I am a doctoral candidate in History at the University of Bern, Switzerland. Sometimes I also work as a journalist. My research interests include environmental history, the history of Africa and West Asia in the 20th and 21st century, armed conflicts and authoritarianism. I received an M.A. in Contemporary History from the University of Potsdam and a B.A. in Middle Eastern Studies/Islamic Studies from the Free University of Berlin.
My work has taken me to the DR Congo, Egypt, England, Kenya, Syria, Tanzania, Uganda and the US, among other places. I have received grants and fellowships from the Gerda Henkel Foundation, the University of Bern and the German Historical Institute in Washington, D.C.
From 2019 to 2021, I worked as an editor for a German popular science magazine. Between 2016 and 2019, I was active for a human rights organisation that supported civil society resistance against tyranny in Syria. As a freelance journalist, I repeatedly reported from the country’s civil war.
Memberships European Society for Environmental History, German Historical Association, Reporters sans frontières (German section)
Contact jan-niklas.kniewel(at)posteo(dot)net
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