AAI Team

The AAI staff is happy to help you. The office at Wiener-Philharmoniker-Gasse 2 is usually open Monday to Friday from 9 am to 2 pm. Consultations and joint projects work best with an appointment made in advance by e-mail or telephone. To register for courses and events, please send an email with all relevant registration data to office@aai-salzburg.at. We can also be reached by phone at short notice!

Elke Giacomozzi

Elke Giacomozzi is the executive director of the Afro-Asian Institute. She represents the AAI in various committees and networks, maintains contact with partners and donors and leads the AAI team. Elke studied Industrial Design and Sustainable Development Cooperation. She also completed a training programme in peace and conflict transformation. She can draw on many years of experience in the NGO sector, especially in working with children and young people as well as in adult education in the area of global and intercultural learning. She experienced development policy practice through internships and field visits in the Philippines, Peru, Nepal and India.

Maia Loh

Maia Loh is the contact person for the event program and responsible for the public relations work of the AAI: in addition to the homepage and social media, she also looks after the blog globalgedacht.org. She studied Social and Cultural Anthropology at the University of Vienna and returned to Salzburg after graduation. Her research fields are critical higher education institutions, decolonization of scientific knowledge production and cargo bicyles as means of environmental friendly mobility and transportation.

Astrid Schönleitner

Astrid Schönleitner is in charge of the One World Scholarship programme and the councelling for students from the Global South. She is the contact person for scholars, organises the extracurricular training as well as the reintegration activities and alumni network. Astrid has a master's degree in political sciene (Salzburg and Paris). She has work experience in civic education and global learning. This is an asset for the conception of trainings for scholarship holders, where students are encourage to deal with global challenges and questions of sustainable development.

Martin Sturmer

Martin studied African Studies and Communication Sciences in Vienna and Dar es Salaam. He also runs the news agency afrika.info which aims to enable a balanced media coverage about Africa. Not surprisingly, Martin started his career at the AAI. From 1997 to 1999 he was already employed as study and education manager with the institute. From 2019 to 2020 he replaced Elke Giacomozzi as the executive director of the Afro-Asian Institute. He wonderfully mastered the challenges of the Corona pandemic for the institute together with the team. He is currently coordinating special educational project and is supporting the press work of the AAI.