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ANU Africa Network
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This website was established in 2013 by David Lucas, and renovated and relaunched in 2020 as part of a project to increase awareness of Africa and African studies in the ANU and the ACT, funded by the Australian Government’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
Another outcome of that project was a major research report, published in August 2021, African Studies at the Australian National University and in the Australian Capital Territory, analyzing the past, present and future of the study of Africa at the Australian National University and the wider Australian University sector.
The major innovation on this updated website is the creation of the ACT Africa Expert Directory which lists experts on Africa from institutions around the ACT, primarily the ANU. We will continue to curate this list, offering a key resource for media, government and non-government organizations seeking expert facts and opinions on Africa. Individuals can request to be added to the list by contacting the website managers.
Another notable addition is the expanded directory of PhD theses on Africa produced in the territory’s universities, a solid measure of the vitality of the study of Africa in the city of Canberra.
Reviewing these directories, it is revealing to note that the vast majority of research on Africa is produced by disciplinary experts (environmental scientists, economists, demographers, etc.) rather than area studies experts. This means that the study of Africa is woven into the fabric of the research culture of the ANU and the ACT’s other universities in ways that are not necessarily apparent.
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Truth and Reconciliation: South Africa and Victoria
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Date and time: Thursday 08 Apr 2021, 1–2pm
Speaker: Ibrahim Abraham
Event series: Freilich Research Network Event
Location: online zoom webinar, register here
Victoria’s recently announced Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) draws inspiration from the famous TRC initiated in South Africa in 1995. Both initiatives endeavour to reveal historical truths and heal broken and unjust relationships between indigenous and non-indigenous communities. Whereas South Africa’s TRC was limited to political violence taking place between 1960 and 1994, excluding the broader sweep of South African history, the willingness of Victoria’s TRC to investigate events as far back as European colonization makes it a conceivably more radical and potentially more contentious initiative. Offering an overview of South Africa’s TRC, drawn from the presenter’s forthcoming book, this lunchtime talk will also draw out some of the likely similarities and differences between the South African and Victorian initiatives, and highlight some of the challenges inherent in any TRC, including the implicitly religious nature of narratives of confession and reconciliation, and the difficulty of finding a common moral language in diverse societies.Ibrahim Abraham is the Hans Mol Research Fellow in Religion and the Social Sciences in the Humanities Research Centre of the Australian National University, and a former Convenor of the Freilich Project for the Study of Bigotry. His book Race, Class and Christianity in South Africa: Middle-Class Moralities will be published by Routledge in 2021.
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Books that Changed Humanity: J. M. Coetzee’s Disgrace
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Date and time: Friday 19 Mar 2021, 5.30–6.45pm
Speakers: Dr Ibrahim Abraham (Humanities Research Centre, ANU)
Location: Zoom (registration required)
Series: Books that Changed Humanity
Dr Ibrahim Abraham explores this controversial masterpiece of post-apartheid South Africa at the turn of the twenty-first century. Disgrace is the novel that not only earned Coetzee (another) Booker Prize but guaranteed him the Nobel Prize awarded in 2003.
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Solidarity in Diversity Conference
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The African Studies Group (ASG) in partnership with the Melbourne Social Equity Institute (MSEI) is hosting the ‘Solidarity in Diversity’ International Conference in July 2021. The call for papers is now open.
“The conference seeks to highlight the voices of, knowledge and experiences of people of African descent, and from other marginalised groups and communities. It is structured around three key themes: solidarity and diversity in academia; policy framing and engagement; and in practice and community intervention.”
The Solidarity in Diversity Conference will be held virtually from Monday 19 to Friday 23 July 2021. To access the poster and the detailed concept note google this link
https://africanstudiesgroup.medium.com/call-for-papers-solidarity-in-diversity-highlighting-marginal-voices-in-academia-practice-and-5b7a0afacaae
You may have to copy this link into your browser.
