Lecturers and Language Assistants
The DAAD lecturer program
Lectureship is only set up at the request of a foreign university and in consultation with the Federal Foreign Office. The foreign university provides a corresponding position and remuneration for a lecturer and, in coordination with the DAAD, formulates the lecturer’s tasks and required qualifications. The DAAD looks for suitable candidates and proposes them to the university. In addition to the role of mediator, the DAAD also takes on promoting and supporting functions.
Lectureship is limited to up to five years. The lecturer is fully integrated into the teaching staff of the host university and receives a regular local salary. As a result of the appointment, the lecturer enters into an employment relationship with the host university with the same rights and obligations as local members of the university.
The DAAD supports the contractually bound lecturers employed by the university by preparing them for their tasks, supporting them in their work and granting them additional financial support in addition to their local salary.
More about the DAAD-Lectureship Programme
At the moment there are three DAAD lecturers in the East African region, two in Kenya and one in Uganda.
Kenya
Dr. Eliza Panagiotatou
Dr. Zoi Eleni (Eliza) Panagiotatou is the new DAAD Lecturer at the German Department of the University of Nairobi.
Dr. Panagiotatou is a linguist. Her research focuses on language in context, identity, and gender. Her doctoral dissertation is on West African women, language, and identity. She has studied in Athens, Edinburgh and Berlin, conducted research at the Free University of Berlin and taught at the University of Erfurt. In 2016-2019, she was a DAAD Lektor in Antananarivo, Madagascar. Prior to that, she spent a year as a language assistant in Cotonou, Benin.
Email:
Steven Heimlich
Steven Heimlich has been working as DAAD lecturer at the Department of Literature, Linguistics, and Foreign Languages at Kenyatta University in Nairobi since January 2023. His areas of focus include the didactics of German literature and the teaching of historical topics in the field of regional studies. After completing Master’s degrees in Political Science and History from Oldenburg, and German as a Foreign Language from Jena, and teaching positions at the Goethe-Institut Nigeria and the Goethe-Zentrum in Uganda, he served as a DAAD lecturer at Makerere University in Kampala from 2014 to 2020.
In addition to teaching courses for Kenyan students in the Education/Arts Bachelor’s program, Steven Heimlich also manages the TestDaF center at Kenyatta University and provides study and scholarship advice for students and researchers interested in studying in Germany.
Email:
Uganda
Rebekka Junker
After almost one and a half years of vacancy, the DAAD Lectorate/Lectorship Uganda is finally occupied again. Since mid-September 2021, there has been a successor for Steven Heimlich: Ms. Rebekka Junker has arrived in Kampala with her family and has taken over the lectorate duties in the German Department at the University of Makerere.
Rebekka Junker holds a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Freiburg and a Master’s degree in “German as a Foreign Language in the German-African Context” from the University of Leipzig and University of Stellenbosch. She taught “German as a Foreign Language” at the Goethe Institute Yaounde for six months and then worked as a DAAD language assistant in Winneba for one and a half years. After four and a half years in Freiburg, she is now moving back to the African continent with her family.
As a DAAD Lecturer, she provides information on studying and researching in Germany in Uganda and carries out other related activities in cooperation with the DAAD Regional Office in Nairobi and the Network German in Uganda.
E-Mail:
Facebook: www.facebook.com/DAAD.Uganda
The DAAD language assistant program
The DAAD supports more than 150 language assistants in 80 countries worldwide.
The DAAD language assistant program is a scholarship program aimed at young university graduates who not only want to gain practical teaching experience in teaching the German language abroad, but also seek to live in another country and experience intercultural exchange.
Language assistants are awarded a DAAD Scholarship, funding them for up to 10 months to teach German as a foreign language or German studies at a university abroad.
The locations must be covered by a DAAD lecturer, as language assistants are supervised and mentored by DAAD lecturers.
www.daad.de/de/im-ausland-studieren-forschen-lehren/lehren-im-ausland/daad-lektorenprogramm/
