Click the star to add/remove an item to/from your individual schedule.
You need to be logged in to avail of this functionality.
Log in
- Convenors:
-
Gregor Dobler
(Freiburg University)
Elisio Macamo (University of Basel)
Send message to Convenors
- Location:
- C4.05
- Start time:
- 28 June, 2013 at
Time zone: Europe/Lisbon
- Session slots:
- 1
Short Abstract:
What is the role of European African studies in a world that becomes increasingly multipolar? Has there ever been a European perspective in African studies; if so, what does it consist of, and what future does it have in a world that gradually leaves the colonial era behind?
Long Abstract:
In its fifth international conference, AEGIS is analysing shifts in the global order. Paradoxically, AEGIS looks at these changes as a distinctly European group of institutions - embedded in an international research landscape, but building on often clearly visible national research traditions.
This combination calls for reflection: why should there be a European conference on African Studies in a world in which Europe's place becomes increasingly less important? Has there ever been anything like a 'European perspective' in African studies? If so, does a new multicentrism necessarily create new concepts, or can an old model of science maintain its claim to a monopoly of interpretation?
The panel, which is organised by the editors of AEGIS' book series, asks for two different types of papers. On the one hand, it looks for contributions that, in a retrospective or analytical view, reflect on distinctive traits of European African studies and their different traditions. On the other, it invites papers that, in a projective way, address the challenges for African Studies connected to the current rebalancing of international relations. Papers may be historical, comparative or conceptual, and may take critical, polemical, affirmative or speculative outlooks. All of them, however, should contribute to a debate about the way knowledge about Africa is created today, and about the place of European social science and social scientists in this.
Accepted papers:
Session 1Carla Susana Alem Abrantes (Unilab - Universidade da Integração Internacional da Lusofonia Afro-Brasileira)
Paper short abstract:
In this paper I will present the relevance, in the actual world, of the European African studies through a critical analysis of the Colonial School created in 1906 in Lisbon (Portugal) where research about Africa was produced for more than 60 years.
Paper long abstract:
The African studies are part of the research centers in European institutions where analytical and methodological renovation of the knowledge produced about Africa takes place. In this sense, a critical revision of the colonial sciences that dominated the production of knowledge about Africa since the end of the XIX century is necessary. In this paper, the Colonial School - created in 1906 in Lisbon and the first public institution to develop an area of African studies in Portugal - will be considered as a relevant experience to reflect critically upon the role of the European African studies in a multipolar world. The origin and transformations that took place within this institution will be considered briefly attempting to present the themes and elaborations developed by professors and students involved in the Portuguese African project. This historical view will enable to propose connections between the production of knowledge and the expansion of the political projects. In this way, it will reveal the possibilities for the European African studies to collaborate in an equalitarian and plural political construction for Africa.
Gregor Dobler (Freiburg University)
Paper short abstract:
The paper analyses how, in three different moments in time, German-speaking African studies were integrated in or disintegrated from the European and international Africanist landscape. Through this, it identifies continuities, changes and blind spots that continue to shape German and European perspectives.
Paper long abstract:
German African studies were internationally integrated in the 1920s and 1930s. Scholars like Diedrich Westermann, Richard Thurnwald and Günther Wagner were highly visible in the international scene and well connected to their European colleagues. This changed after 1945, not least due to the complicity of German African studies with the fascist regime. In the early 1970s, a new generation of scholars started to re-internationalize and to again co-operate more strongly across disciplines, a trend that only came into full swing in the 1990s and has resulted in today's high degree of integration in international scholarly networks. The paper will use these different ways of integration to analyse what "African studies" meant in Germany at three different moments in time, describing continuities and changes in organisation, funding, writing and career paths of scholars. Its aim is to identify the radical changes the disciplines have undergone, but also continuities that, for better or worse, form elements of a distinctive perspective in German and European African studies. It should thus provide a basis for the panels' discussions on the chances and limits of European African studies in a multipolar world.
Petr Skalník
Paper short abstract:
The paper discusses East European Africanist scholarship and its legitimacy as marginal, non-colonial.In contrast to West Eur.Afr.Studies. It shows that the former perspective is useful for a critical look at hitherto dominant paternalistic style of Afr.Studies in Europe.
Paper long abstract:
African Studies in the countries, which were under communist rule and today are known as post-communist, have developed interest in Africa in dependence on state ideological, political and economic interests. There has been a gradual shift from ideology to economy while the study of African politics seems to follow the vagaries of influence Africa exerts on the world scene. Academic research on Africa in the eastern Europe has long tradition which went largely unnoticed in western Europe. Characteristically, AEGIS does not include a single centre or association based in post-communist Europe even though in countries such as Poland, Czech Republic and Hungary Africanist research currently experiences a considerable growth. This reflects both the hegemony of Western Europe with its strong colonial and neo-colonial emphases and the weak official interest post-communist Europe shows for Africa. The paper will describe the changing accents of eastern European Africanist scholarship and discuss the question of legitimacy of marginal but non-colonial approach to African studies. In contrasting the western European African Studies with eastern European approaches it will show that the latter perspective is useful for a critical look at hitherto dominant paternalistic style of African Studies in Europe.
Anke Graness (University of Hildesheim)
Paper short abstract:
This paper explores the impact of the neglect of African historical and modern philosophical thought on the academic self understanding of philosophy and African Studies in Europe - and shows examples of fruitful debates in modern African philosophy.
Paper long abstract:
Philosophy in Africa is almost neglected in social sciences in Europe: it is neither recognized in the institutes of Philosophy nor of African Studies as a field of research or teaching. Even though an inter- or cross-cultural philosophical approach in philosophy became a part of academic philosophy during the last 20 years (as reflected in publications, conferences and curricular), African philosophy does not play a specific role in this process of opening. While Asian philosophical traditions and schools or the medieval Arabic philosophy is taught at many universities and colleges, Africa's philosophy traditions and trends are still largely excluded from the curricula in Philosophy, and in African Studies too. The official attitude towards philosophy and philosophers in Africa has not yet changed fundamentally in comparison to the well known Hegelian or Kantian prejudices towards the development of logic and reasoning in Africa.
So what to do with Philosophy in Africa? This paper explores, the impact of the neglect of African historical and modern philosophical thought on the academic self understanding of philosophy in Europe and shows examples of fruitful debates in African philosophy which have the potential to basically enrich the international philosophical discourse (like debates on global justice, identity, wisdom, the contextuality of thought). In doing this, the paper tries to open a way of forming new knowledge - not only about Africa, but about our (European) selves and our scientific self-understanding, which is, certainly, a challenge for philosophy as well as African Studies as academic disciplines!