Biografie
(THAT’S ‘BIOGRAPHY)
I am an award-winning scholar, who is an Associate Professor of 20th-century European Women’s and Gender History at the University of New Mexico. I specialize in the histories of post-1945 Europe, the African/Black diaspora, social movements, Black internationalism, intellectualism, as well as gender and sexuality.
My research examines the contours of the African/Black diaspora in Europe, expanding notions of Blackness, queerness, and community in the process. I focus on minoritized communities’ efforts to resist and challenge racism through cultural, political, and intellectual means. Their embodied experiences and everyday archives offer me invaluable insights into European history. Indeed, studying these dynamic communities helps me understand the often fraught issues of race, belonging, exclusion, and citizenship in Europe. Recently, I have taken an interest in biography and life writing. I enjoy this genre as a way of exploring the interiority of historical subjects’ lives and understanding the Black quotidian.
I have published pieces in the Signs, Journal of Civil and Human Rights, The German Quarterly, Aus Politik und Zeitgeschichte (APuZ), and other journals. I coedited the volume, Rethinking Black German Studies: Approaches, Interventions and Histories (Peter Lang 2022 pb, 2018), as well as published chapters in Gendering Post-1945 German History (Berghahn 2019) and To Turn this Whole World Over (University of Illinois 2019).
My award-winning manuscript, Mobilizing Black Germany: Afro-German Women and the Making of a Transnational Movement (University of Illinois 2020), offers the first full-length study of the history of the modern Black German movement of the 1980s to the 2000s. It centers Black German women’s activism and shows how their voices and actions were critical in shaping ideas about Black intellectualism, politics, and solidarity in Germany. Mobilizing Black Germany has received numerous awards and recognition. A German translation entitled, Black Germany: Schwarz, deutsch, feministisch - die Geschichte einer Bewegung, appeared in April 2023 with Ch. Links Verlag in Berlin. In 2023, Germany’s Office for Political Education (Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung) selected the book for publication in a special edition to promote civic education in the Federal Republic.
I have held prestigious fellowships at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University (2023-2024), the American Academy in Berlin (spring 2023), the German Academic Exchange Service/Deutscher Akademischer Austausch Dienst (DAAD) Arts and Media fellowship, and others.
I have appeared in newspapers such as The Washington Post, GEO, L-Mag, Der Speigel Geschichte, as well as in documentaries, including the recent Netflix documentary Hitler and the Nazis: Evil on Trial (2024).
Currently, I am working on several projects, including a biography of prominent Black German activist and writer May Ayim, tentatively titled Borderless and Brazen: The Life and Legacy of May Ayim, and Twenty-five Women Who Shaped European Feminisms, a volume on European feminisms, which is under contract with Routledge. For the latter volume, I am working together with Patricia Tilburg of Davidson College. I also serve on multiple editorial boards and advisory boards, including the Friends of the German Historical Institute, European History Quarterly, the Journal of Women’s History, and the Central European History journal, to name a few. In 2022, I was elected to the executive board of the German Studies Association and began serving a three-year term in 2023. I am also an editor of the “Imagining Black Europe” book series at Peter Lang Press.
*When I am not working, I enjoy hanging out with my family as well as yoga, horseback riding, and hiking.
Black Germany
Comprehensive, detailed, profound and based on a variety of sources, Black Germany traces the emergence and development of the modern Black movement in Germany from the 1980s to the 2000s.
"Tiffany N. Florvil is doing pioneering work. Her book is helping to ensure that Black activism in Germany is finally recognized for what it is: part of German history." - Alice Hasters
Ressourcen
(GERMAN FOR ‘RESOURCES’)
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ADEFRA – Schwarze Frauen in Deutschland
Founded in the 1980s, this organization played a pivotal role in the Afro-German movement of the 1980s and 90s. They continue to host events and support Black women in Germany today.
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Afrodeutsch–afroinformiert
A social space devoted to showing as many sides of the Afro-Deutsch experience as possible.
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Here and Black
Based in Freiburg, this is a site dedicated to making more visible the experiences of Black people in the past and present of Europe, Germany, and Southwest Germany. It offers a wide range of posts and commentary, events, and testimonies.
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Black German Heritage and Research Association
The Black German Heritage and Research Association documents and supports the activities of Black Germans worldwide.
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Deutsches Zentrum für Integrations-und Migrationsforschung (DeZIM)
Conducts research on integration and migration, consensus and conflict, social participation and diversity, as well as discrimination and racism. It consists of the DeZIM Institute in Berlin and a nationwide network of research institutions, the DeZIM Research Association.
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Die Fasiathek- eine Präsenzbibliothek aus Schwarzer Perspektive
The "Fasiathek" is a learning center with a reference library for students and adults, which has opened its doors since March 26, 2022. The Fasiathek is a living room for the Black Hamburg community that tells African stories, celebrates African cultures and raises awareness of the diversity of the African diaspora.
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Each One Teach One
A community-based empowerment project that began in 2014, Each One Teach One comprises an after school Black Diaspora School for youth and the Vera Heyer archiv, which is a private archive of documents related to Black German history.
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ISD – Initiative Schwarze Menschen in Deutschland
Founded in 1985, this organization works for the advancement of people of African descent in Germany.
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Fresh Magazine – Black Austrian Lifestyle
Founded by Simon Inou, Fresh Magazine is the first media presence dedicated to covering Black life in Austria.
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Homestory Deutschland
A traveling exhibit of historical and contemporary Black German biographies.
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Label Noir
An Afro-German theater ensemble founded in 2009.
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M-Media: Diversity Media Watch Austria
Offering extensive coverage and critical analysis of how the Austrian media portrays and discusses racial and ethnic minorities in the news.
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Der Braune Mob
Founded in 2001, Der Braune Mob calls itself Germany’s first Black media watchdog.
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Black German Cultural Society
An American organization of mixed-race children born in Germany under occupation, it serves as a network and a forum to facilitate awareness of issues that affect Black Germans and their descendants.
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RosaMag
An online lifestyle magazine that informs, inspires and empowers Black women and friends. ROSAMAG portrays the multifaceted lives of the modern Black woman.
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Auch ich bin Deutschland
Tumblr page created to promote Germans of different heritages and backgrounds.
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Amadeu Antonio Stiftung
One of Germany's foremost, independent non-governmental organizations working to strengthen democratic civic society and eliminate neo-Nazism, right-wing extremism, anti-Semitism, racism and other forms of bigotry and hate in Germany.
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DeutschPlus
Led by Germans of different heritages and backgrounds, DeutschPlus promotes conversations about diversity and migration in Germany society.
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Joliba
Joliba is a registered non-profit organization and intercultural networking group in Berlin. The heart of their work includes focusing on specific experiences with interculturality, migration, war and refugee experience, as well as experiences with discrimination and racism.
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Maxim Gorki Theater
A leading theater in the capital of the GDR for almost four decades, the Maxim Gorki Theater and its ensemble are now the smallest of the five major state theaters in the state of Berlin.
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Center for Intersectional Justice (CJI)
Center for Intersectional Justice (CJI) is a non-profit organization based in Berlin. CIJ engages in advocacy and policy-oriented research to make anti-discrimination and equality policy more inclusive and address structural inequalities more effectively in Europe.
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LesMigras
LesMigras as a working group within Lesbenberatung stands for the rights of lesbian and bisexual Migrants, Black Lesbians and trans* individuals. The group lists one of their goals is “to stand up against all forms of violence and discrimination against lesbian and bisexual women, trans* and inter* (LBTI).
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GLADT
GLADT is an organization of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color lesbians, gays, bisexuals, Trans*, Inter*, and queers in Berlin. They work to address different levels of racism, sexism, trans- and homophobia, ableism, and other forms of discrimination.
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Ballhaus Naunynstrasse
The Ballhaus Naunynstraße stands for an artistic practice that has lastingly changed the German-speaking theater landscape: post-migrant theater.
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Oyun
Conceives, develops and implements artistic-cultural projects through decolonial, queer*feminist and migrant perspectives.
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Theodor Wonja Michael Bibliothek
The first Black Library in North Rhine-Westphalia.
Inspiration
(SURPRISINGLY THE SAME IN GERMAN AS ENGLISH)
i will be African
even if you want me to be german
and i will be german
even if my blackness does not suit you
i will go
yet another step further
to the farthest edge
where my sisters—where my brothers stand
where
our
FREEDOM
begins
I will go
yet another step further and another step and
will return
when i want
if i want
and remain
borderless and brazen
(May Ayim, “Blues in Black and White”)
