Over the next four years, I will focus, through data-collection and theory about non-western cosmologies (to be published in books), on strengthening the research group CARAM (Centre for Anthropological Research on Affect and Materiality) which I co-founded. 'Materiality' stands for the 'more-than-human' phenomenology that has been propagated since the ontological turn by, among others, Latour's influential ANT, for example in the study of technology and science as contingent networks of horizontal relations. 'Affect' stands for the complement, the cultural and historical verticality hidden in those relationships. Together, in the following research collaborations that I supervise, the two dimensions shed new light on:

+ artist-object relationships and artistic creativity (see Gama's doctoral project on new instruments in Angola; promoted together with HoGent's School of Arts)
+ drug-user relationships and drug self-regulation (see Baru's PhD project on khat in Ethiopia; promoted together with Tom Decorte from criminology)
+ human-animal relationships on the edge of a Tanzanian nature reserve (see Devos' doctoral project near Kigoma; with DBC members Becker, DeBlock, Plancke and Pype)
+ human-robot relations in a Tanzanian STEM classroom (see Rutatola's PhD project near Morogoro; promoted together with Tony Belpaeme from Imec)
+ human-crop relations in a neoliberal economy (see Otieno's PhD project on pyrethrum and green science; promoted together with Nick Rahier). This FWO project, which will start this year, in combination with the 'cultural analysis' method (see my recent publication in 'Foundations of science') will provide a model to determine the social and cultural impact of interventions.

In terms of single-author research, I plan to apply the above explanatory scheme to the study of African cultural (affective-material) influences in Indian Ocean islands. An initial data collection, financed by my VLIRUOS-IUC coordinator contribution, took place last year in Pemba. The monsoon-driven global economy in the Indian Ocean since AD ​​1000 translates into the spread of ritual and medicinal knowledge to and from the KiSukuma-KiNyamwezi speaking mainland in East Africa. This study continues a long-term project on political decentralization in East Africa and the ongoing role of traditional belief systems.