Dr. John Njenga Karugia is known to many among social media platform X circles as the friendly Germany-based Kenyan professor with vast insight on broad society issues. When not asking President William Ruto the tough questions or imparting tertiary knowledge in the corridors of Frankfurt universities, he could be found in the streets of KoX baying for the hot ‘tea’ served by our local politicians and celebrities.
Dr. Karugia is a scholar of Transregional Memory Studies, Indian Ocean Studies, Africa-China Relations, Asia Pacific Studies and Area Studies. He is a member of the Frankfurt Memory Studies Platform with a focus on memory politics, memory ethics and responsible cosmopolitanism.
He has taught courses in political science, cultural studies, African Studies, Asian Studies, Area Studies and literary Studies during various institutional stints.
Dr. John Njenga Karugia is a Visiting Professor at Hasanuddin University in Makassar, Indonesia, with a focus on transoceanic maritime research, and teaching that focus on diverse aspects of the Afrasian Sea, otherwise referred to as; Ziwa Kuu, Bahari, Ratnakara, the Swahili Sea, Indian Ocean, Indic Ocean, Bahari Hindi.
His current research project analyzes transregional memory politics and memory ethics of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), the Partnership for Global Infrastructure Investment (PGII), the Middle Corridor Initiative and Global Gateway at the Humboldt University of Berlin.
Dr. Karugia holds a PhD (Doctor of Philosophy) from the University of Leipzig, a Master’s degree in Global Studies from the University of Leipzig and a bachelor’s degree from Kenyatta University.
He has also held several Postdoc positions at Goethe University Frankfurt and at the Humboldt University of Berlin.
He is a widely networked acclaimed scholar and public intellectual. He has been a visiting scholar at many academic and non-academic institutions and a sought for speaker at conferences, workshops, universities, art spaces, museum exhibitions, think tanks and book and exhibition launches across the globe.
His work is based on extensive intensive fieldwork spanning much of the globe. He has conducted research in: Oman, Suriname, Indonesia, South Africa, Greece, Germany, Tanzania, Pakistan, China, Italy, Zanzibar, Turkey, India, Kenya, Japan, Netherlands.
Beyond research, teaching and publishing, he is a filmmaker, podcaster, a poet, a singer and an author.
Films
Afrasian Memories in East Africa (2018).
Books
Dr. Karugia has authored four books according to his official website, along with several chapters as a guest author in multiple books.
1. Afrasian Transformations: Transregional Perspectives on Development Cooperation, Social Mobility and Cultural Change.
2. Afrasian Connectivities—Entangled Cultures, Literatures and Politics Between Africa and India.
3. Chinese Migration to Tanzania: The Political Economy of Chinese Migration to Tanzania in a Transnational and Translocal Context.
4. Africa Conflict Prevention: Early Warning and Early Response: A Critical Analysis of ECOWAS, IGAD and SADC Systems.
Publications
Karugia, John Njenga 2024: Transregional Memory Politics: Towards Responsible Geographies of Abrahamic Memory, Abrahamic Cosmopolitanism and Abrahamic Territorial Ethics for Israel and Palestine, Middle East Forum, Issue 21.
Karugia, John Njenga 2023: Provincializing European memory: transregional heritage politics and memory ethics across China’s Belt(s) and Road(s) Initiative(s), in, Mälksoo Maria (ed.) Handbook on the Politics of Memory, Edward Elgar Publishing.
Karugia, John Njenga 2021: The Indian Ocean as a Memory Space; A Conversation with Neera Kapur-Dromson, Brill, Leiden.
Karugia, John Njenga et. al 2021: Afrasian Connectivities – Entangled Cultures, Literatures and Politics Between Africa and India, in, Matatu Journal for African Culture and Society, Brill, Leiden.
Karugia, John Njenga et. al 2021 ‘Afrasian Transformations: Transregional Perspectives on Development Cooperation, Social Mobility and Cultural Change’, Brill, Leiden.
Karugia, John Njenga et.al 2021: Towards a Transregional Polylogue, in, Matatu Journal for African Culture and Society, Brill, Leiden.
Karugia, John Njenga / Erll, Astrid 2020: ‘Afrasian Sea Memories: Between Competitive and Multidirectional Remembering, in Afrasian Sea Memories, Afrasian Transformations’, in, Afrasian Connectivities – Entangled Cultures, Literatures and Politics Between Africa and India, in, Matatu Journal for African Culture and Society, Brill, Leiden.
Karugia, John Njenga 2018: ‘Connective Afrasian Sea memories: Transregional imaginaries, memory politics, and complexities of national “belonging”’, Memory Studies, 11(3), pp. 328-341. doi: 10.1177/1750698018771864.
Karugia, John Njenga / Schulze-Engler Frank / Malreddy, Pavan Kumar (2018) “Even the dead have human rights”: A Conversation with Homi K. Bhabha, Journal of Postcolonial Writing, 54:5, 702-716, DOI: 1080/17449855.2018.1446682.
Karugia, John Njenga (2018) ‘Silent North, Loud South: Reflections on Transnational Research in Afrasian and Afrabian Spaces, in, Mawdsley, Emma / Nauta, Wiebe ‘Researching South-South Development Cooperation: The Politics of Knowledge Production’, Routledge, London.
Karugia, John Njenga 2017: Interaktionsraum Indischer Ozean; In Handbuch Postkolonialismus und Literatur, Dirk Göttsche, Axel Dunker und Gabriele Dürbeck, Stuttgart: Metzler; 160-164.
Karugia, John Njenga 2016: Chinese Migration to Tanzania: The Political Economy of Chinese Migration to Tanzania in a Transnational and Translocal Context, Mkuki na Nyota Publishers, Dar es Salaam.
Karugia, John Njenga 2015: “Tazara Memory in Africa’s Contemporary Politics of Dignity”, International Aid Journal; 5th 2015 (6th in general) [2015年第5期,总第6期]; Beijing, 18-25.
Karugia, Njenga John 2011: The Chinese in Tanzania: Migrants and Investors, in Duke East Asia Nexus Journal, Duke University, Durham.
Karugia, Njenga John 2010: Chinese Migration to Tanzania; Chinese Deaths and Chinese Experts Cemetery in Dar es Salaam Tanzania, in Afrika Tanulmanyok 2010. IV. Evfolyam, 1. szam.
Karugia, Njenga John 2008: Africa Conflict Prevention: Early Warning and Early Response, A Critical Analysis of ECOWAS, IGAD, and SADC Systems, VDM Publishers, Saarbrucken.
Karugia John Njenga et. al 2008: Wittenberg Declaration for Entrepreneurial Spirit and Comparative Advantages in Africa, Wittenberg Center for Global Ethics, Wittenberg.