AEGIS is a research network of European centres on

African studies African studies is the study of Africa, especially the continent's cultures and societies (as opposed to its geology, geography, zoology, etc.). The field includes the study of Africa's history (pre-colonial, colonial, post-colonial), demography ...

in the fields of

social science Social science is one of the branches of science, devoted to the study of societies and the relationships among individuals within those societies. The term was formerly used to refer to the field of sociology, the original "science of so ...

and

humanities Humanities are academic disciplines that study aspects of human society and culture. In the Renaissance, the term contrasted with divinity and referred to what is now called classics, the main area of secular study in universities at the t ...

. AEGIS' main goal is to improve understanding about contemporary African societies.

History and organisation

AEGIS was founded in 1991 by African studies centres in Bayreuth,

Bordeaux Bordeaux ( , ; Gascon oc, Bordèu ; eu, Bordele; it, Bordò; es, Burdeos) is a port city on the river Garonne in the Gironde department, Southwestern France. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefect ...

Leiden Leiden (; in English and archaic Dutch also Leyden) is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland, Netherlands. The municipality of Leiden has a population of 119,713, but the city forms one densely connected agglomeration wi ...

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

, and

Uppsala Uppsala (, or all ending in , ; archaically spelled ''Upsala'') is the county seat of Uppsala County and the fourth-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmö. It had 177,074 inhabitants in 2019. Located north of the c ...

. Initially an informal grouping of related African Studies' organisations and groups, AEGIS would formalise in 1998 through the adoption of a formal statute. In the same year, it elected its first executive committee, composed of

Patrick Chabal Patrick Chabal (29 April 1951 – 16 January 2014) was a leading Africanist of the late 20th and early 21st century. He had a long career in academics. Patrick Chabal's latest position was Chair in African History & Politics at King's College Lon ...

(London, Chairman), Gerti Hesseling (Leiden) and Franz-Wilhelm Heimer (Lisbon). In the course of a decade, it developed into a network that included centres from more European countries./ Starting in 1998, international conferences on a variety of thematic areas were organized in different countries. AEGIS continues to host thematic conferences (not to be confused with the ECAS gatherings, detailed below). AEGIS organises itself into small thematic groups (also called Collaborative Research Groups, or CRGS), focusing on specific subjects within the field of African Studies. Examples include 'CRG Africa in the Indian Ocean', 'CRG African Borderlands Research Network' and 'CRG African Migration, Mobility and Displacement (AMMODI)'. The current board consists of AEGIS President and Professor Amanda Hammar (CAS Copenhagen), Dr. David Ambrosetti (LAM Bordeaux), Professor Michael Bollig (Cologne), Professor Jan-Bart Gewald (Leiden), Dr. Tom Molony (Edinburgh) and Dr. Isabella Soi (Cagliari). Chabal toespraak.jpg, Patrick Chabal, ECAS Conference

2007 ECAS2007Leiden.jpg, Hall, ECAS Conference Leiden 2007 ECAS2011Lisboa.jpg, Crowd and stage, ECAS Conference Lisbon 2013 File:JemimaPierre2015.jpg, Jemima Pierre, ECAS Conference Paris

Sorbonne Sorbonne may refer to: * Sorbonne (building), historic building in Paris, which housed the University of Paris and is now shared among multiple universities. *the University of Paris (c. 1150 – 1970) *one of its components or linked institution, ...

2015 File:EdgarPieterse2017.jpg, Edgar Pieterse, ECAS Basel 2017

European Conferences on African Studies (ECAS)

In the new millennium, the organization of European Conferences on African Studies (ECAS), open to everybody, became the central activity. The conferences take place every two years, always in a different country. ECAS 2021, scheduled to be held in Cologne, was postponed to June 2023. * 2005 : ''Approaching the post-colonial half century in sub-Saharan Africa'',

School of Oriental and African Studies SOAS University of London (; the School of Oriental and African Studies) is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the federal University of London. Founded in 1916, SOAS is located in the Bloomsbury a ...

(SOAS), London (UK) * 2007 : ''African alternatives: initiative and creativity beyond current constraints'', African Studies Centre Leiden (Netherlands) * 2009 : ''Respacing Africa'', Institute of African Studies, University of Leipzig (Germany) * 2011 : ''African engagements: on whose terms?'',

Nordic Africa Institute Nordic Africa Institute ( sv, Nordiska Afrikainstitutet) serves as a research, documentation and information centre on modern Africa for the Nordic countries. The Institute also encourages research and studies on Africa. The institute was founded ...

, Uppsala (Sweden) * 2013 : ''African dynamics in a multipolar world'', Centro de estudos africanos, Lisbonne (Portugal) * 2015 : ''Collective mobilisations in Africa: contestation, resistance, revolt'', (IMAF) et (LAM), Paris (France) * 2017 : ''Urban Africa - urban Africans: New encounters of the rural and the urban'', Centre for African Studies Basel, Swiss Society for African Studies, Bâle (Switzerland) * 2019 : ''Africa: connections and disruptions'', Centre of African Studies,

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian on the southern shore of t ...

(UK) * 2021 : no ECAS because of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

* 2023 : ''African futures (ECAS9)'', Global South Studies Center (

University of Cologne The University of Cologne (german: Universität zu Köln) is a university in Cologne, Germany. It was established in the year 1388 and is one of the most prestigious and research intensive universities in Germany. It was the sixth university to ...

) & IARA, Institute for Anthropological Research on Africa ( University of Leuven).

References

External link

* * {{authority control Africa-Europe Group for Interdisciplinary Studies

History and organisation

European Conferences on African Studies (ECAS)

See also

References

External link