Research:
Maike Messerschmidt is currently concluding two research projects. The first project deals with the question of how security sector reforms after internal armed conflicts interact with gender relations and militarisation and what effects this can have on political systems and societies. The project analyses this question using the example of (internationally supported and funded) security sector reforms in Uganda. Her second project investigates institutional and social constructions of masculinity in Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Uganda and how peacebuilding measures contributed to their transformation.
Additionally, she is currently doing research on postcolonial urban policing in African capital cities. Here, she enquires which colonial continuities still shape policing today. For this, she investigates the institutional and legal policing framework, everyday policing practices, and the material and spatial aspect of policing. The case studies she focusses on are Accra in Ghana and Nairobi in Kenya.
More generally, Maike Messerschmidt’s research interests include practice- and gender-theoretical approaches in International Relations, critical-feminist perspectives in peace and conflict studies, post- and decolonial as well as critical perspectives in security studies, armed conflict and peacebuilding processes, and militarisation and militarism in authoritarian regimes. Her regional focus is on Africa South of the Sahara.
Prior to taking up her doctoral research, Maike Messerschmidt worked at the office of the Konrad-Adenauer-Foundation Uganda and South Sudan as a programme officer in the field of political and civic education and democracy promotion. Her work focused on gender equality, civil society promotion, good governance and accountability, political parties in repressive regimes, and conflict and peace in South Sudan.
Teaching:
My teaching takes place as part of the “Cultural Studies” and “Social Sciences and Public Affairs” degree programmes at the University of the Bundeswehr Munich. My teaching covers a wide range of subjects and includes the methodological training of students as well as various thematic focuses.
In the Bachelor's program “Cultural Studies”, I offer seminars on international relations and encounters under conditions of post-coloniality as well as in the field of peace and conflict studies, while teaching in the Master's program “Cultural Studies” focuses on transnational civil society and social movements. I was also involved in the organization and implementation of a study trip to Washington and New York, during which the role of African states and actors in international politics was examined.
I am furthermore, involved in teaching in the field of peace and conflict studies, especially with a focus on peacebuilding, as well as in methodological training in the “Social Sciences and Public Affairs” Bachelor and Master programme.
At the University of Tübingen, I taught in the Bachelor's and Master's degree courses in Political Science. Here, too, I offered seminars on various areas of peace and conflict research. However, the majority of my teaching took place in the field of International Relations.