Originally from Germany, she was active in black, migrant, queer, and feminist organizing there and in the Netherlands. She is coauthor of the movie Everything Will Be Fine and cofounder of the Black European Studies Project. Her first book, Schwarze Deutsche, published in German in 2001, explored the relationship between race and national identity in early twentieth century Germany. She has published numerous articles on the interactions of race, gender, sexuality, and nation, and is coediting a special issue on black Europe for African and Black Diaspora. She works on a book on the racialization of migrants and minorities in contemporary Europe and the queering of ethnicity as a minoritarian counterstrategy. She is an Andrew W. Mellon postdoctoral fellow and visiting professor at the University of California, Los Angeles.