The Global Souths Hub team are looking forward to attending the 60th African Studies Association of the UK conference (ASAUK). More than 550 academics, independent researchers, media professionals and others will come together for a lively and thought-provoking 3-day event at Oxford Brookes University from Thursday 29 to Saturday 31 August 2024.
This year’s conference theme is Generation and Regeneration. On their website, ASAUK describes:
“We have adopted a theme that invites reflection on the changes that have taken place in knowledge production about and from Africa. Generational divides and inter-generational disappointment are critical themes in the understanding of contemporary African cultural, social and political dynamics, and they feature in many scholarly works about and from the continent. These same generational divides are also a feature of the academic environments in which many of us work. The generational focus of the conference acknowledges the centre of gravity for knowledge production as necessarily led from the African continent, and also places the emphasis on a future-oriented date stamp for knowledge production.”
Building Connections with Africa-based Societies
ASAUK’s aim is to facilitate connections between UK and African institutions and between scholars in Africa and in the UK. The society supports a number of activities. These include the ASAUK Best Thesis Prize awarded biennially for the best dissertation in African Studies, the ASAUK Best Book Prize and ASAUK Best First Book Prize, the Outstanding African Studies Awards, and the Mary Kingsley Zochonis Lecture, which sponsors early career academics to deliver a high profile lectures. Many of this year’s prize winners will be awarded at a ceremony on the Saturday 31 August.
Building collaborations with Africa-based peer associations is also an important part of ASAUK’s remit. This year’s conference marks a historic and first meeting of the Presidents and Chairs of the ASAUK, the African Studies Association of Africa, the Lagos Studies Association and the Mashariki (Eastern African) Literary and Cultural Studies conference.
The Programme
The conference programme covers a wide range of topics, from historical archives to AI, sustainability to poetry, and future building to queer creativity. You can find out more about the keynote speakers (see profiles below), various book launches, film screenings (In the Shadow of Biafra and Mr Fuji: Barry Wonder), and prize winners in their captivating programme.
For travelling to and from the conference and for in between sessions, the ASAUK team have even created a 30 song Spotify playlist.
There are a also a large number of publishers and booksellers present at the ASAUK2024 conference. If you are interested in getting your work published there are two ‘Meet The Editors’ drop-in sessions to discuss your article ideas on Thursday 29 (12-2pm) and Friday 30 (5.30-7pm).
Hub Highlights
The team are particularly looking forward to attending the following streams:
Re-engaging ‘Old Media’ Archives and Methods in Africa: Memory, archive, and the decolonial moment with Marion Wallace, Maria Zirra and Godwin Siundu.
Alternative Ways of Knowing (in) Africa Decolonising Research Methods in Researching Africa and Dissemination of Knowledge with Betty Okot, Chimaobi Onwukwe, Deborah LaFond, Jason Schultz, Reggie Raju, David Zeitlyn and George Okiror.
AI in Africa with Sihle Nyathi, Mallick Mnela, Trust Matsilele and Tshepo Tshabalala and Albert Sharra.
(Re)thinking Development and Future Building in Africa with Raphael Mwatela, Jana De Kluiver, Jocelyn Kenne and Noah Echa Attah.
Reinvestigating Colonial Collecting, Looting, and Repatriation in Africa Contesting Colonial Power in Western Museums: Examples from North Africa and the Horn with Lisa Bernasek and Vera-Simone Schulz
Queer Creative Arts in Africa: Sexuality, Gender and Cultural Expressions Re/writing Nigerian Queer Subjectivities with Leila Hall, Zaynab Ango, Adriaan van Klinken and Sopuruchi Frank
Keynote Speakers for ASAUK 2024
There are three distinguished Keynotes speakers at the even who will be speaking on the Friday 30 August at 4.00-5.30pm.
Kenneth Matengu
Kenneth Matengu holds a PhD in Human Geography from the University of Eastern Finland. He has published more than 90 peer reviewed articles, books and book chapters, as well as international peer-reviewed conference papers in fields of geography, higher education governance, quality assurance and natural resources management. In addition, Professor Matengu has led numerous commissioned and consultancy research projects and managed research grants from government, European Union-ACP and other donor countries and agencies. He served as the Founding Pro-Vice Chancellor: Research, Innovation and Development at UNAM,
as well as its Director of External and International Relations, responsible for building partnerships, negotiating agreements and promoting UNAM’s international visibility.He has been appointed by the President of Namibia on various advisory capacities in higher education including being a High-Level Panel member on the economy and Task Force member on the 4th IR. He is currently the Vice Chancellor of the University of Namibia, President of the Pan African University Council, Association of African Universities Governing Board Member and Higher Education Ambassador for Southern Africa. He was recently elected to the UNESCO’s Inter-Governmental Council for the Management of Social Transformations (MOST) Programme.
Isabella Aboderin
Isabella Aboderin is Chair in Africa Research and Partnerships and Director of the Perivoli Africa Research Institute (PARC); and Professor of Gerontology in the School for Policy Studies at the University of Bristol. Her research focuses on i) understanding- and shaping necessary change in, Africa-global North research relations and ii) on questions of ageing, intergenerational relations and care in African contexts. Isabella joined the University in 2020 from the African Population and Research Center (APHRC) in Nairobi where, as Senior Research Fellow, she established and led a research and policy engagement unit on Ageing and Development in Africa, which brought together major academic, practice and policy constituencies in the region- and shaped major continental policy frameworks on the issue. In prior positions Isabella served as Associate Professor, Centre for Research on Ageing, University of Southampton; Senior Research Fellow at the Oxford Institute of Population Ageing, University of Oxford; and World Health Organization technical officer in the Ageing and Lifecourse Unit.
Alongside her role as Extraordinary Professor at North West University, South Africa, Isabella is member of the National Academies of Science Global Commission on Healthy Longevity; the advisory board of Future Africa, University of Pretoria; and the Board of Trustees of the United Nations International Institute on Ageing (INIA) and the Population Reference Bureau (PRB).
Ambreena Manji
Ambreena Manji is Professor of Land Law and Development and Dean of International for Africa at Cardiff University. She was previously Director of the British Institute in Eastern Africa (2010-2014). Her research is in the area of African Law and Society. It is strongly interdisciplinary and includes work on law in African literature, the history of African legal education, and women and the law. Ambreena was president of the African Studies Association UK (2018-2020) and is currently a co-editor of African Affairs and a member of the editorial board of Social and Legal Studies. She has been a member of the British Academy’s International Engagement Committee since 2020 and its Higher Education Policy Development Group since 2022.
She serves as the British Academy representative on the UK Academies Human Rights Committee (2023-2027). In REF 2021 she served on the Area Studies sub-panel and is now treasurer of the UK Council for Area Studies. She is a member of the Governing Council of the Arts and Humanities Council (AHRC). In this capacity, she has led on a major new investment by the AHRC in a £5m Law and Social Justice Centre. In 2023, Ambreena was appointed Cardiff’s University Dean of International for Africa, with responsibility for African partnerships and engagement. In this role she has created the first African Studies Centre in Wales, Hyb Astudiaethau Affricanaidd. In 2020 Ambreena was elected a Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales and in 2023, a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences.
Visit the Global Souths Hub Stand
Come and find us in the exhibition hall to find out more about the Kassahun Checole Award in African Studies for Early Career Scholars. and keep up to date with what’s happening at ASAUK via the Hub’s X and LinkedIn channels. You can also sign up to our newsletter at ASAUK and enter our prize draw to win a bundle of books on African Studies.
