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: Beyond the Secular: Jacques Derrida and the Theologico-Political Complex; Speaker: Dr. Andrea Cassatella
Virtual via Zoom, 2nd March 2021 Abstract In this talk, Andrea Cassatella aims to give an overview of his recently completed book manuscript, Beyond the Secular: Jacques Derrida and the Theologico-Political Complex. The book examines the contemporary relationship between religion and politics through the work of Jacques Derrida in order to interrogate some insufficiently analysed ... Read more
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Public Lecture: Gender, Vulnerability and the Political Economy of Government Outsourcing in Africa; Speaker: Dr. S.N. Nyeck
Abstract: Over the past fifteen years, African states have revised and adopted new public procurement laws in response to internationaldemands for trade liberalization. The devolution of core public functions to private entities (profit and non-profit) is undoubtedly oneof the major policy changes in the twentieth century that reconfigures the mechanisms and modalities of governance, the ... Read more
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Public Lecture: Land Conflicts in Bouaké, Côte d’Ivoire: the (In)convenient Gray Zone; Speaker: Aidas Sanogo
Virtual via Zoom, 16th March 2021 Abstract: This presentation examines a conflict that revolves around the use of a plot of land in the Air France 3 neighbourhood in Bouaké, Côte d’Ivoire. After a chronological description of the Air France 3 market conflict, I provide a mapping of the various social actors invovlved in the ... Read more
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Public Lecture: Gender and Biopolitics in the Poetry of Nontsizi Mgqwetho; Speaker: Emily McGiffin
Virtual via Zoom, 30th March 2021 Abstract Published almost exclusively in the multilingual Johannesburg newspaper Umteteli wa Bantu during the 1920s, Nontsizi Mgqwetho's poetry is enmeshed with the racial and industrial politics of her time and place. Despite its denunciations of the colonial state and vehement calls for black unity and activism, her work is ... Read more
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Public Lecture: Internal Migration in Ghana: Identifying the Migrant and an Examination of Prevalence and Patterns between 2013 and 2017; Speaker: Louis Boakye-Yiadom
Virtual via Zoom, 13th April 2021 Abstract For many years, migration has featured extensively in academic and public discussions, and its prominence shows no sign of abatement. While much of the focus of the migration discourse has been on international migration, available evidence suggests that internal migration also merits considerable attention. This lecture first highlights ... Read more
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Public Lecture: Rethinking Immigration Governance in the Contemporary Context of Collaboration and Integration in Africa; Speaker: Christal Spel
Virtual via Zoom, 18th April 2021 Abstract The presentation focuses on the mobility component of the AfCFTA and calls attention to the social and economic vulnerability of African migrants in Africa. First, I will discuss the vulnerability African migrants experience in Africa. Next, using theoretical analysis, I will link the implementation of the AfCFTA to ... Read more
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Public Lecture: Monumental Failure: Forgetting the Victims of the Life Esidimeni Tragedy; Speaker: Nontsasa Nako
Virtual via Zoom, 27th April 2021 Abstract 144 mental health patients died, and 44 went missing after the Gauteng department of health moved nearly 1500 mental health care users from the Life Esidimeni facilities into 27 private NGOs, which became known as the Life Esidimeni tragedy. The public outcry and the outrage that followed when ... Read more
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Public Lecture: New Urbanism, New “Middle Classes” – New Policies in Africa? Some Observations from Contemporary Kenya; Speaker: Florian Stoll
Virtual via Zoom, 25th May 2021 Abstract Most African countries have seen a significant growth of cities in the last decades. Political systems rely, however, frequently on the networks of societies with a rural majority. This project examines how urbanization influences existing political systems using Kenya as a case study. Kenya is particularly suitable because ... Read more
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Lecture Series: Critical Reflections on Afro-European Relations in Migration Governance
via Zoom Migration on the African continent is multifold, complex with varying effects. One angle in particular is the European efforts to control migration, which has reached far beyond its external borders to the African continent. For example, there has been an attempt to increase ‘cooperative agreements’ between the European Union (EU) with African states. ... Read more
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Public Lecture: The New “Magic” of Power? Freemasonry, Postcolonial Homophobia, and Struggles for Decolonization in Central Africa; Speaker: Rogers Orock
via Zoom Speaker: Rogers Orock, University of the Witwatersrand Abstract: We live in an age of suspicion and conspiracism. This talk links current struggles over homosexuality in Francophone Africa to popular suspicions and conspiracy theories about Freemasonry, a global (though originally Western-based) esoteric or secret society with a significant presence across Africa. By analysing rumours and ... Read more
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Public Lecture: Making Loot, Making Restitution – A Short (Legal) History; Speaker: Jakob Zollmann
virtual via Zoom Abstract: This lecture will introduce a number of key events and key sources from different historic periods regarding questions of loot and restitution. Was looting seen as a legitimate, lawful part of waging war against other nations or opponents? Was there something problematic for contemporaries of different historic periods in the act ... Read more
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Public Lecture: Terms of detachment: Aloneness as potential in West African migration; Speaker: Michael Stasik
via Zoom Abstract: Studies of African migration, and of migration in and from West Africa, in particular, commonly place group relations and efforts front and center. Migration is presented as a collective practice oriented towards making and maintaining relatedness, both at home and abroad. In this talk, I challenge this groupist bias and the one-sided ... Read more
