Centre for African Studies (LUCAS)
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We are pleased to reveal our exciting seminar series for Semester 2 2018/19. For more information, please visit our events tab.
LUCAS Conference – ‘Contemporary Africas, Creative Africas: Conceptual and Methodological Advances in African Studies’, 4-5th April – REGISTRATION NOW OPEN
LUCAS is proud to announce that the registration for our upcoming conference is now open. For more information on the event and how to register, please visit our ‘events’ tab.
Film Screening: WAX PRINT: 1 Fabric, 4 Continents, 200 Years of History”>Film Screening: WAX PRINT: 1 Fabric, 4 Continents, 200 Years of History
Further seats are now available for this popular event on Monday afternoon:
Please join us for a free screening of Aiwan Obinyan’s new feature length documentary WAX PRINT: 1 Fabric, 4 Continents, 200 Years of History on Monday 3rd December, 4.30pm¬-7.00pm at Clothworkers North Building LT Cinema (2.31), School of Media and Communication, University of Leeds.
Followed by a Q&A with Director Aiwan Obinyan. Shown as Part of Resists: exploring resist-dyed textiles across cultures exhibition programme.
For more information, please visit our ‘events’ tab
LUCAS PGR/PGT Student Network Launch Event
The Leeds University Centre for African Studies is proud to announce the relaunch of our LUCAS PGR/PGT Student Network this December. Our first event will be hosted on Wednesday 12th December at 3pm.
Are you a postgraduate student (taught or research) at the University of Leeds, or another Yorkshire based university conducting research relating to Africa? Our launch event will provide the opportunity to find out more about LUCAS and the work that we do, to meet our student reps, Sally and Rawan, and to join in a discussion about the type of events, workshops and activities that students would like to attend, or even help to develop!
Interested? Come along to our free event and meet the team. Refreshments and nibbles will be provided. To find out more about our event, and to register for your free ticket, please visit here
Please note that you do not have to be a student at the university of Leeds to join this network, however we do require that you are a postgraduate student with an interest in research relating to Africa. Refreshments will be provided. Please let us know if you have any dietary requirements.
If you have any further questions, or wish to join our mailing list, please email african-studies@leeds.ac.uk
Call for Papers: Contemporary Africas, Creative Africas: Conceptual and Methodological Advances in African Studies
LUCAS is excited to announce our upcoming conference: ‘Contemporary Africas, Creative Africas: Conceptual and Methodological Advances in African Studies’ which will be hosted here in Leeds between 4th-5th April 2019. Our Call for Papers is open until 30th November 2019.
How does one make sense of Africa – as a place and an idea – today? How should we study the dynamics in African societies and cultures as part of our constantly shifting world with its paradoxes of globalisation and locality, postcoloniality and neo-colonialism, a neo-liberal world order and alternative collective imaginaries? How are cultural objects and performances shaping the way that Africa is figured imaginatively and what kind of politics is emerging around cultural representation? What are the innovative concepts and methodologies needed to engage and understand Africa, both as a site of critical new plays for power – between ‘the people’ and ‘the state’ for instance – and as an actor in a changing global political environment? What theoretical and methodological advances are required to push African Studies as a field beyond its problematic histories and trajectories, and to take seriously the quest for decolonisation?
Building on its long history of a multidisciplinary and critical study of African societies, cultures and politics, the Leeds University Centre for African Studies invites proposals for panels and papers with cutting-edge empirical and theoretical research into Africa’s multiple realities, dynamics and meanings. We specifically welcome contributions that probe new methods and concepts from across the social sciences and humanities in order to advance our understanding of Africa as a place and an idea, and the state of African Studies as a field.
We are interested in any proposal that addresses the above questions. For instance, we welcome paper and panel proposals about:
Civil Society and Social Movements in Africa
African Politics and Political Economies
Religious Transformations in Africa
African Arts and Creative Cultures
Africa in the Current World Order
Decolonising African Studies
Gender and Queer Africa
Representations of Africa
African Urban Worlds
Methodological innovations in African Studies
Ethical challenges in African Studies
How to Apply
Either by submitting an individual proposal (200 words max.), or a proposal for a full panel of four papers (with a panel abstract of 200 words max., and abstracts of the individual papers of 200 words max.). To submit your proposal, please follow this link: Abstract Submission you will be required to create an account and log in before you are able to submit your proposal.
The deadline for proposals is Friday 30 November 2018.
A conference fee which covers registration and lunch will be charged as follows:
Postgraduate Students: £100
Other Participants: £150
To begin the submission process please select the login tab at the top of the page and create an account. You will then be able to submit a paper abstract or panel.
We are in the process of seeking funding and hope to be able to offer a limited number of bursaries towards travel, registration and accommodation costs to selected participants solely affiliated to African Universities. If you are eligible and want to be considered for a bursary, please indicate this on the submission form.
For any further information please contact the Leeds University Centre for African Studies at
african-studies@leeds.ac.uk.
Lionel Cliffe Dissertation Prize winners
Many congratulations to Jorja Lawrence Levy and Sita Shah – joint winners of this years Lionel Cliffe dissertation prize, awarded to the best undergraduate dissertation on a topic related to African Studies at the University of Leeds. The prize is named in memory of the late great scholar Lionel Cliffe, and winners are encouraged to revise their respective dissertations for publication in the Leeds African Studies Bulletin.
China in Africa symposium
The Confucius Institute at the University of Leeds are organising a symposium on China in Africa on Wed 26 September at the University of Leeds – for more information and to register please see here
Symposium in Honour of Bishop Christopher Senyonjo
We are delighted to announce that the University of Leeds is awarding an honorary degree to Rev. Christopher Senyonjo, one of the few religious leaders in Uganda, and indeed in Africa, who actively supports members of the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) community and advocates for the recognition of their human rights and that a symposium will be held to celebrate this occasion on Wednesday 18 July at the University of Leeds organised by LUCAS in conjunction with the Centre for Religion and Public Life. For more information, including on details of how to register for the symposium, please see here.
Leeds African Studies Bulletin #79 (Winter 2017-18) out now
The latest issue of Leeds African Studies Bulletin, no. 79 (Winter 2017-18) is now online and available to download here. Our Bulletin this year reflects our commitment to publishing authors based on the continent, to highlighting the achievements of Leeds’ graduate students, and to reflecting our city’s complex and evolving relationship with Africa. Emmanuel Adeniyi’s article employs linguistic analysis of Yoruba poetry to draw out new meaning from writings about identity crisis, the transatlantic slave trade and diaspora. Lauren Devine, winner of the Lionel Cliffe prize, critiques occidental consumerist paternalism in her article’s analysis of sensationalist accounts of African child-soldiers. Marika Sherwood, in her article on the All Colonial Peoples Conferences of 1945 reminds us of the vital role played by advocates of pan-African unity in challenging assumptions of imperial reconstruction after the Second World War. Max Farrar, Emily Zobel Marshall and Guy Farrar draw together the local and global heritage which has shaped the Leeds Carnival, and emphasise its enduring radical, socially-engaged character. The deadline for contributions for next years issue is 1 September 2018 – please get in touch for more information and / or see our call for contributions here.
Women of the Global South and its Diasporas
The Women’s Paths Research Group at the University of Leeds have organised a symposium on Tuesday 5 June 2018 on ‘Women of the Global South and its Diasporas: Rights, Representation, Activism’ – registration is now open – for more details please see here
Final LUCAS Seminars
Our final LUCAS seminar will see Akin Iwilade, Lecturer in African Studies at Leeds, give a paper on ‘Everyday youth mobilisations in the Nigerian oil delta’ on Friday 1 June at 4pm Grant Room, School of History – Michael Sadler Building 311 – for an abstract and more information please see our events page here.
Finding Africa series on Theorising Africa begins
The Finding Africa team are delighted to be opening our Theorising Africa session with a screening, discussion and interview with the Ugandan director, Patience Nitumwesiga, who will be speaking to Ruth Kelly about two short films made in Kampala last year. The event, titled ‘Art and Ways of knowing in Uganda’, will take place on Tuesday 13 February 2018 at the Leeds Humanities Research Institute (LHRI) Seminar Room 1 at 4pm. This event, which is hosted in collaboration with LUCAS, is open to all and entrance is free – for more information please see here
Memory and Performance in African-Atlantic Futures
A major three-day International Conference will be held on 31 August – 2 September 2018 at the University of Leeds on ‘Memory and Performance in African-Atlantic Futures’, for more information and to register please see the conference website here
LUCAS Seminar series – Spring Term
The Spring 2018 LUCAS seminar series begins with a joint LUCAS and Centre for Religion and Public Life Research seminar with Professor Birgit Meyer (Utrecht) on ‘Studying Religion in and from Africa’. This will take place on Thursday 25 January 2018, 5pm, Parkinson Building (B.09) – for an abstract and more information please see here.
Professor Ato Quayson to give the LUCAS Annual Lecture
We are delighted to announce that Professor Ato Quayson, University Professor at the University of Toronto and Visiting Professor of African and Postcolonial Literature at New York University, will give the LUCAS Annual Lecture on Wednesday 6 December 2017 at 5.30pm in the Rupert Beckett Lecture Theatre, Michael Sadler Building [please note slightly later start and slightly different venue to previously advertised]. Professor Quayson’s lecture – which is supported by the Institute for Colonial and Postcolonial Studies at Leeds – is entitled ‘Conscripts of Colonial Modernity in Chinua Achebe’s Rural Novels’. It is free and there is no need to book in advance, for more information please see here.
LUCAS Seminar series – Autumn Term
We regret that the planned LUCAS seminar with Eritrean writer Alemseged Tesfai on ‘British colonialism in Eritrea, 1941-1950’ has had to be cancelled due to visa difficulties. For other upcoming seminars please see our events page.
Call for papers for the Finding Africa seminar series 2018
Finding Africa, which is based at the University of Leeds, has announced its seminar CFP for the academic year 2017/2018, based around the theme of “Theorising Africa” with all topics welcome – for more details please see here
Conversations in Black History series
The University of Leeds Conversations in Black History series returns on Tuesday 17 October at Leeds West Indian Centre, with a discussion of ‘Toussaint Louverture, the Haitian Revolution and Haiti today’, featuring a book launch, roundtable discussion and poetry – for more details please see here
The Algerian War of Independence in the Present
Registration is now open for a two day conference at the University of Leeds on 7-8 September, Rupture, Repression, Repetition? The Algerian War of Independence in the Present.
LUCAS joins AEGIS
Leeds University Centre for African Studies has recently been accepted as a member of the Africa-Europe Group for Interdisciplinary Studies (AEGIS), a research network of European studies centres which aims to create synergies between experts and institutions. With primary emphasis on Social Sciences and Humanities, AEGIS’ main goal is to improve understanding about contemporary African societies. It is excellent news for LUCAS that we are now part of this network and we look forward to being able to help contribute to developing AEGIS’ important work.
New Lecturer in African Studies post at LUCAS
LUCAS are currently looking to hire a new Lecturer in African Studies (three years, fixed term post- ref AHCFO1010) – if you think this could be you please see here for more details on how to apply and feel free to contact LUCAS director Dr. Shane Doyle (School of History) if you have any queries arising. The closing date for applications is Monday 10 July 2017.
YASN Conference – Migration and Transition – Roots and Routes
The next Yorkshire African Studies Network conference will be on ‘Migration and Transition – Roots and Routes’ and will take place at the University of Hull, on 18th and 19th May 2017 – for the programme and more details on registration please see here
Upcoming Finding Africa seminars
The African Feminisms series continues with discussions of ‘Mossane (Safi Faye, 1997) and Djanta (Tahirou Tassere Ouedraogo, 2006): Intersections of Feminism with Ethnic Identity’ by Monika Kukolova on Thursday 9 March, 5pm, Leeds Humanities Research Institute Seminar Room 1 and then Elinor Rooks on ‘Bessie’s Head’s Radical Visions of Sex and Gender’ on Thursday 23 March 5pm, also at LHRI seminar room 1. For the full series please see the Finding Africa website.
Ayobami Adebayo in Conversation – #StayWithMe
Leeds University Centre for African Studies and Blackwells Leeds are delighted to be hosting Ayobami Adebayo, whose debut novel about Nigeria, Stay With Me, has just been published and already been longlisted for the Baileys Prize. We would like to invite you to a conversation with this new literary star on Monday 13 March 2017 in the Business School Maurice Keyworth Lecture Theatre (Room G.02), University of Leeds from 6pm-8pm – for more details please see here.
Leeds African Studies Bulletin 78 now online
The latest issue of the Leeds African Studies Bulletin #78 is now out and online – with wide-ranging articles on Theatre for Development in Malawi, the Calabash in Yoruba society, women’s experience on social media in post-revolutionary Tunisia and a discussion of Adichie’s Half of a Yellow Sun. There is also a special section relating to Leeds, Africa and Black History in the city. You can download the entire issue as a PDF from the bottom of this page. We welcome contributions for the next volume, for more information or if you have ideas for submissions please get in touch – the deadline for articles for volume No. 79 is 1 October 2017.
Finding Africa seminar on Abortion and Southern African Women’s Writing
The next seminar in the African Feminisms series will be ‘The Birth of ‘New’ Materialism? Abortion and Southern African Women’s Writing’ with Caitlin Stobie, on Monday 27 February, 5pm, Leeds Humanities Research Institute Seminar Room 1 – for more details and an abstract please see here.
Leeds Premier of C.L.R. James documentary Every Cook Can Govern
The Leeds premier of the film documentary Every Cook Can Govern: The life works & impact of C.L.R. James is being shown as part of the ‘Conversations in Black History’ seminar series. There will be a Q&A after the film with Ceri Dingle (director), Dr Arthur France MBE, founder of the Leeds West Indian Carnival and Dr Christian Høgsbjerg, author of C.L.R. James in Imperial Britain – Wednesday 1 March, 6.15pm, Leeds West Indian Centre, 10 Laycock Place, Chapeltown – for more info please see here
Finding Africa seminar on Stiwanism and Gendered Identities in Jinja (Uganda)
Finding Africa are pleased to announce that Professor Jane Plastow will open their next set of on the theme of African Feminisms with a paper co-authored with Katie McQuaid on Stiwanism and Gendered Identities in Jinja (Uganda). The seminar will take place on Monday 13 February 2017 at the Leeds Humanities Research (LHRI) Institute Seminar Room at 5pm. All are welcome and entrance is free – for more details and the abstract see here.
LUCAS Annual Lecture with Professor Nic Cheeseman
We are delighted to announce that Professor Nic Cheeseman (University of Birmingham), author of Democracy in Africa (2015), will give the 2016-17 LUCAS Annual Lecture. The title of the lecture is ‘Elections and Political Change in Africa: The Case of Kenya 2017’ and will take place on Thursday 16 March 2017, 4.30pm, Clothworkers South Building Lecture Theatre 2. For more information on the event, which is free and open to all, and Professor Cheeseman’s work please see here
Truth for Giulio, Justice for Egypt’s Disappeared
LUCAS are proud to be joining with Leeds University and College’s Union (UCU) and Amnesty to sponsor an Egypt Solidarity Initiative event to campaign for truth for Giulio Regeni in Leeds, on Wednesday 22 March, 1 – 2.30pm, Roger Stevens Building, Lecture Theatre 1, University of Leeds. Speakers: Shane Enright (Amnesty UK’s trade union campaigner), Professor Ray Bush (University of Leeds) – for more info please see here
Jörg Wiegratz on Neoliberal Moral Economy in Uganda
On Tuesday 28 February, at 4.30pm in LG 19 (Michael Sadler Building), there will be Book launch and LUCAS Seminar with Jörg Wiegratz (Lecturer in Political Economy of Global Development at the University of Leeds) talking about his new book Neoliberal Moral Economy: Capitalism, Socio-Cultural Change and Fraud in Uganda – for more details please see here.
Conversations in Black History – Remembering Christopher and David
LUCAS is supporting a new series in conjunction with Leeds West Indian Centre Charitable Trust and the School of History at the University of Leeds, ‘Conversations in Black History’, and its inaugural event is ‘Remembering Christopher and David: Justice and Police Brutality in Yorkshire’, with campaigner Janet Alder and the Remember David Oluwale Campaign. It takes place on Wednesday 1 February, at 6pm, Leeds West Indian Centre – all welcome – for more details please see here.
Research seminar with Professor Rijk van Dijk
Leeds University Centre for African Studies (LUCAS) and the Centre for Religion and Public Life (CRPL) are organising a joint research seminar on Tuesday 7 February, 5pm (venue: Baines Wing SR 1.13) with Professor Rijk van Dijk (ASCL, Leiden University/ AISSR, Univ. of Amsterdam/ Centre of Excellence, Univ. of Konstanz), who will be speaking about ‘Pentecostalism and Pre-marital Counselling in Africa: A Case of Religious Sophistication?’. This is a public event, open to all university students, staff and others with an interest in the subject – for more details please see here.
YASN Conference – Transitions’ from what to what? Justice and Reconciliation in Africa
Registration is open for this upcoming Yorkshire African Studies Network conference on Friday 18 November at the University of Bradford – to register and for the programme see here.
LUCAS seminar with Professor Ebenezer Obadare
The next LUCAS seminar will see Professor Ebenezer Obadare (University of Kansas) speak on ‘Man of God, Subject of Veneration: Pastors, Politics, and Changing Forms of Authority in Africa’. It will take place on Wednesday 9 November, 4pm, SR 1.14 (Baines Wing), for more details please see here.
Sing Freedom – A story with songs of liberation
LUCAS are proud to be supporting a special performance by Frances Bernstein and her Free Range choir of Sing Freedom – a story with songs of liberation about the struggle against apartheid in South Africa, on Tuesday 22 November at 7.30pm in the Clothworkers Centenary Concert Hall – for more details and to book tickets (£5/£3) please see here.
Upcoming LUCAS Seminars
In a seminar hosted jointly by LUCAS and Leeds University Business School, Prof. Howard Stein (University of Michigan) will give a paper on ‘Industrial policy in Africa’ on Friday 21 October, 3pm in Liberty Building (LT 1.28) – for more details see here. On Monday 24 October, Dr Sabrina Parent from Université Libre de Bruxelles will give a joint LUCAS / French seminar on ‘From Senghor to Bouchareb, the living memory of Thiaroye’ at 5pm, Michael Sadler Building LG15 – for more details see here.
Dr Alex Vines OBE on ‘Narratives about Africa’s Future’
LUCAS and the Centre for Global Development are delighted that Dr Alex Vines OBE (Head of the Africa Programme at Chatham House) will be at the University of Leeds to speak on ‘Narratives about Africa’s Future: what role for academics and analysts?’ on Tuesday 18th October, 5pm, Maurice Keyworth Lecture Theatre, Leeds University Business School. All welcome – details here. Edited to add – the video of Alex’s talk is now available – see here
Forward to freedom exhibition in Leeds for Black History Month
LUCAS are proud to be bringing the exhibition Forward to freedom: The history of the British Anti-Apartheid Movement, 1959-1994 to Leeds for Black History Month. We will launch the exhibition at a special roundtable on Leeds anti-apartheid activism on Wednesday 12 October. The Forward to freedom exhibition will be on display in the School of History at the University of Leeds from 10-14 October, at the Sheila Silver Library at Leeds Beckett University from 17-21 October and then Chapeltown Library on Chapeltown Road from 24-28 October – don’t miss the chance to catch this inspiring exhibition while it is in Leeds – for more details please see here.
Finding Africa 2016-17 – CfP: African Feminisms
In light of current debates on decolonisation and the continued interest in intersectional politics in the global sphere, Finding Africa invites researchers to propose papers which centre on the theme of African feminisms in any field of the humanities for their seminar series this year co-hosted with LUCAS at the University of Leeds. For their call for papers, please see here.
LUCAS Autumn Term Seminar Series 2016-17
Leeds University Centre for African Studies is pleased to announce its seminar series this Autumn – please see here or our ‘events’ pages for further details. Our first event is on Wednesday 12 October at 5.30pm, LG19 Michael Sadler Building and will see a roundtable discussion ‘Remembering anti-apartheid activism in Leeds’, which we are very proud to be hosting as part of Black History Month. This event will also mark the official launch of an exhibition which is in Leeds throughout October, Forward to freedom: The history of the British Anti-Apartheid Movement, 1959-1994.
Creative Africas
There are still spaces left on Creative Africas: Culture and the Arts in Modern Africa (FOAR1100), a semester 1 Level 1 discovery module organised by Leeds University Centre for African Studies which offers an introduction to a wide range of forms of contemporary African cultural production and the historical and social contexts of their emergence.
YASN Conference – Transitions’ from what to what? Justice and Reconciliation in Africa
Please see this Call for Papers for the next Yorkshire African Studies Network conference, which will take place at the University of Bradford on Friday 18 November with the support of JEFCAS. The conference aims to subject to scrutiny the realms of criminal justice, social justice and reconciliation in Africa.
Leeds African Studies Bulletin # 77 out now
The latest issue of Leeds African Studies Bulletin (No. 77, 2015-16) is out now and available to view online and download – see here. This issue includes the LUCAS 2015-16 Annual Lecture on the excesses of power given by Professor Wole Soyinka, Nobel Laureate, who studied at Leeds in the 1950s. We welcome contributions for the next volume, for more information or if you have ideas for submissions please get in touch – the deadline for articles for volume No. 78 is 1 October 2016.
Review of African Political Economy (ROAPE) Online
Check out the new ROAPE Online website, which has analysis of contemporary developments in Africa as well as details of scholarships, funding opportunities etc – including the Lionel Cliffe Memorial Research Scholarship