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 Lecture: Negotiating Mine Closure in West Africa; Speakers: Tongnoma Zongo & Diana Ayeh
via Zoom Abstract: For several decades the mineral wealth of West Africa’s subsoil has increasingly attracted large- and small-scale investors and miners. This has not only led to a mushrooming of new mining projects (e.g. for gold or bauxite), it also involves (future) abandoned mine sites. These are (temporarily) left to themselves when resources are ... Read more
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Public Lecture: Power Expressions in the Computer-Mediated Political Discourses of Select Ghanaian and Nigerian Female Politicians; Speaker: Oluwayemisi Olusola Adebomi
via Zoom Abstract: Lately, politicians from the Ghanaian and Nigerian political spaces have resorted to new media platforms for the propagation of their political messages. This is due to the ability of these channels to spread (political) messages to a wider audience within the shortest possible period, and engender wider political engagement. In spite of ... Read more
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Public Lecture: Narrative, Identity, and Ethics: Theoretical Considerations Informed by Decolonial Feminisms; Speaker: Eleanor Tiplady Higgs
via Zoom Abstract: In this lecture I will outline the theoretical background of my MIASA project about ‘Christianity’, ‘feminism’, and associated terms, in the English-speaking YWCA movement on the continent. I aim to outline the epistemological basis for taking a narrative approach to researching ethics and identity in African contexts referring to African/a, Black, and ... Read more
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Public Lecture: Processus Marchands au Grand Marché de Bamako: Essai Empirique – Market Processes at the Grand Marché de Bamako: An Empirical Approach; Speaker: Mahamadou Bassirou Tangara
via Zoom Abstract: Le marché, l’un des concepts majeurs en économie, demeure la source originelle de discorde en sciences sociales (Zélizer, 1992 ; Bertrand et Catto, 2020). Le débat autour de ce concept est controversant et se situe à plusieurs niveaux comme le statut, le rôle de mécanisme d’allocation des ressources et le caractère autonome et ... Read more
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Presentation and Public Roundtable: From the Maghreb to the Sahel: transnational terrorism – new trends and dynamics; Presenter: Aly Tounkara
via Zoom MIASA Public Lecture Series in collaboration with the Department of Political Science in Celebration of the Day of Scientific Renaissance of Africa Abstract: The Maghreb and Sahel regions have been plagued for more than a decade by endemic crises of a hybrid nature. The war in Libya, which began in 2011, followed by ... Read more
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Public Lecture: Land Governance in West Africa – Preliminary Empirical Insights; Speakers: Fellows of the Interdisciplinary Fellow Group 6
via Zoom Abstract: Drawing from interdisciplinary research on land governance in West Africa, with field sites in rural and urban areas of Burkina Faso, Mali, Ghana, and Senegal, members of the Sixth Cohort of the MIASA Interdisciplinary Fellow Group (IFG6) of MIASA share some preliminary insights from their works in this Public Lecture. With fellowship support ... Read more
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Public Lecture: Black African Neo/Pentecostal Political Subjectivity and/as Black Consciousness; Speaker: Siphiwe I. Dube
via Zoom Abstract: In this presentation, I explore the political implications of African forms of Pentecostalism for critical race discourse. In particular, and drawing on a critical engagement with the work of Nimi Wariboko, I argue that what African Neo/Pentecostal Theology highlights is that moral and political subjectivity in the context a necropolitical postcolonial Africa, ... Read more
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Public Lecture: Bangui’s Everyday Statehood: Citizens and Public Authority in a Context of Chronic Political Crisis; Speaker: Lotje de Vries
MIASA Seminar room & via Zoom Abstract: While the state in the Central African Republic is characterized by what can be called chronic political instability, everyday life and administration in the capital Bangui seems quite steady. In this lecture, I analyze the various relations between citizens and public authorities in mundane interactions to investigate what ... Read more
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Public Lecture: A Case of Convergence? Party manifestors and left/right ideology in Nigeria’s four Republics; Speaker: Sa’eed Husaini
Abstract: Perspectives in comparative politics see party competition in Africa’s ‘third wave’ democracies as devoid of disagreement on class or economic grounds – and thus as ‘absent’ of left/right ideology. This ‘absence’ thesis finds echo in Nigeria-specific political science literature, as well as in popular perspectives on contemporary politics in Nigeria. Yet, a dearth of ... Read more
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Public Lecture: Between (and beyond) Aisha Huang and Stonebwoy: Towards Understanding Non-State Actors and Chinese Environmental Footprints in Ghana; Speaker: Abdul-Gafar Oshodi
MIASA Seminar Room & via Zoom Abstract: There has been renewed interest in Africa-China relations in the last twenty years – and among the areas that have attracted some attention in academic literature and popular media is Chinese environmental footprint in Africa. Although existing literature on this subset of Africa-China relations appears to predominantly overlook ... Read more
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Public Lecture: Sino-African Urbanism: Chinese Architecture of Capital and the Mercantilist Spirit in the City of Douala; Speaker: Basile Ndjio
MIASA Seminar room Abstract In more general, this paper which is based on field investigation conducted in the city of Douala in Cameroon between 2014 and 2021, aims to extend scholarly discussions on transnational urbanism and architectural innovations. It does so through a detailed empirical examination of newly emerged Chinese architectural imaginations, styles and practices ... Read more
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Anton Wilhelm Amo Lecture 2022: Decolonizing Knowledge Production in Africa; Invited Speaker: Sylvia Tamale (Makerere University)
Great Hall, University of Ghana The world lives with the falsehood that on planet earth, there is one universal correct way of being human, i.e., the Western way of thinking, of being and of doing, which is constructed as a one-size-fits-all model, the “default drive” for the entire world. The lecture focuses on some of ... Read more
