Dr. Katharina Mann

Katharina Mann studied Political Science at the Leibniz University Hannover and the Universidad de La Habana, Kuba and did her Master in Peace Studies and International Politics at the Eberhard-Karls-Universität Tübingen and the University of Cape Town in South Africa with a focus on conflict analysis, peace pedagogy and youth violence in urban contexts. She holds a PhD in International Relations from the TU Braunschweig and wrote her dissertation on Female Gangmembership in Medellin, Colombia. Between 2021 and 2023 Katharina ran a violence prevention project against sexual violence in the international civil peace service in Nicaragua.

Since 2024 Katharina is a research fellow at the Georg Eckert Institute where she works in the interdisciplinary project "Negotiating Democracy: Schools and the Politics of Education in the Colombian Peace Process" funded by the Gerda Henkel Foundation.

Publications and Scientific Presentations

2022

• Understanding Female Gang Membership in Areas of Urban Insecurity: An Analysis of Combo Girls in Medellín´s Gang Landscape. Online: nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:gbv:084-2022030310537.

2020

• Ethische Herausforderungen im Forschungsprozess mit GewaltakteurInnen: Felderfahrungen aus Medellín, Kolumbien. In: Zeitschrift für internationale Beziehungen 26(2).
• Einführung in das Forum: Ethik und Methoden in den Internationalen Beziehungen. In: Zeitschrift für internationale Beziehungen 26(2) (with A. P. Jakobi).

2019

• “Talking to Gangsters, Approaching Medellín´s ´mudo bajo´. Reflections on the Challenges of Doing Field Research in a Violent Context”´, paper presentation at DVPW IR section workshop, ´Ethik und empirische Methoden: Aktuelle Herausforderungen der Datenerhebung und -analyse in den IB´, 09–10 October, Braunschweig.
• “Beyond Rosario Tijeras: Benefits and Vulnerabilities of Female Gang Membership Medellín, Colombia”, paper presentation, Latin American Study Association (LASA) XXXVII International Congress, 24.–27. May, Boston, USA.
• Organisation of the panel "¿Resistencias o Continuidades? Como entender las intersecciones de la violencia, la comunidad, y las estructuras criminales en Medellín actual" at the Latin America Study Association (LASA), 24–27 May, Boston, USA.
• T.note Publikation "Combating insecurity through membership? Gang girls in Medellín, Colombia" Torino World Affairs Institute, 1 April.
• Die Erde als Konfliktgebiet. In: Vier Viertel Kult – Das Magazin der Braunschweiger Stiftung Kulturbesitz, Schwerpunkt: Die Erde, 4/2019 (mit A. P. Jakobi).

2018

• Field research, 27 July – 16 October in Medellín, Colombia.
• "The Governance of Gangs and Cartels in transnational Spaces of (In)Security", Latin American Study Association (LASA) XXXVI International Congress, 23–26 May, Barcelona, Spain.
• "Finding Peace? Female Gang Membership in Areas of Urban Insecurity. A Case Study of Medellín.", ISA Annual Convention, 4–7 April, San Francisco, USA.
• Field research, 30 January – 2 April in Medellín, Colombia.

2017

• "Understanding Female Gang Membership. Gender Deprivation Structures in Urban Conflicts.", Berlin Summer School in Social Sciences, Linking Theory and Empirical Research, 16–27 July, Berlin.
• Participation in the Berliner Methodentreff "Convention on Qualitative Social Science Conduction" Freie Universität Berlin, July, Berlin.
• Discussant "Gender Order in Transition? Social Reproduction in post-soviet Russia", Berlin Summer School in Social Science, Humboldt University and Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin (WZB), July, Berlin.
• Poster presentation at the Landesarbeitsgemeinschaft der Einrichtungen für Frauen- und Geschlechterforschung in Niedersachsen, Politiken der Reproduktion (LAGEN), 27–29 March, Hanover, Germany.

2016/2017

• Lehrförderprojekt "International Diplomacy and Negotiation", Innovation programme of the TU Braunschweig, October 2016 – September 2017, Braunschweig.

2014

• Field research on Domestic Violence in Khayelitsha (Cape Town), University of Cape Town, September – October, South Africa.