Baz Lecocq is Professor of African History at the Humboldt University of Berlin's Institute of Asian and African Studies (IAAW). He previously held positions at Ghent University, Belgium, and the ZMO in Berlin. He studied African History at Leiden University and holds a Ph.D. in social sciences from Amsterdam University. He has served on the advisory board of a number of academic journals, including l’Ouest Saharien and the Journal of African History. He is the initiator and long-time coordinator of the Collective Research Group African History, a Europe-wide network of Africanist Historians. His monography Disputed Desert is widely considered a must-read to understand the current political situation in the Sahel. His recent research focuses on the social, cultural and political meanings, possibilities, and constraints of mechanical means of transport in the processes of globalisation and modernisation, especially in East Africa.