Mag. Dr. Eric Burton
Assistant Professor
Tel.: +43 512 507-44026
Fax: +43 512 507-44099
Room 40618
Education and Work Experience
- Since 4/2019 Assistant Professor in Global History at the Department of Contemporary History, University of Innsbruck
- 4/2019 Guest lecturer, University of Ghana, Legon/Accra, Ghana
- 2018-2019 Post-doc research fellow, Socialism goes global, University of Exeter
- 2017-2018 EEGA Leibniz Science Campus Guest researcher, University of Leipzig
- 2018 PhD in History, University of Vienna
- 2015-2019 Lecturer in African Studies and Development Studies, University of Vienna (with interruptions)
- 2014-2017 Pre-doc researcher in the project “Personal cooperation in development aid and socialist aid in the context of system competition”, Department of Social and Economic History, University of Vienna
- 2014 Bachelor of Arts in Cultural and Social Anthropology, University of Vienna
- 2013 Diploma (equivalent to MA) in Development Studies, University of Vienna
- 2011-2012 Term abroad, University of Dar es Salaam
Fields of Research and Teaching
- Global history
- East-South relations during the Cold War
- Decolonisation and liberation movements
- Socialisms and solidarities
- History of development
- African mobility during the Cold War
Professional Services
- Co-editor of historia.scribere
- Austrian Journal of Development Studies (JEP) (editorial committee)
- Stichproben. Vienna Journal of African Studies (editorial committee)
- European Network in Universal and Global History (ENIUGH)
- Mattersburger Kreis für Entwicklungspolitik
- Southern Africa Documentation and Cooperation Centre (SADOCC)
- Vereinigung Deutscher Historikerinnen und Historiker (VDH)
- African Studies Association Germany (VAD)
- Book reviews / peer reviews for H-Diplo, Third World Quarterly, International History Review, H-Soz-Kult, H-Socialism, Austrian Journal of Development Studies (JEP), Vienna Journal of African Studies
Awards and Prizes
- Nominated by University of Innsbruck for teaching award Ars Docendi – Austrian State Prize, for the course Postcolonial Innsbruck (together with Konrad Kuhn)
- Shortlisted for LehrePlus! teaching award for the course Postcolonial Innsbruck (together with Konrad Kuhn)
- Walter Markov Prize 2020 – PhD dissertation prize awarded by European Network in Universal and Global History
- Research fellowship Eastern Europe – Global Area (EEGA) Leibniz Science Campus guest researcher, University of Leipzig, 2017-2018
- Dissertation writing grant, University of Vienna, 2017
- Merit grant, University of Vienna, 2012/13
- Research grant for field work in Tanzania, University of Vienna, 2012
- Merit grant, University of Vienna, 2011
Memberships
- European Network in Universal and Global History (ENIUGH)
- Mattersburger Kreis für Entwicklungspolitik
- Southern Africa Documentation and Cooperation Centre (SADOCC)
- Vereinigung Deutscher Historikerinnen und Historiker (VDH)
- African Studies Association Germany (VAD)
Selected Publications
- From Convergence to Divergence. Mozambique’s Failed Campaign to Join Comecon and the Collapse of East-South Solidarity, ca. 1977–1985. In: Cold War History (2023, FirstView).
- The Travelogue: Imagining Spaces of Encounter —Travel Writing between the Colonial and Anti-colonial in Socialist Eastern Europe 1949–1989. Together with Zoltán Ginelli, James Mark, and Nemanja Radonjic. In: Kristin Roth-Ey (ed.): Second-Third World Spaces in the Cold War: Global Socialism and the Gritty Politics of the Particular (London: Bloomsbury Press, 2023), 237–260.
- Development. Together with James Mark and Steffi Marung. In: James Mark and Paul Betts (coords.): Socialism Goes Global: The Soviet Union and Eastern Europe in the Age of Decolonisation (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2022), 75–114.
- Innsbruck postkolonial: Eine Stadt mitten in den Bergen – verstrickt in globale koloniale Verhältnisse? (WebApp, edited together with Konrad Kuhn in cooperation with Stadt Innsbruck), 2023.
- In Diensten des Afrikanischen Sozialismus. Tansania und die globale Entwicklungsarbeit der beiden deutschen Staaten, 1961-1990 (Berlin/Boston: DeGruyter Oldenbourg; Studien zur Internationalen Geschichte 49, 2021).
- Antikoloniale Solidaritäten im Konflikt: Panafrikanismus, Panarabismus und afroasiatische Beziehungen in Kairo, 1956-1963. In: Stichproben. Vienna Journal of African Studies 21/40 (2021): 43-80.
- Sozialistische Globalisierung. Die Tagebücher der DDR-Freundschaftsbrigaden in Afrika, Asien und Lateinamerika. Together with Immanuel Harisch. In: Zeithistorische Forschungen 17/3 (2020): 578-591.
- Navigating socialist encounters: Moorings and (dis)entanglements between Africa and East Germany during the Cold War. Together with Anne Dietrich, Immanuel Harisch, and Marcia Schenck, Berlin/Boston (DeGruyter/Oldenbourg), forthcomig 2021 as volume 1 of the series “Africa in Global History“
- Decolonization, the Cold War and Africans’ routes to overseas education, 1957-1965. In: Journal of Global History Vol. 15, No. 1 (2020): 169-191.
- Hubs of decolonization. African liberation movements and Eastern connections in Cairo, Accra and Dar es Salaam. In: Southern African Liberation Movements and the Global Cold War “East”: Transnational Activism 1960-1990. Edited by Lena Dallywater, Helder A. Fonseca and Chris Saunders. Berlin (De Gruyter) 2019
- Diverging visions in revolutionary spaces: East German advisers and revolution from above in Zanzibar, 1964–1970. In: Between East and South: Spaces of Interaction in the Globalizing Economy of the Cold War. Edited by Anna Calori, Anne-Kristin Hartmetz, Bence Kocsev, James Mark and Jan Zofka. Berlin (De Gruyter Oldenbourg) 2019
Projects
- Hubs of Decolonisation. Anti-imperial infrastructures, visions and mobilities in Cairo, Accra and Dar es Salaam, 1956-1966 (current project), Universität Innsbruck
- Postcolonial Innsbruck
- Bars, curtains and pipelines: Conjunctures of African mobility towards and beyond Eastern Europe during the Cold War, SFB 1199/EEGA, Universität Leipzig