Conference: Africa and the Academy in the 21st Century
On November 1st and 2nd, the Swiss Society for African Studies and the Centre for African Studies Basel will host an interactive, interdisciplinary event in Basel, bringing together a selection of Swiss and international scholars studying Africa.
When: Friday November 1st 2019 9:30 – 20:30 and Saturday November 2nd 2019 10:00 – 17:15
Where: external pageKollegienhaus, Room 001, University of Basel
Register external pagehere before October 19th 2019.
The conference invites the speakers and audience to reflect on a classical work in the field of African Studies, Africa and the Disciplines (V. Mudimbe, R. Bates and J. O‘Barr 1993), but also consider the present and future of African Studies, in particular in Switzerland. Africa has created new research fields that no longer fit into the existing disciplinary framework. This increasingly affects our view of what the social sciences and the humanities are about, the topics that they will need to address in the future and how these new fields shape our understanding of the academic landscape as a whole.
Over two days the conference will hold four interactive, interdisciplinary plenary sessions, featuring moderated “paired conversations” between two scholars of a particular discipline. The choice of two “classic” disciplines – Anthropology and History –, and two “modern” inherently interdisciplinary disciplines, Public Health and Urban Studies, – reflects change in the field of African Studies. Immediately following the “paired conversation,” to enhance the dynamic, interactive and interdisciplinary purpose of the conference, the audience will be randomly divided into three to four breakout sessions where participants and panel speakers will consolidate the introduced topics in a concentrated group discussion. At the end of each session the audience will reunite for a moderated discussion in the plenary.
More information can be found external pagehere.
Click external pagehere for the full programme.