Author Archives

Nara has a PhD in English Literature from the University of Sussex, where she studied the intellectual production in Lagos-Nigeria in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Trained as a historian at the Universidade Federal Fluminense in Rio de Janeiro-Brazil, she also has an MA in African Studies from El Colegio de Mexico, in Mexico City. She is currently living in sunny Rio.
Contact Nara through her personal blog http://naraimprota.wordpress.com/
Twitter: @naraimprota

• CFP: Life histories of African slaves

  By Nara Improta on 6 August , 2012 • ( 0 )

  Over the last five years, Alice Bellagamba, Carolyn Brown, Sandra Greene and Martin Klein have been involved in a project to find and publish African sources on the history of slavery and the slave trade within Africa. The most recent… Read More ›

• ANN: African Poetry Book Fund

  By Nara Improta on 6 August , 2012 • ( 1 )

  NEW AND ESTABLISHED AFRICAN POETS RECOGNIZED BY A NEW FUND Kwame Dawes, Guggenheim Fellow and winner of the 2011 Barnes & Noble Writers for Writers Award, is pleased to announce the establishment of the African Poetry Book Fund and Series…. Read More ›

• CFP: Ghana Studies Association Conference

  By Nara Improta on 6 August , 2012 • ( 0 )

  Location:      Ghana Call for Papers Date:  2012-10-01 Ghana Studies Association Conference Kumasi, Ghana 23-26 May 2013 The Ghana Studies Association welcomes paper and panel proposals for its conference to be held in Kumasi, Ghana, 23-26 May 2013 on… Read More ›

• CFA: Research and PhD grants for people with MAs in some African universities

  By Nara Improta on 6 August , 2012 • ( 0 )

  Africa in Words supporting ‘Next Generation Social Sciences in Africa’: Critical Perspectives in Peace, Security, and Development Issues The program, currently in its second year, responds to a shortage  of well-trained faculty now reaching crisis proportions in African higher education…. Read More ›

• Differences between English and Yoruba intellectual production

  By Nara Improta on 27 July , 2012 • ( 6 )

  Would you say that the type of debate going on in the English-language West African press between the 1880’s and 1920’s was different in any way from the types of debates going on in the local language press, in associational… Read More ›

• Fully funded AHRC 3 -year Studentship in visual anthropology at Oxford

  By Nara Improta on 20 June , 2012 • ( 0 )

  Following the award of an AHRC collaborative studentship to Professor David Zeitlyn (ISCA) and Dr Chris Morton (Pitt Rivers Museum) for ‘Photographic cultures in Mbouda, Cameroon’ in conjunction with the British Library, a 3-year fully funded AHRC studentship will be… Read More ›

• Debate as a form of art

  By Nara Improta on 20 June , 2012 • ( 1 )

  Hi folks, As you know I am writing a paper/chapter about the intellectual debates in Lagos between 1880 and 1920, in which I argue that the best way to study the dynamic of the Lagosian intellectual network is through their… Read More ›

• CFP: Remapping the Black Atlantic: Diaspora (Re)Writings of Race and Space

  By Nara Improta on 8 June , 2012 • ( 0 )

  This one is definitively for me!! XxN  Location:    Illinois, United States Conference Date:  April 12-14, 2013 Deadline for submitting abstracts, October 20, 2012 Authors of selected abstracts will be notified by November 5, 2012. It has been two decades since the publication of… Read More ›

• CFP: Graduate journal – Counter-cultures in contemporary Africa

  By Nara Improta on 8 June , 2012 • ( 0 )

  This one is for you girls 😉  XxN VOLUME 8, NUMBER 1, 2012: COUNTER-CULTURES IN CONTEMPORARY AFRICA SUBMISSION DEADLINE: 15 August 2012 UCT’s Centre for African Studies and its interdisciplinary postgraduate, peer-reviewed journal, postamble, invite you to submit papers, photographic essays and… Read More ›

• CFP: Africa in Policy, Practice, and Popular Representations

  By Nara Improta on 8 June , 2012 • ( 0 )

  I know, it is more like my kind of conference, but I thought you would like to know anyway 😉 XxN Sixth Annual Michigan State University Africanist Graduate Student Conference October 19-20, 2012, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan The 6th annual… Read More ›

• CFP – Transactions of the Historical Society of Ghana

  By Nara Improta on 1 June , 2012 • ( 0 )

  Hi folks, I got this from a history list that I subscribe. I know it is not literature, but the borderline between these two disciplines are blurry and historians are accepting this more and more. XxN   The editors of Transactions of… Read More ›

• Hard data on our (soft) heads: the Lagosian intellectual network database

  By Nara Improta on 30 May , 2012 • ( 3 )

  

  Maybe it is because I am married to a sociologist, or it is a kind of OCD, I am not so sure why, but I decided to organise my primary sources in a database. And, what is worse, now I am… Read More ›

• Dichotomous traps (again!)

  By Nara Improta on 23 April , 2012 • ( 0 )

  Hi folks, first, I want to thank you again for your replies to my shout for help in the format of a post (april 3rd). Your suggestions kept the ‘thinking machine’ running and, eventually, I came with a solution for… Read More ›

• Modernity vs tradition trap – help!

  By Nara Improta on 3 April , 2012 • ( 4 )

  Hi girls (and boys, if any is reading this) I have some concerns about my work that I would love to share with you and listen (read, better) any comments/suggestions you may have. As you know, I am currently studying… Read More ›

• CFP: Ethnographic Reflections on Conducting Fieldwork in Contemporary Urban Africa

  By Nara Improta on 6 February , 2012 • ( 0 )

  Hi folks, maybe this could be a chapter of your thesis? Deadline 15 march XxN CALL FOR PAPERS FOR EDITED BOOK: Writing Fieldnotes on the Street: Ethnographic Reflections on Conducting Fieldwork in Contemporary Urban Africa Editors: Anna Jacobsen (Washington University… Read More ›

• WikiAfrica Project

  By Nara Improta on 3 February , 2012 • ( 0 )

  Hi folks, while procrastinating surfing on the internet, I found this project WIKIAFRICA, and  I think it may interest you.  As they publish in their page: “WikiAfrica is a collaborative and international project designed to Africanize Wikipedia. The project will promote… Read More ›

• New titles available from African Books Collective

  By Nara Improta on 3 February , 2012 • ( 0 )

  hi folks, no, I am not getting any extra for this (maybe we should ask!), but I thought you would be interested in some of the new titles. XxN Please find attached new titles available from African Books Collective for the… Read More ›

• CFP: TRAVERSEA – Online Journal in Transatlantic History

  By Nara Improta on 3 February , 2012 • ( 0 )

  hi folks, I know I am the ‘transatlantic history’ lover of the group, but maybe if I keep posting opportunities about this, you will eventually get interested. 😉 XxN PS: we missed the deadline of January 4, but don’t panic! There is… Read More ›

• African City Seminars Series – CAS/SOAS

  By Nara Improta on 3 February , 2012 • ( 2 )

  Hi folks, I know that urbanization it is not exactly our thing, but since I have been reading a lot about this for my last chapter, I though I should share with you. And the first seminar will focus exactly… Read More ›

• ASA – 55th Annual Meeting Call for proposals

  By Nara Improta on 3 February , 2012 • ( 0 )

  Hi folks, I was told once that you can’t call yourself an ‘Africanist’ before attending an ASA meeting. I am not sure they were referring to the academic discussion… Deadlines: March 15  XxN CALL FOR PROPOSALS55th Annual Meeting 
RESEARCH FRONTIERS IN… Read More ›