Research interests
Nationalism, practices of remembrance, historiography, bureaucrats, parenting, unschooling movement, performativity, play, humor, far right, racism, memes, digital ethnography
Research area
Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Germany
I am a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Social Anthropology and African Studies at Mainz University. My research interests cover a wide array of topics from nationalism, bureaucracy and state ritual, historiography and remembering, to parenting, performativity, play, humor, racism and the far right online. I have done extensive field research in West Africa (Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire) and Germany. I am also a board-game geek, theatre enthusiast, hand puppet-player and mother of three children (*2009, *2014, *2019). More recently I am trying to bring my interest in play and playing into anthropological teaching and the transfer of academic knowledge.
2024: „Only playing? Ethnographic perspectives on ludic fascism in Germany,“ Working Papers of the Department of Social Anthropology and African Studies, 209, https://www.ifeas.uni-mainz.de/files/2024/09/AP-209_NGuessan_Only-Playing.pdf.
2024 (with Kai Denker et al): Extrem rechte Internet – Meme als Mittel der politischen Propaganda, Demokratie gegen Menschenfeindlichkeit 2024 (2): 160-171.
2024: “Doing being father: Ethnographic perspectives on intimate fathering as identity work in Côte d’Ivoire”, Africa Today 70 (3): 3-23. https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/3/article/923028/pdf.
2023: (with Vincent Knopp et al) „Kreative ans Werk!“ Memes in extrem rechter Internetkommunikation. De:hate Report #5. Amadeu Antonio Stiftung. https://www.amadeu-antonio-stiftung.de/publikationen/rechtsextreme-memes/.
"Only Playing? Ethnographic perspectives on accelerationism, metapolitics and ludic fascism", Departmental lecture series, Ifeas, January 28th 2025.
“Only playing – ethnographic perspectives on ludic fascism in Germany", EASA, Barcelona, July 2024.
“Red-pill-stories in far-right digital culture or how to study (post)-truth anthropologically”, International Workshop “The Politics of (Post-)Truth: Knowledge-Making in Fragmented Worlds of Mis/Trust”, Department of Anthropology and African Studies, Mainz University, 10.-12.7.2024.
“Memetapolitics: accelerationism, humor and play in post-digital activism of the far right,” Institutskolloquium Ethnologie Frankfurt.21.5.2024.
„Hol mir ma den Hidler her“ - (Post)digitale Vergemeinschaftung am Beispiel der Bürgerbewegung Pax Europa,“ MOTRA-K, Wiesbaden, 7.3.2024.
„Eine ethnologische Perspektive auf Rassismus im Gesundheitsbereich, Einführungsvortrag, Stiftung gegen Rassismus,“ Frankfurt am Main, 18.11.2023, https://stiftung-gegen-rassismus.de/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Beitrag_NGuessan.pdf, last accessed 31.7.2024.
„Rechtsextreme setzen auf Humor“, F.A.Z. 9.7.2024.
„Rechtsextreme Szene setzt auf Memes im Internet,“ Petra Giegerich Kommunikation und Presse, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, 26.6.2024, https://idw-online.de/de/news835993.
Tool: (with Kai Denker et al): Mem(e)ory – a game about far right memes to be used in primary prevention workshops.
Workshop: „Parapolitical trolling – ethical and methodological dilemmas in researching far right discourse, imagery and actors”, Schader-Stifung Darmstadt, October 12, 2023.
Talk: Eine ethnologische Perspektive auf Rassismus im Gesundheitsbereich, Einführungsvortrag, Stiftung gegen Rassismus, Frankfurt am Main, 18.11.2023. https://stiftung-gegen-rassismus.de/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Beitrag_NGuessan.pdf, last accessed 31.7.2024.
Talk: „Aktiv werden gegen Rechtsextremismus und Rassismus: was können WIR tun?“ Podiumsdiskussion im Rahmen des Workshops „In Hessen aktiv gegen Rechtsextremismus und Rassismus“, Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, 1.6.2023, Hanau.