Prof. Dr. Robel Afeworki Abay

Publications (selection)

Monographs

Afeworki Abay, R. (2024, forthcoming). Intersectional Disability Justice: Unsettling the Coloniality of Racialized and Gendered Ableism. London: Routledge.
Afeworki Abay, R. (2023). Decolonizing Knowledge: A Participatory Study on Discrimination and Participation in Employment of BIPoC with Disability Experiences. Bielefeld: transcript.
WestphalM., Boga, Engin, K., Afeworki Abay, R., & Schäfer, I. (2023). "I could live with normal people": Barriers, resources and wishes of people at the interface of flight, migration and disability. Kassel: Kassel University Press.
Afeworki Abay, R., & Nguyen, B.-M. (2022). anti-discrimination. Power. School: Political demands to combat institutional discrimination in the context of education and racism. Berlin: The post-migrant network of new German organizations (NDO) e.V.

Editorships of anthologies

Afeworki Abay, R., & Soldatic, K.(Eds.) (2024).Intersectional Colonialities: Embodied colonial violence and practices of resistance at the axis of disability, race, indigeneity, class, and genderLondon: Routledge.
Kleibl, T., Afeworki Abay, R., Klages, A.-L., & Rodríguez Lugo, S. (Eds.) (2024).Decolonizing Social Work. From Theory to Transformative Practice.London: Bloomsbury Publishing.
Afeworki Abay, R., Ihring, I., &Garba, F. M.(Eds.) (2024,forthcoming).The Coloniality of Human Hierarchy: Disrupting Racialized Capitalism and Fostering Transnational Solidarity. Lanham: LexingtonBooks.
Daňková, P., Afeworki Abay, R.,Xypolytas, N., &Kleibl, T. (Eds.) (2024). Transnational Mobility and Externalization of EU Borders: Social Work, Migration Management, and Resistance. Lanham: Lexington Books.
Afeworki Abay, R., Klages, A.-L., Rodríguez Lugo, S., & Kleibl, T. (Eds.) (2025,forthcoming).Decolonial Methodologies in Social Work. Foregrounding Pluriversalism in Teaching and Research. London: Bloomsbury Publishing.
Afeworki Abay, R., Attia, I., & Mecheril, P. (eds.) (forthcoming). Standardizations - demarcations - embodiments: Exploring the similarities, differences, intersections and interactions of racist and ableist orders. Bielefeld: transcript.
Afeworki Abay, R., Aytekin, V., Bergold-Caldwell, D., Bolokan, D., & González Athenas, M. (eds.). (in prep.). Decolonial perspectives and gender: potentials and pitfalls of decolonial analysis of embodied differences, intersectional inequalities and emancipatory practices of resistance. As part of the series "Gender and Society". Wiesbaden: Springer VS.

Contributions to anthologies

Wesselmann, C., Schäper, S., Kasten, A., & Afeworki Abay, R. (2025, n.d.). Research ethical challenges in societal transformation processes. In: S. Borrmann, A. van Rießen, & C. Steckelberg (Eds.), Social work as an actor in the context of social transformation. Berlin: Barbara Budrich.
Afeworki Abay, R. (2024, forthcoming). Disabled BIPoC and Intersectional Colonialities in Germany. In: M. Winn & L. Winn (Eds.), Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of Social Justice in Education. Volume 8: Bodies and Different Abilities. London: Bloomsbury Publishing.
Afeworki Abay, R., & Soldatic, K. (2024). The Coloniality of Disability: Analyzing Intersectional Colonialities and Subaltern Resistance. In: T. Chataika & D. Goodley (Eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Postcolonial Disabilities Studies. London: Routledge.
Afeworki Abay, R., & Wechuli, Y. (2024). Participatory research as decolonial knowledge practice? Decolonizing Eurocentric knowledge production on disability and migration/refuge. In M. Ates, A. Barboza, C. Hubatschke, M. Rodríguez, & R. Sonderegger (Eds.), De-/colonizing knowledge. Wiesbaden: Springer VS.
Afeworki Abay, R., & Hutson, C. (2024). "Our tears are not for sale!": Decolonizing the hegemonic knowledge order of racism in Germany. In: M. Ates, A. Barboza, C. Hubatschke, M. Rodríguez, & R. Sonderegger (Eds.), De-/colonizing knowledge. Wiesbaden: Springer VS.
Afeworki Abay, R. (2023). Decolonize disability and flight/migration: Participatory research as a possibility for methodological decolonization work. In: Y. Akbaba & A. M.B. Heinemann (Eds.), Decolonizing educational science - Theoretical debates and practice-oriented impulses (pp. 536-553). Weinheim: Beltz Juventa.
Afeworki Abay, R., Schmelz, A., Schmitt, C., & Schramkowski, B. (2023). Climate crisis and global inequality - Old and new forms of knowledge for social work. In: M. Köttig, S. Kubisch, & C. Spatscheck (Eds.), Shared knowledge - Knowledge development in the discipline and profession of social work (pp. 273-284). Berlin: Barbara Budrich.
Otten, M., & Afeworki Abay, R. (2022). Participatoryparticipation researchat the interface of disability and refugee migration. In: G. Wansing, M. Schäfers, & S. Köbsell (Eds.), Participatory research - contours of a new field of research (pp. 367-384). Wiesbaden: Springer VS.
Afeworki Abay, R., & Wechuli, Y. (2022). "We are here, because you were there": Necropolitics as a Critical Framework for Analyzing the Complex Relationship between Colonialism, Forced Migration and Disability. In: A. Delic, I. Kourtis, O. Kytidou, S. Sarkodie-Gyan, U. Wagner & J. Zölch (eds.), Globale Zusammenhänge, lokale Deutungen: Critical positionings on academic and media discourses in the context of flight and asylum (pp. 25-36). Wiesbaden: Springer VS.
Afeworki Abay, R., Kassaye, D. & Kleibl, T. (2022). Overcoming the Socio-economic Impacts of the Coronavirus Pandemic: Social Work Perspectives and Postcolonial Reflections from Ethiopia. In: M.d.M. Gonçalves, R. Gutwald, T. Kleibl, R. Lutz, N. Noyoo & J. Twikirize (eds.), The Coronavirus Crisis and Challenges to Social Development: Global Perspectives (pp. 431-442). Cham: Springer Publishing.
Afeworki Abay, R. (2022). Racism and Ableism: Same, same but different? Intersectional perspectives and convivial visions on gainful employment in the dominant society. In: B. Konz, & A. Schröter (Eds.), DisAbility in the migration society: Reflections on the intersection of disability, culture and religion in educational contexts (pp. 93-110). Bad Heilbrunn: Klinkhardt.
Afeworki Abay, R., & Schmitt, C. (2022). The coloniality of the climate crisis. Postcolonial critique and convivial perspectives. In: T. Pfaff, B. Schramkowski & R. Lutz (Eds.), Climate crisis, socio-ecological collapse and climate justice: Fields of tension for social work (pp. 206-215). Weinheim: Beltz-Juventa.
Korntheuer, A., Afeworki Abay, R., & Westphal, M. (2021). Research in the fields of flight and disability. A comparison of research ethical challenges and necessary practical research frameworks. In: J. Franz & U. Unterkofler (eds.), Research Ethics in Social Work: Principles and Experiences. Theory, research and practice in social work (pp. 229-242). Berlin: Barbara Budrich.
Afeworki Abay, R., Schülle, M. & Wechuli, Y. (2021). Decolonizing Disability: A postcolonial reflection on disability for German-speaking refugee migration research, taking into account intersectional life realities. In: M. Bach, L. Narawitz, J. Schröder, M. Thielen & N.-M. Thönneßen (Eds.), FlightMigrationResearch in Conflict - On Exclusions through Integration (pp. 117-130). Münster: Waxmann.
Afeworki Abay, R., & Engin, K. (2019). Participatory research: Feasibility and limits.A reflection on the example of the MiBeH study. In: B. Behrensen & M. Westphal (Eds.), Flight migration research on the move. Methodological and methodological reflections (pp. 379-396). Wiesbaden: Springer VS.

Articles in specialist journals (with peer review process)

Landry, D., Middelmann, T., Afeworki Abay, R. Morgan, H., & Soldatic, K. (Eds.) (2025, forthcoming). Novel Sociological Methods and Practices of Engagement across Disability Communities. In:Frontiers in Sociology - Volume 10 Medical Sociology.
Afeworki Abay, R., Cholewa, J., & Korntheuer, A. (2024). Empirical intersectionality research in the field of tension between reconstruction, deconstruction and reproduction of social exclusions. In: GENDER - Journal for Gender, Culture and Society, 2(24), pp. 26-39.
Schmitt, C., & Afeworki Abay, R. (2023).The Interplay of Global Climate Crisis and Forced Migration. From the Imperial Mode of Living to Practices of Conviviality. In: Yearbook Migration and Society. Focus: Climate, (1): 35-46.
Suh, H., Kato, J.,Afeworki Abay, R., & Denk, A. (2022). Global ideas against racism: From a journey of ideas to a digital future workshop. In: Momentum Quarterly, 11(4): 246-258.
Zauner, K. S., Afeworki Abay, R., & Olk, M. (2021). Inclusion and participation: Comparative and international perspectives. Conference report of the Research Training Group "Inclusion - Education - School: Analyses of processes of social participation". In: Gemeinsam leben: Journal for inclusive education, (4): 251-254.
Afeworki Abay, R. (2020). Can the African Subaltern Speak? Continuity of colonial power and domination structures. In: Sociology Magazine, (8). Focus: Sociological impulses during Corona.
Afeworki Abay, R., Schülle, M., Lätzsch, C., & Mehring, P. (2020). Exclusion inclusive(s)? - On the (care) situation of refugees with disabilities in Germany. In: Hinterland Magazine, (44): 72-77.
Afeworki Abay, R. (2019). Disabled BIPoC: Intersectional Analysis of Ethnic Disparities in Contemporary Education and Labor Market in Germany.In: EPRIE Journal for Regional Integration in East Asia and Europe, (1): 14-19.

Current research projects

Queer Necropolitics: Queer refugees between survival-strategic resilience and intersectional vulnerabilities

Habilitation project on the entanglements of flight, homonationalism, queerness and racism

Funded by the Hans Böckler Foundation (HBS ) as part of the promotion of early career researchers

Duration of the project: October 2023 - September 2024

Freie Universität Berlin (FU), Alice Salomon Hochschule Berlin (ASH) and Intersectional Disability Justice (IDJ)

For more information see: https://www.intersectional-disability-justice.org

Afro-diasporic Communities and Disability (AdiCoBe): Black (dis)abled Power

A young black woman sits in a wheelchair and paints Black Lives Matter — Julius B. Franklin

AdiCoBe is the first project by and for people with African roots and experience of disability in Germany. By working together to develop the wishes, perspectives and resources of the affected communities, we want to raise awareness of their own intersectional life situations in the long term, enable empowerment and improve participation in all areas of society.

Project management: Judy Gummich and Robel Afeworki Abay
BdB - Bund für Antidiskriminierungs- und Bildungsarbeit e.V., Berlin

Funded by aidFIVE gemeinnützige Gesellschaft mbH, Hamburg

Duration of the project: September 2023-August 2024

More information about the project can be found here.

Workshop 1 for experience experts

Friday, 22.03.2024 - Sunday 24.03.2024

Exclusively for Black / Afro-diasporic people with impairments / disabilities.

Registration deadline: 15.02.2024