The Inaugural Moi University International Conference on African Studies Eldoret, Kenya, 23rd to 24th November 2023
Theme: Reflecting (on) Africa: Positionalities, Practices, and Products.
The Moi University African Cluster Centre of the Africa Multiple Cluster of Excellence announces its inaugural conference on African Studies. The conference intends to vigorously explore the epistemological and political underpinnings and implications of how Africa's peoples, histories, and cultures have historically been (re)presented and studied. The various interpretations of the encompassing term "African Studies" gesture towards the multiplicity of ways in which Africa has been historically (re)presented and examined. Various, sometimes conflicting, practices are today understood
to belong to the category.
Diversity emerges in multiple dimensions. It starts with the definition of the subject of inquiry, such as Africa's geographical and cultural boundaries. It extends to the approaches employed in studying Africa, including whether African Studies fall under the umbrella of area studies, consists of discipline-specific studies on or about Africa, or constitute a distinct discipline. The diverse methods employed in these studies further contribute to the multifaceted nature of the field. Moreover, the motivations behind conducting these studies and the envisioned objectives also vary, ranging from exerting control over Africa and its resources to empowering the continent's people in their quest for liberation from oppression.
We seek papers that scrutinize the factors behind the generation, dissemination, and valorization of artistic and scholarly reflections of/on Africa.Given the focus of the conference, we especially welcome metacritical engagement with the different intellectual traditions in which "African Studies" have been undertaken and the communities that sustain them. We call for rigorous critical reflections on:
▪ African Studies in African (both Indigenous and "modern") intellectual traditions
▪ African Studies in the Caribbean and Latin American intellectual traditions
▪ African Studies in Middle Eastern intellectual traditions
▪ African Studies in European and American intellectual traditions
▪ African Studies in Far Eastern intellectual traditions
Papers that are exemplars of specific intellectual traditions of (re)presenting and studying Africa will also be considered for inclusion in the conference.
Papers should engage with works in any mode: theories, "scientific" research–based reports, life writing, fiction in whatever medium. The expectation is that the conference will motivate and host conversations that will (1) both clarify and interrogate the whys (the triggers), the hows (the frameworks and methods),and the to what ends (the wherefores and outcomes) of the (re)presentation and study of Africa and (2) make proposals for practices of (re)presenting and studying Africa that accord with ideas of justice and respect that have currency in the twenty-first century.
Prospective participants who wish to join the conference are encouraged to submit their abstracts, not exceeding 300 words, as a Word document attachment to Conference This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. The submission deadline is Monday, 17th July 2023. It is required that the abstracts include the presenter's institutional affiliation and indicate whether they are an academic or a student.