Eva Kimminich is Chair of Romance Cultures at the University of Potsdam, Germany. Her key aspects are cultural and popular studies, particularly youth and subcultures. For her professional dissertation she analyzed censorship in 19th century and the forbidden Chansons destined to be sung in Parisian cafés–concerts developing a theory of reformulation (Erstickte Lieder. Zensierte Chansons aus Pariser Cafés–concerts des 19. Jahrhunderts. Versuch einer kollektiven Reformulierung gesellschaftlicher Wirklichkeiten, Tübingen (Stauffenburg). Starting in 1998 with her research on rap in France, she is one of the first German researchers on Hip Hop in France and francophone Africa, founded partially by the VolkswagenStiftung. She conceives Hip Hop as toolbox of cultural technics, useful for reconstructing identity, community and society. A part of her publications on rap’s effects on identity, socialization and social empowerment: Rap: More than Words, 2004; Identitätsbildungsstrategien in der Vorstadt– und Hip–Hop–Kultur, 2003; Rap–republics: Transglobale Gemeinschaften und alternative Formen der Wissensvermittlung, 2007; Autobiographie und Authentizität: Selbst(er)erzählung und Wirklichkeitsentwürfe in Songtexten französischer Rapperinnen, 2012; A Third Space for Dissent: Raps Peripherial Semiosphere, its Making and Effects, 2013. Her last research project took place in Tunisia in February 2013 (Rap in Tunesien: Revolution oder Evolution?, 2013).
