2022#6 16 March

Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world
Nelson Mandela

Announcements

Welcome to Joseph Koni Muluwa

From February 16 until May 15 2022, Joseph Koni Muluwa (ISP Kikwit), once a UGent post-doc and a visiting professor of the UGent African Studies programme, will be in Ghent for a research visit at the Department of Languages and Cultures.

He has been invited as a research fellow of the BantuFirst project to work on West-Coastal Bantu languages spoken in the Kwilu Province of the DRC.

Soyez le bienvenu, Joseph!

Rethinking Time and Gender in African History - 24 & 25/3

Public lecture: Gender Time, Gendered Time: On an Inland Sea (Lake Victoria) in Africa

Keynote talk by Professor David L. Schoenbrun
(Northwestern University)

What was the dynamic interplay of time and gender in African history from early times into the Twentieth century? Africans conceptualized and marked time and gender in their social construction of both. They made time and gender media for the social critique and invention that is the stuff of history. As the story moves closer to the present its geographical focus narrows to the peoples of an East African Inland Sea commonly referred to as “Lake Victoria.” Likewise, its informational focus moves from African language words and meanings to oral texts to practice. At each step in the journey, the ideas and aspirations and struggles of Africans are the principal actors.

https://www.africaplatform.ugent.be/news/rethinking-time-and-gender-african-history-gender-time-gendered-time-inland-sea-lake-victoria

Rethinking Time and Gender in African History - 24 & 25/3

Public lecture: Beyond Gender: New Paradigms for Researching Early Bantu Social History

Keynote talk by Professor Christine A. Saidi
(Kutztown University)

Gender as a mode of organizing peoples, societies, or families is not inherent in human nature. In most Bantu languages, prior to colonialism, there were no words or identity that exclusively meant “woman” or “man” as separate biological or social categories. Instead, life stages, special abilities or seniority were the ways in which people were recognized and organized. To live in a world where there are no binary gender categories is hard to imagine, yet this was part of the social environment in which the Bantu cosmic family thrived for over three thousand years.

https://www.africaplatform.ugent.be/news/rethinking-time-and-gender-african-history-beyond-gender-new-paradigms-researching-early-bantu

Rethinking Time and Gender in African History - 24 & 25/3

International Workshop

VLIR-UOS International Training Programme (ITP) projects 2023

Pre-announcement of the Call

ITP are projects that focus on short- to medium-term, intensive, interactive and practice-oriented training courses, distinguished by topic, dealing with sustainable development, transversal skills for Higher Education (HE) management, transversal or priority themes (e.g. gender, sustainable development, human rights, digital 4 development, decent work, etc).

We are glad to announce an upcoming Call for new International Training Programme (ITP) projects 2023 to start as of the 1st of January 2023. This is the first ITP call within the new Five-Year Programme 2022 – 2027 (FYP2) launched by VLIR-UOS. In accordance with this new programme, we have changed the ITP format to provide more flexibility for our partners. 

Be sure to mark March 28, 2022 in your calendar as the launch date of this call for proposals.

https://www.africaplatform.ugent.be/news/pre-announcement-call-international-training-programme-itp-projects-2023

Launch of public consultation EU-AU Innovation agenda

The working document of the AU-EU Innovation Agenda (IA) is now accessible online on the AU-EU HLPD webpage.

The public consultation on the AU-EU Innovation Agenda was launched during the online workshop “The AU-EU Innovation Agenda for building stronger value chains for sustainable growth and decent jobs”, as part of the 7th EU-Africa Business Forum (EABF22).

https://www.africaplatform.ugent.be/news/launch-public-consultation-eu-au-innovation-agenda

APRA e-Dialogue on Transition Pathways and Strategies for Food System Transformation - 23/3

APRA's third dialogue, to be held on Wednesday 23 March 2022, will seek to move the focus of food system transformations from 'what needs to happen' to 'how to make it happen' to support more equitable and inclusive forms of food system transformation.

APRA (Agricultural Policy Research in Africa) researchers, with support of the UK Foreign, Development and Commonwealth Officer (FCDO)/UKAid, have been examining differential processes of agricultural commercialisation and agrarian change in a wide array of countries across sub-Saharan Africa since 2016. Drawing insights from APRA's work and other complementary research, this e-Dialogue will assess the options, scenarios and strategies for creating more equitable and inclusive forms of agricultural commercialisation and rural transformation, with a focus on the specific challenges faced by different types of farmers, farm workers and processors, given their scale of operation, gender, age, assets geographic location or market context.

https://www.africaplatform.ugent.be/news/apra-e-dialogue-transition-pathways-and-strategies-food-system-transformation

Upcoming events

ENLIGHT webinar series: discussing diversity, inclusion and racism

Diversity – Identification, Grievability and the Limits of a Conversation?

WHEN 22-03-2022 from 16:30 to 18:00
WHERE Online
ORGANIZER Africa Platform of Ghent University Association & ENLIGHT partners
CONTACT Annelies.Verdoolaege@UGent.be
WEBSITE https://www.africaplatform.ugent.be/event/enlight-webinar-series-discussing-diversity-inclusion-and-racism-1

 

Welcome to the Uppsala University edition of the ENLIGHT Webinar Series on Discussing Diversity, Inclusion and Racism, entitled "Diversity - Identification, Grievability and the Limits of a Conversation".

In this seminar, Dr. hc. Lilian Thuram - Founder of Thuram Foundation against Racism - and Dr. Patricial Lorenzoni - researcher at the Centre for Multidisciplinary Studies on Racism (CEMFOR) - will discuss 'diversity' and its challenges.

Launch: Joint Call to Foster Trilateral Academic Collaboration

Between the University of the Western Cape, University of Missouri and Ghent University

WHEN 07-03-2022
WHERE Online
ORGANIZER Africa Platform of Ghent University Association
CONTACT Annelies.Verdoolaege@UGent.be
WEBSITE https://www.africaplatform.ugent.be/event/launch-joint-call-foster-trilateral-academic-collaboration

The Tri-Continental Partnership (3CP) is a trilateral agreement between the University of Missouri, the University of the Western Cape and Ghent University. To promote our partnership during this time of reduced travel, we are providing funds to support virtual research and teaching collaborations between faculty members at the three institutions.

The committee welcomes proposals from all fields. Projects could involve comparative research, other types of rigorous academic research, or the joint development of courses or course material.

Costs will be covered up to $5,000 per project, according to the rules of each university and based on real costs.

This application form should be submitted to the local contact person at the principal applicant’s home institution before April 22, 2022.

Belezen wetenschappers

Afrika-editie

WHEN 26-04-2022 from 19:30 to 21:00
WHERE Bibliotheek De Krook, Krookcafé - Miriam Makebaplein 1, 9000 Gent
ORGANIZER Africa Platform of Ghent University Association en De Krook
CONTACT Annelies.Verdoolaege@UGent.be
WEBSITE https://avansa-regiogent.be/activiteiten/belezen-wetenschappers-afrika-editie

Ontdek welke Afrikaanse romans professoren van de UGent inspireren, ontroeren en ontspannen.

Naast een paneldiscussie met Sarah De Saeger, Patrick Van Damme en Koen Bostoen, gemodereerd door auteur en radiomaker Pat Donnez, zal Inge Brinkman een inleidende presentatie geven over de rijkdom aan talen en literaturen op het Afrikaanse continent.

Met muziek door Daouda Thiam uit Mauretanië.

GAPSYM15: Biennial Afroeuropeans Network Conference

Intersectional Challenges in Afroeuropean Communities - Call for Papers is still open

WHEN 22-09-2022 - 24-09-2022
WHERE Vrije Universiteit Brussel - Etterbeek Campus
ORGANIZER Vrije Universiteit Brussel & Africa Platform of Ghent University Association
CONTACT Annelies.Verdoolaege@UGent.be
https://www.afroeuropeans2022.com/en/

The 8th Biennial Afroeuropeans Network Conference “Intersectional Challenges in Afroeuropean Communities” will take place from 22 – 24 September 2022

Hosted by the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), this conference is the result of a long collaboration between academics, writers, artists and activists that gave rise to the International Afroeuropeans Network.

The conference aims to consider how Afroeuropean communities are shaped by the intersections of ‘race’ and ethnicity with other markers of identification such as gender, class, sexuality, ability, age, citizenship status, language… Informed by intersectional thinking and its rejection of unidimensional perspectives in activism, policy and research, the conference explores how diverse processes of privileging and discrimination interact, making for complex and dynamic experiences of what it means to be Afroeuropean.

Agenda