6 March 2025#5
UGent
afrika Platform
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Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world
Nelson Mandela
 

NEWS

Plant Biotechnology Online Café - 7/3/2025

We are excited to invite you to our March Online Café on Agrobacterium-mediated transformation of cereals for Striga resistance.

Speakers:

  • Dr. Laurens Pauwels, Laboratory for Plant Transformation & Gene Editing at Ghent University, Department of Biotechnology
  • Dr. Steven Runo, Associate Professor of Molecular Biology at Kenyatta University
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CRG Book Launch: Decolonising Education in Islamic West Africa - 18/3/2025

Decolonising Education in Islamic West Africa is grounded in an ethnography of educational decision-making in northern Senegal which shows how young people struggled to obtain an Islamic education. 

Decolonial theory is mobilised to combine the strengths of African studies with the more applied disciplines of comparative education/development studies. Ultimately, the book makes a powerful argument for greater inclusion of people versed in West African and Islamic knowledge traditions within academic and development spaces.
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Special Edition: Community Talks XL - Modelling Infectious Diseases in Sub-Saharan Africa: Current trends and policies implications - 19/3/2025

The COVID-19 outbreak in 2020 highlighted the critical need for preparedness in responding to future pandemics. Effective disease control relies on the swift and accurate dissemination of information to policymakers, alongside the development of efficient intervention strategies.

Excactly 5 years after the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, we are hosting a Community Talks exploring various aspects of infectious disease, with a particular focus on sub-Saharan Africa.
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Lectures series in African and Global History - Spring 2025
 

The ECC is proud to convene the second Lectures Series in African and Global History for the academic year 2024-2025.

The series consists of lectures delivered by scholars with celebrated expertise in their respective fields.
 
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Inspiratiedag: The Time Has Come: De Erfenis van The Last Poets - 19/3/2025

Inspiratiedag over activisme, kunst en de kracht van woorden

Beleef een inspirerende dag waarin de revolutionaire erfenis van The Last Poets centraal staat. We verkennen de kracht van hun woorden en hun blijvende sociale impact.

Met bijdragen van keynote Sibo Kanobana, een panelgesprek onder leiding van Lindah Leah Nyirenda en interactieve breakout-sessies, brengt deze dag kunst en activisme op unieke wijze samen.
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Samedi Cinéma: Film screening & Public lecture with director Mamadou Dia - 25/3/2025
 

Before opening this year's Africa Film Festival in Ghent with his new film Demba, we are glad to welcome Mamadou Dia for the screening of his renowned short film Samedi Cinéma (2016) during the module of Visual Anthropology.

This module is part of the Anthropology course within the Department of Educational Sciences and aims to demonstrate how film - and other visual media - can serve as a powerful research tool to gain insights into various aspects of humanity.
 
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CRG Book Launch: Surrounded: Democracy, Free Markets, and Other Entrapments of New Colonialism - 25/3/2025

Surrounded is an ethnography of new colonialism. Putting together a series of articles written over a period of four years, this book touches on the informal, ignorable, subtle and seemingly benevolent ways through which new colonialism has encircled the continent.
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Mini-Symposium: No Food, No Future - Let's Fix That! - 25/3/2025
 

Join us for a mini-symposium in honor of Prof. Lise Korsten’s honorary doctorate, focusing on resilience in nutrition and food security. Experts from Ghent University and beyond will share insights on the challenges and solutions shaping the future of food systems.

The symposium will conclude with reflections from Prof. Els Van Damme, Dean of the Faculty of Bio-Science Engineering, followed by a networking reception.
 
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Book presentation and discussion with the author: Sulaiman Addonia at De Centrale in Ghent - 25/3/2025
 

On March 25, Sulaiman Addonia will visit De Centrale in Ghent.

Following a reflection by Angel Patricks Amegbe on Addonia’s work, he will engage in conversation with Annelies Verbeke.
 
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Interuniversity Job Market for Young Researchers - 27/3/2025

The Job Market for Young Researchers is a great place to engage in 1 afternoon with +120 PhD employers, network with professionals in and beyond your industry, and become more aware of what competencies are valued in a PhD employee.

Extra labour-market oriented info sessions and workshops are offered on-site.
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Seminar and film screening: Film and Contentious Politics in Senegal - 28/3/2025
 

Mamadou Dia is a Senegalese awardwinning film director, screenwriter, former journalist and professor at the University of Virginia, US. He will give a seminar at the Department of Conflict & Development on the role of filmmaking in understanding contentious politics, in this case politico-religious extremism.

Based on his internationally awarded film Baamum Nafi, Prof. Dia will discuss how filmmaking can open new avenues to locally discuss, and understand from the bottom-up, the impact of global political dynamics on our community relations and family dynamics.
 
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Event: Africa – Europe 360° cooperation based on equitable R&I partnerships: role and contribution from Switzerland - 9/4/2025

The University of Bern, The Guild, and SwissCore are jointly organizing a Research and Innovation Briefing on ‘Africa – Europe 360° cooperation based on equitable R&I partnerships: role and contribution from Switzerland’.

This event will take a closer look on the Africa-Europe Clusters of Research Excellence (CoRE) launched by the African Research Universities Alliance (ARUA) and The Guild of European Research-Intensive Universities and how this initiative contributed to creating equitable partnerships. Furthermore, leading scientists will present their initiatives, achievements and challenges faced while engaging in international cooperation.
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CALLS & COMPETITIONS

SGroup InterContinental Academic Exchange Programme - submission deadline: 7/3/2025
 

The InterContinental Academic Exchange Programme (ICON) finds its origin in long-lasting collaborative links between the SGroup network, its members, associate members and institutions located in strategic regions and countries for SGroup and also linked to the Think Tank Academy.

As part of this mobility programme, the academic and administrative staff of full-member European Universities of the SGroup (like Ghent University) can apply for a scholarship to conduct a short mobility period in a partner institution of their choice outside Europe.
 
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The Society for Ethnobotany Annual Meeting - abstract submission deadline: 1/4/2025

In June 2025, Prague will become the center of international activity in the field of ethnobotany, as the Faculty of Tropical AgriSciences at the Czech University of Life Sciences will host The Society for Ethnobotany Annual Meeting. This event, which attracts experts and students from all over the world, represents a unique opportunity to share scientific knowledge and discuss key issues in ethnobotany.
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Oproep vir bydraes: 5de Swart Afrikaanse skrywerssimposium, UWK - datum vir indiening van abstrakte: 15/5/2025
 

Die Departement Afrikaans en Neerlandistiek, Universiteit van Wes-Kaapland kondig met trots die 5de Sas-byeenkoms aan.

Die Departement word die afgelope 40 jaar met dié simposium verbind wat 'n duidelike spoor in die Afrikaanse literatuurgeskiedenis gelaat het.

Die Sas-byeenkoms word vanaf 9-11 Oktober 2025 aangebied. Soos in die verlede is die vertrekpunt 'n bestekopname van “swart skryfwerk in Afrikaans”.
 
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ROAS Theme Day - Water, a Critical Resource - abstract submission deadline: 2/6/2025

The Royal Academy for Overseas Sciences will organize its sixth Theme Day on Monday 1 December 2025. The goal of this conference is to allow researchers, who are active in overseas countries, to meet each other, whatever their specialization, but also to let them know about the Royal Academy for Overseas Sciences and its activities (www.kaowarsom.be).
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International Symposium on Underutilized Plant Species - abstract submission deadline: 13/6/2025

ECHO (Home - ECHO) will host the IV International Symposium on Underutilized Plant Species on 20-24 October 2025 at their North America Regional Impact Center in Fort Myers, Florida.

The event is under the auspices of the International Society for Horticultural Science. Registration and abstract submission are open!
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AFRICA PLATFORM INITIATIVES AND EVENTS

Africa Film Festival 2025 - 26-29/3/2025
 

We warmly invite you to the 9th Africa Film Festival in Ghent. We will be screening short films, movies and documentaries from countries such as Rwanda, Mali, Senegal, Kenya, Egypt and Cape Verde.

The opening movie Demba will be a Belgian premiere and a panel discussion on the history of East African slavery (with UGent experts) will follow the film screening on Friday 28/3.

You are particularly invited to join us for the opening reception on Wednesday 26 March; on Saturday night we will close with some Lusophone fusion vibes.
 
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South African Ghent University Alumni Networking Event - 27/3/2025
 

 

The Alumni Chapter South Africa and the Representation of Flanders to Southern Africa kindly invite Ghent University alumni to a networking dinner in Johannesburg.

Join us for an inspiring evening where UGent and friends come together to deepen connections, expand their networks, and reaffirm their bond with Ghent University.
 
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Official launch UGent alumni chapter in Kenya - 29/3/2025
 

Ghent University has enjoyed a long tradition of welcoming Kenyan exchange and degree students through internships, various undergraduate, PhD and research programmes and bilateral agreements with Kenyan institutions.

The University’s Alumni Relations Office and our local alumni representatives kindly invite Ghent University alumni to the official launch of an alumni chapter in Kenya.
 
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AUGent Institutional Trip to Uganda - 19-29/8/2025
 

On the programme:

 -Visits to:

  • Makerere University
  • Makerere University Teaching Hospital
  • Kampala International University
  • Mbarara University of Science and Technology
  • Mountains of the Moon University
  • Gulu University
  • RUFORUM

-Alumni event at the Belgian embassy
 
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Want to learn more about the six Regional Platforms? Take a look at www.ugent.be/regionalplatforms
to find all the information you need.



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