Lectures
The MIASA Public Lecture Series features MIASA fellows in residence. It is primarily directed to researchers and students but is also open to the wider public.
The Anton Wilhelm Amo Lecture is organized annually by MIASA at the University of Ghana in collaboration with the Institute of African Studies and the Department of Philosophy and Classics at the University of Ghana. It is named after the 18th century philosopher from present-day Ghana who taught at the universities of Halle and Jena. The lecture series promotes MIASA’s overarching commitment of making African thinking increasingly relevant in global academia, and it addresses questions of how the humanities and social sciences can contribute to the decolonisation of knowledge production and epistemic justice.
Latest Past Events
Public Lecture: Staying Cold in an Ever-Warmer World. An Anthropology of Air Conditioning, Globalization and Disconnection, based on the life stories of young Cameroonian entrepreneurs; Speaker: Gérard Amougou
MIASA Seminar RoomAbstract: With global warming on the rise, the use of air conditioners is steadily increasing in Yaoundé, the capital of Cameroon. Only, these cooling devices have to be maintained and ... Read more
Panel Discussion: “Homecoming or New Displacement: Reflecting on Return in African Communities”
CMS Conference room, University of GhanaPanellist Moderators Prof. Mary Setrana (Migration & Return expert, CMS, University of Ghana, Legon) Dr Kwaku Arhin-Sam (Diaspora & Return expert, Friedensau Adventist University, Germany) This panel discussion is open ... Read more
Public Lecture: New Pan-Africanism in the Sahel? Speaker: Bettina Engels
MIASA Seminar RoomAbstract: The recent changes of government in Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger, brought about by military coups, have been accompanied by a significant geopolitical shift in the central Sahel region. The three states have withdrawn from ECOWAS and set up a new alliance, the Confederation of Sahel States. Whereas the dominant framing of Western mainstream media is a geopolitical one, classifying African politics into the current remake of the East-West conflict, in Africa, the diaspora, and among the internationalist left it is argued about whether the recent developments in the Sahel represent a new Pan-Africanism. The current president ofBurkina Faso, Ibrahim Traoré, plays a key role in this regard. He is frequently compared to one of his predecessors, Thomas Sankara, an icon of Pan-Africanism. This lecture reflects on the extent to which this comparison makes sense. Are we witnessing are revival of Sankara’s legacy? And do the recent geopolitics in theregion represent a new form of Pan-Africanism? Bettina Engels is Guest Professor for Peace and Conflict Studies at the Department of Political and Social Sciences ... Read more
