Clara Luisa
Wiest

At the heart of my PhD are knowledge politics: In many cases, different versions of the same story are created simultaneously but only one version is considered to be the truth while the others are discarded as conspiracy theory or fake news. To illustrate this, I refer to the connection my interlocutors in Tanzania have drawn between the deaths of several former African heads of state such as Patrice Lumumba and John Magufuli. I use the concept of the urban legend - legends of the contemporary - to point out that asking why a story circulates is usually just as important as its veracity.

In the context of my Master's thesis, I conducted ethnographic fieldwork in Kinshasa, the capital of the DR Congo. I lived with a host family and worked in the boutique of my host mother. In the process I learnt how her boutique constitutes a vital constant for the surrounding neighbourhood in the face of limiting infrastructures.

During my Bachelor studies at the Eberhard Karls University Tübingen, I spent one semester at the University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, studying and gaining my first relevant fieldwork experiences. I went on to write my BA thesis on beauty ideals of young women in Dar es Salaam, theorising questions of identity and the politics of body and mind.

Besides my academic work, I am Advocacy Manager at Wikimedia CH, where I work on questions of knowledge infrastructures and the influence of artificial intelligence on the digital commons.