Hanna Rössner is a research assistant and doctoral candidate in the working group on Global Political Economy of Labour, considering gender relations, at the University of Kassel. In her dissertation, she analyses histories of East-South trade union solidarity with a special focus on the participation of East German and African women trade unionists during (and beyond) the Cold War. In addition, she focuses on intersectional perspectives on reproductive labour. She has been working in a research project on employee turnover and absenteeism in the Ethiopian textile industry at the Institute of Sociology at Justus Liebig University Giessen from 2020 to 2023. Hanna Rössner studied Social Sciences at Justus Liebig University Giessen, Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II, Italy, and North-West University, South Africa, and Global Studies at the University of Leipzig and the University of Ghent, Belgium.

  • East-South relations, socialist solidarity and women's internationalism(s) during and beyond the end of the Cold War

  • Reproductive labour

  • Labour conditions in the Ethiopian textile industry

  • Geographical focus: Sub-Saharan Africa (especially Namibia, South Africa and Ethiopia)

Presentations

“Women Marginalised for a Reason? Methodological Challenges in Studying East-South Women Trade Unionists’ Encounters from a Global Perspective”, 23nd International Summer School of the GSGAS How to Study the Global? ReCentGlobe, Leipzig, June 2025.

“The Social Aspect of Sustainability Endeavours: Rural-Urban Migrant Workers in the Ethiopian Garment Industry,” Global Labour University Conference 2023 Just Transition to a Post-Carbon Future. University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, September 2023.

“Economic Development at All Costs? The Ethiopian Garment Industry and its Female Workers,” Department of Sociology, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, August 2023.

“(Socialist) Women’s Cooperation in Times of Upheaval: The SWAPO Women’s Council, the Democratic Women’s Union, and their Sewing Project in Tsumeb, Namibia, 1990-1992,” Global Studies Graduate Conference 2022. University of Vienna, Vienna, November 2022.