We are delighted to announce that the fifth Conference of the Association for African Studies in Italy (Associazione per gli Studi Africani in Italia) will take place at the the Department of Political and Social Sciences, University of Bologna, 5-7th September 2018.

ASAI V concentrates on “Plural Africa – Politics, knowledge and social dynamics in time and space”

Although they share many major historical experiences, African countries also display a plurality of social dynamics, political realities and cultural manifestations that the constant representation of a homogeneous Africa, out of time and space, continues to marginalise. By interrogating the multiple research sources available and by promoting the interdisciplinary nature of African studies, we can address, for example, the historical continuities and ruptures, the dynamics of power and the organization of space, the forms of connection and disconnection between actors working both within and outside the African continent.

The Fifth Conference of ASAI aims, first of all, to analyse the ‘Africas’, that is, the plurality of the phenomena that make up the wealth of diversity of the African continent and determine its deep asymmetries. This means also looking at the role the continent and its populations play in international social and political dynamics, which also makes Africa a privileged point of observation to study the most important processes of global phenomena. Secondly, the Conference intends to overcome the vision that deprives the ‘voice’ and the ‘agency’ of Africans of their fundamental relationships with the political-economic forces and with the social processes that move through the continent.

ASAI V therefore encourages the presentation of panel proposals along the following thematic lines:

-Plurality as pluralism in Africa in history and politics: forms of power and legitimacy.

-Plurality as a multiplicity of intra- and extra-continental African diasporas: social impacts, constructions, representations.

-Plurality as polyvalent forms of mobility in Africa: economic, social and political strategies.

-Plurality as the ‘multifunctionality’ of Africa in international relations: connections, disconnections, perspectives on ‘the global’

-Plurality as complex dynamics of marginalisation and poverty in Africa: opportunities and constraints of the global consensus on development

-Plurality as ‘polyhedric’ social and cultural propositions: production of knowledge, linguistic strategies, literary expressions

-Plurality as the variety of research methods on the ‘Africas’: issues of access to fieldwork and sensibility of the research subjects.

Panel proposals should be sent in Word format to: bologna2018@asaiafrica.org by 28 February 2018.

Proposals should consist of:
– Title
– Abstract (maximum 200 words)
– Panel coordinator profile (maximum 50 words).
– Titles, short abstracts (max. 150 words) and authors’ short profiles of the papers (max. 4 for each panel/session) included in the panel proposal (when this applies).

Panel proposals can be written in one of the three working languages of the conference (Italian, English, French), but in all cases they must be sent with their English translation.

The list of the panels accepted by the Scientific Committee will be will be made public as from 30 March 2018. A Call for papers will follow.

For more information: http://www.asaiafrica.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/ASAI-V-Bologna-Call-for-panels.pdf

Categories: And Other Words..., Calls for & opportunities, Research, Studies, Teaching

Tags: Africa, african continent, Call for papers, Conference, Culture, History and Memory, humanities and social sciences, Politics, power, social experience