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.
Events
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Public Roundtable: Re-thinking the academic environment for increasing gender-balance and inclusion
Venue: Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana The roundtable is open to the public. For onsite participation at the Nketia Conference Hall at IAS, no registration is required. The roundtable is in English. Online participation offers to choose between English and French. For virtual participation via Zoom, please follow this link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/84792421486 This roundtable ... Read more
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Public Lecture: Is South-South Cooperation an alternative development paradigm? The Case of India in Africa; Speaker: Meera Venkatachalam
MIASA Seminar RoomAbstract: A number of emerging powers, such as China, Turkey, Brazil and India have come to play a significant role in Africa’s development landscape, funding projects from infrastructure to capacity-building and agriculture. Many of these states claim their actions are informed by the notion of southern solidarity, and that their development compact with Africa is framed ... Read more
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MIASA-MECAM Roundtable: Academic Freedom and Research Ethics: Exploring Dynamics in Ghana, Tunisia & Germany
Auditorium, Centre for Biodiversity Conservation Research, University of Ghana, LegonOn October 10, 2024, the Merian Institute for Advanced Studies in Africa (MIASA), in collaboration with the Merian Centre for Advanced Studies in the Maghreb (MECAM), will host a joint roundtable discussion on “Academic Freedom and Research Ethics: Exploring Dynamics in Ghana, Tunisia & Germany.” This event is part of MIASA's Public Lecture Series and ... Read more
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Anton Wilhelm Amo Lecture 2024: Ancestral Knowledge for Contemporary Transformation; Invited Speaker: Toyin Falola (University of Texas at Austin)
Venue: Great Hall, University of Ghana This lecture focuses on the important role of ancestral knowledge in transformation in contemporary Africa. Drawing on traditional ecological knowledge, cultural knowledge, and community governance structures, the lecture discusses how traditional knowledge developed over the centuries could be useful in dealing with contemporary challenges such as environmental degradation, social ... Read more
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Artist Exhibition: Weaving our Past, Present and Future; Artist in Residence: Katesi Jacqueline Kalange
MIASA Courtyard & Seminar RoomKatesi Jacqueline Kalange is an artist from Uganda. Her practice lies within a tapestry of sculpture, architecture, research, performance and installation art. It is inspired by the role African indigenous wisdom played and still plays in ensuring a harmonious co-existence between humans and other beings within shared eco systems. It goes ahead to challenge capitalist narratives that ... Read more
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Guest Lecture: Family History and the Politics of Memory in Africa; Speaker: Prof. Carola Lentz
MIASA Seminar RoomAbstract: What keeps a family together? Over the course of the past decades, lifestyles and ideas about family have become more and more different. In Africa, as elsewhere, urbanites and villagers, educated elites and modest folks, men and women, older and younger generations have developed diverging visions of a desirable future for themselves and their kin. ... Read more
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Public Lecture: The working of the concept of the “engaged writer” and the search for democracy and peace in Ayi Kwei Armah’s Fragments, and Nicolás Guillén’s collection of poetry, West Indies Ltd.; Speaker: Setor Novieto
MIASA Seminar RoomAbstract: In this presentation, we examine the concept of the "engaged writer" as articulated in the works of Ayi Kwei Armah and Nicolás Guillén, with a particular focus on their respective texts, Fragments and West Indies Ltd. This study examines how both authors navigate themes of democracy, peace, and socio-political transformation within their literary and cultural contexts. In ... Read more
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Public Lecture: Camarade Papa & Co. Works That Relegate Colonization to the Museum; Speaker: Abdoulaye Imorou
MIASA Seminar RoomAbstract: The discourse surrounding Africa, and more broadly the 'Black world', often centers on the colonial yoke and the ways colonization and related systems – slavery, imperialism, segregation… – have shaped and continue to shape Black lives. This presentation highlights fictional works that relegate colonization to the museum, offering a shift in perspective. It draws ... Read more
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Public Lecture: Beyond categories: Self-categorization of people on the move in the Sudans; Speaker: Ulrike Schultz
MIASA Seminar RoomAbstract: In this talk, I scrutinize how people originating from the Southern part of Sudan are labeled and categorized in the processes following the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (2005) and the secession of South Sudan (2011). Besides being classified as “displaced” in Khartoum, a place many of them had been living all their lives ... Read more
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Public Lecture: Hybrid governance and shadow economies: violent networks and community responses in Northern Benin; Speaker: Kamal Donko
MIASA Seminar RoomAbstract: Taking the border town of Malanville as a case study, in this presentation I examine the linkages between shadow economies and networks of violent actors and how people navigate this environment. Northern Benin is marked by persistent socio-economic precarity, limited state presence, and rising insecurity. Based on a qualitative approach, the analysis draws on ... Read more
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Public Lecture: Ghana’s Inland Ocean: The Infrastructuresand Technopoliticsof Volta Lake; Speaker: Professor Stephan F. Miescher
MIASA Seminar RoomAbstract: Ghana’s hydroelectric Akosombo Dam created a vast lake extending 250 miles to the north. Although the planners promoted Akosombo as a multi-purpose scheme, lake transport was an afterthought. When the dam was completed in 1965, no decisions had been made of how Ghana would use the lake’s resources, deal with its challenges, and cope ... Read more
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