– African Digital Scholarship
– Research Associate at the Africa Open Institute for Music, Research and Innovation at Stellenbosch University

Niklas holds an MA(FA) and a BA(Hons) from the University of Cape Town, South Africa, as well as a BA in education from the University of Cologne, Germany. His research MA on South African Jazz photography drew critical reflections on Fine Arts, Social History, and Music. Before his employment at UCT Libraries in 2015 as manager of the Digital Library Services department, he worked as digitisation manager at the Centre for Popular Memory (UCT), as an art teacher, heading the Visual Arts Department at the German International School Cape Town, and as an archivist at the Art and Exhibition Hall of the Federal Republic of Germany. In between, he has maintained a richly diverse freelance career, including lecturing in theory and discourse of art and critical studies at tertiary institutions in Cape Town and Stellenbosch, giving workshops in video, sound, and photography, as well as writing reviews, exhibiting his photographic art, and performing as a drummer in the free improvisation ensemble ‘As Is.’

ORCID: 0000-0001-8078-0403