Koen(raad) Stroeken is an associate professor in Africanist anthropology at Ghent University, who has published about fifty articles and authored three international peer-reviewed books, all largely dealing with healing cosmologies in East Africa and the Great Lakes region. He is the author of Moral Power: The Magic of Witchcraft in the Berghahn Series ‘Epistemologies of healing’ (2012 paperback). His ethnographic fieldwork includes initiations into the Chwezi spirit cult and Bunamhala/ Busumba (see Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 2006, Ethnos 2008, Anthropological Theory 2011). As embodied reflections of local institutions, these cultic practices are crucial to understanding the political history of equatorial Africa. This he argues in his upcoming book, Medicinal Rule: Anthropologizing the history of kingship in east and central Africa.
Koen coordinates the VLIRUOS-IUS programme Gre@t with Mzumbe University as well as implementations of the digital anthropology tool Zone-it. Since 2010 he has supervised seven completed PhD’s at UGent (Wim van Daele, Anja Veirman, Ivo Ngade, Troy Thomas, Mrisho Malipula, Adrien Munyoka, Karen De Looze). He currently supervises PhD research projects in sensorial, medical and political anthropology: Karin van Bemmel on Nodding Syndrome in Uganda (with Rijk van Dijk), Felix Kaputu on Chokwe kingship and identity (with Jan Broekaert), Mohamed Ghasia on digital anthropology in Tanzania (with Egbert Desmet), Lurdes Rodrigues da Silva on Reproductive Health Programmes in Mozambique, Jair Schalkwijk on local NGO’s in Suriname, Dominik Phyfferoen on Dagomba urban transformations of music styles (with Marc Leman), Dieter Devos on sensorial healing in Mozambique, Hannelore Vandenbergen on the Hutereau expedition at The Africa Museum (KMMA, with Vicky Van Bockhaven). Koen is the coordinator of the Belspo project CongoConnect with KASK and The Africa Museum.
For an overview of publications or written work check the following links: