932/publishup-50899 (co-conceiver/co-organizer of event and proofreader of transcript).
Dammel, Jan, Sebastian Brünger and Sandra Umathum. “Global und ortsspezifisch? Zu Mobilität und Zuschauen bei Rimini Protokoll.“ Arbeitsweisen im Gegenwartstheater, edited by Beate Hochholdinger-Reiterer et al., Alexander Verlag Berlin, 2015, pp. 82-88.