UNIVERSITY OF COLOGNE

Anne Kubai's research can be roughly divided into three distinct yet often overlapping agendas: (a) religion in peace and conflict, gross violations of human rights, transitional justice (b) post-conflict social political reconstruction, development and the sustainability discourse (c) international migration, human trafficking and transnationality. A great deal of her work has focused on peacebuilding and reconciliation after mass violence/grave violations of human rights. She has a keen interest in the way spiritualties (indigenous and others) shape social-political developments, post-conflict social reconstruction and the sustainability discourse with a particularly focus on Africa south of the Sahara - the Horn and Great Lakes regions. In her research, she seeks to understand the different actors (state and non-state) in the various conflicts, the nexus of religion and social processes (the changing social/cultural institutions and the emerging ‘voids’ and inequalities) which are at work in the making and unmaking ethnicities; and the impact these can have on peace, sustainable development, psychosocial well-being and stability of the communities concerned. She probes the link between inequality, poverty and conflict-generated international migration and human trafficking. In the last decade, she has become interested in exploring this link with regard to African migrant communities in Sweden (and other places in Europe). Her interest in the ways in which individuals and communities are affected by mobility, forced migration and displacement, has led her to research experiences of violence among African women migrants, psychosocial well-being of refugees, violence experienced by undocumented women migrants, women victims of human trafficking forced into prostitution, and other categories of immigrants. Her research is largely qualitative and field-based, relying on plurality of methods and theoretical approaches.

Current research projects

(a) Principal investigator for a study on unaccompanied minor migrants in Sweden. The production of deportability in Sweden: the asylum procedures for unaccompanied refugee minors in an era of crisis discourse. The project is funded by the Swedish Research Council. See https://www.swecris.se/betasearch/details/project/201803356VR

(b) Working on a monograph based on a recently completed project: Conflict and progress in Kenya: A country caught between insecurity and social development. The project was funded by the Swedish government Research Council for Sustainable Development (FORMAS). http://proj.formas.se/detail.asp?arendeid=8840&x=250&y=20&sprak=1&redovisning=0

(c) Principal investigator for a study on trafficking and prostitution of African women in Europe: “Ritually bound and sold”: Religious beliefs and practices in trafficking and prostitution of African women in Europe (RETRAP). The project is funded by the Wallenberg Foundation

(d) Working on monograph entitled Embracing one another in Rwanda: Moving on, a new mindset, and a new moral order.

ACADEMIC QUALIFICATIONS

- 2008 - Associate professor: Diploma warded by Uppsala 

PhD Degree

-1995 - PhD, University of London, Great Britain. Kubai's doctoral thesis analyzed the process of the construction and consolidation of urban ethno-religious enclaves and the competing identities and conflicts among the local and migrant communities in Meru, Kenya. In her examination of the trends in the region at the time, she traced the history of groups that can now be identified as the precursors of the present religious militants who have been active in the Horn of Africa for nearly two decades.

- 1988 - M.A University of Nairobi, Kenya. MA dissertation focused on sectarianism and ethno-religious politics in the early 20th century Nairobi.

- 1984 - B.Ed. University of Nairobi – Bachelor of Education degree (Teaching and learning theory and practice, teacher education, English literature and religious studies).

LANGUAGE SKILLS

English: She has native skills in spoken and written English language. 

Swedish: She has working knowledge of the Swedish language

Swahili: This is her second language. 

4 African languages: She has good skills in four other African languages

SUMMARY OF EMPLOYMENT HISTORY

Current employment

2019-09-01 to present - researcher at the School of Historical and Contemporary Studies, Södertörn University in Sweden.

Other affiliation

2021-2023: Research fellow at Stellenbosch University, South Africa. This is an appointment “to give recognition to individuals for their proven specialized expertise, and to involve them in the research programmes of the relevant organisational unit”.

Previous employment

- 2017-2019 July - Associate professor and researcher at the Center for Multidisciplinary Studies on Racism (CEMFOR), Uppsala University.

-2012 -2015: Researcher with teaching duties at the Hugo Valentin Centrum, Uppsala University

-2008 August: She joined Uppsala University.

- 2011 February to 2011 December: Researcher at Nordic Africa Institute.

- 2008 March - 2009 February: Senior Social Scientist at the Department of Public Health Sciences, Division of International Health Care Research, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden.

- 2004: August to July 2008: Research Director for Life & Peace Institute, an International Ecumenical Centre for Peace Research and Action in Uppsala, Sweden.

- 2001: August to 2004 July, She worked as an expert for the Rwanda Ministry of Education Human Resource Development Program funded by the UNDP and the World Bank.

-1995 May to 2001 June, She was employed as a lecturer at the department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, Kenyatta University, Nairobi, Kenya.

Other positions held recently

- 2016 – 2020: visiting professor at the Institute for Women, gender and Development Studies, Egerton University, Kenya.

- 2016 – 2018: Academic Associate at the Research Institute for Theology and Religion, University South Africa, Pretoria.

EXPERIENCE IN RESEARCH LEADERSHIP

- While working as Research Director for Life & Peace Institute, which was an International Ecumenical Centre for Peace Research and Action in Uppsala, Sweden, she horned her skills in fund raising and research administration. The position carried the following responsibilities:

1. Providing leadership for the research unit of the institute, both in the head office in Uppsala and in the different field offices in the Horn of Africa, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Congo Brazzaville, and coordinating research on:

1. Religion in conflict and peace building

2. Human rights and economic justice

3. Non-violent conflict transformation

2. Editing the manuscripts from the research projects, which were then published and disseminated by Life & Peace Institute.

3. Carrying out own research on the three themes above.

4. As a member of senior management team, she also represented the institute at different fora.

As head of an academic department at Kigali Institute of Education, Rwanda, she had the following responsibilities:

• Senior lecturer

• Daily administration of the department – taking care of the affairs of both students and staff, representing the department at the university senate and stakeholders and donor’s meetings.

• Coordinating the assessment of teacher-trainees during the school practice

• Training of teachers through “Distance Learning” program implemented in various pre-service teacher-training centers throughout Rwanda

• Coordinating the Committee for Gender and Life Skills Education at the university

• Developing the curriculum for different levels in the national education system.

• Supervising students writing memoires (BA dissertations)

2008-2021, She has been a principal investigator (PI) for nine (9) large international research projects and a co-investigator in 2 large projects. Therefore, she has proven experience of research grant administrations.

Membership to networks and professional associations

She is a member of a number professional associations and networks in different parts of the world.

(a) Peer reviewed original research journal articles

Kubai, A. (2016). “Confession’ and ‘Forgiveness’ as a strategy for development in post-genocide Rwanda”. In HTS Teologiese Studies / Theological Studies; Vol 72, No 4 (2016), 9 pages.

Kubai, A and Ahlberg, B. (2013). “Making and unmaking ethnicities in the Rwandan context: implication for gender-based violence, health, and wellbeing of women.” In Ethnicity & Health. Volume 18, Issue 5, 469-482.

Kubai, A. (2013). “Being here and there: migrant communities in Sweden and the conflicts in the Horn of Africa”. In African and Black Diaspora: An International Journal. Vol. 6, No. 2, 174-188.

Kubai, A. (2007). “Between Justice and Reconciliation: The Survivors of Rwanda”, in African Security Review vol.16 No.1. 53 - 66.

(b) Peer reviewed anthologies

Kubai, A. 2020. “The “Africa Rising” Paradox, Human Trafficking, and Perilous Migration Across the Sahara and the Mediterranean to Europe”. In The Governance, Security and Development Nexus: Africa Rising. Edited by Kenneth Omeje. Basel: Spring Nature (as Imprint of Palgrave Macmillan), pp. 355-370.

Kubai, A. 2021. “Burying the hatchet: Exploring traditional practice of reconciliation among pastoralist communities in East Africa”. In RECONCILIATION AFTER WAR. Historical Perspectives on Transitional Justice. Edited by Rachel Kerr and Henry Redwood.

Kubai, A. 2018. “No Ugali, ‘No Peace’, ‘No Life’. Nexus of Religion and human security in Kenya”. In African Intelectuals and the State of the Continent: Essays in Honour of Professor Sulayam S. Nyang. Edited by Olayiwola Abegunrin and Sabella Abidde, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, New Castle Upon Tyne, UK.

Kubai, A. 2017. “Trafficking of Ethiopian women to Europe - making choices, taking risks and implications”. In Ethiopians in an Age of Migration: Scattered lives beyond borders. Ed. Fassil Demisie. New York: Routledge.
 Kubai, A. 2014. “Conducting fieldwork in Rwanda: Listening to silence and processing experiences of genocide.” In Engaging violence: Trauma, Memory and Representation. Ed. Ivana Maćek Routeledge: London. Pp. 111-126. 210.

Kubai, A. 2014a. “Reinventing ‘tradition’. Social reconstruction and development in post-genocide Rwanda”. In Religion and Development. Nordic Perspectives on Development in Africa. Ed. Tomas Sundnes Drønen, New York: Peter Lang. Pp.87-107.

Kubai, A. 2014d). “Accommodation and tension: African Christian communities and their Swedish hosts”. In Pace, E. et. al. (eds.) The Changing Soul of Europe: Religion and Migration in Northern and Southern Europe. London: Ashgate.

One of a number of contributors to "A Horn of Africa in Northern Europe-An Email Conversation”. In Michael Eachcrane, M (ed.). Afro-Nordic Landscapes: Equality and Race in Northern Europe. New York: Taylor & Francis (2014a).

Kubai, A. 2013a. 'Singing the Lord’s Song in a Strange Land’: Challenges and New Frontiers for African Churches in Sweden. In Asamoah-Gyadu, K, Drea Fröchtling and Kunz-Lübcke, A (eds.). Babel is Everywhere! Migrant Readings from Africa, Europe and Asia. New York: Peter Lang.

Kubai, A. 2013. “It Was the Work of Satan: perpetrators rationalize the horror of Rwandan genocide”. In Nordqvist, K. (ed.) Gods and Arms. On Religion and Armed Conflict. Eugene. WIPF and STOCK Publishers.

Kubai, A. 2010. “Gacaca and Post-Genocide reconstruction in Rwanda”, in F. Wijsen et.al. (eds.) Indigenous Voices in sustainability discourse. Spirituality and the struggle for a better quality of life. Berlin, LIT VERLAG. 

Kubai, A. 2010. “Historical and Cultural Dimensions of Militia and Rebel Groups in Africa”, in Okumu, W. and Ikelegbe, A (eds.) Militias, Rebels and Islamist Militants. Human Security and State Crisis in Africa. Pretoria, Institute of Security Studies. Pretoria, Institute of Security Studies.

Kubai, A. 2008. “Living in the Shadow of Genocide: Women and HIV/AIDS in Rwanda”, in Hinga, T, Kubai, A. Maura, P and Hayanga, H. Women, Religion and HIV /AIDS in Africa: Responding to Ethical and Theological Challenges. Durban: Cluster Publications

(c) Research reports

Kubai, A. and Angi, K. 2019. ‘IN THE END NO WINNERS, NO LOSERS’. Psychosocial support in peacebuilding and reconciliation for conflict affected societies.

https://felm.org/wp-content7uploads/2020/01/felm_psychosocial-support-in-peace-building-and reconciliation-for-conflict-affected-societies_final.pdf

Samset, I, and Kubai, A. 2005. Evaluation of Released prisoners’ project in Rwanda. Report. Oslo: Norwegian Church Aid. Published by Chr. Michelson Institute, Norway. http://www.cmi.no/publications/publication/?2002=evaluation-of-the-releasedprisonersproject-in