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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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Ibidolapo Adekoya – Three Minute Thesis Final
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PhD candidate Ibidolapo Adekoya will be a finalist in ANU’s Three Minute Thesis competition on 4 September, and her research has just been profiled in The Canberra Times:
When Ibidolapo Adekoya first got the opportunity to research malaria proteins she “couldn’t say no”. The Australian National University PhD student, who grew up in Nigeria, has had the disease several times and knows how horrible it can be.
Tickets for the final are free and available here. Good luck Dola!
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Linguistics Seminar – “After Shaka: IsiZulu Language in Ideology and Social History”
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Fri 23 Aug 2019, 3.30pmBasham Seminar Room, BPB Level 1, ANUIsiZulu, a major language of South Africa, is not a static monolith, except as some people’s ideologies of language have so imagined it. This presentation traces some major historical events and changes, starting in the early nineteenth century, that have affected Zulu ways of speaking and in which they have been entangled, including the identification of “Zulu” as a unity distinct from cognate linguistic varieties in the region.
Judith Irvine first considers the dramatic expansion of a powerful Zulu kingdom under Shaka Zulu, from 1818. Shaka’s language policy was tied to the centralization of the Zulu state, and had consequences for dialectology, standardization, and ethnicity, especially as interpreted by missionaries in their own linguistic projects. Judith then turns to the forms of respect vocabulary and honorific utterance, with their specific principles of linguistic construction.
These deference forms were entwined with the role of language in the Zulu army, and involved both men and women. Yet, after the British annexation of Zululand in 1887 and the subsequent intensification of colonial rule, the colonizers identified these forms of verbal deference with folklore and gendered social roles. Comparing indigenous and colonizers’ varying conceptions of what language is and how to enlist it in social projects – their ideologies of language – can help bring out some sociolinguistic aspects of the colonial encounter and its aftermath.
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Cherry Gertzel Bursary: September deadline for applications
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The Cherry Gertzel Bursary Award is an annual award to assist female post-graduate students to complete study or research in African Studies.
The information below is selected from the AFSAAP website https://afsaap.org.au/ which should be consulted for more detail.
About Professor Cherry Gertzel AM (1928 – 2015) She spent over twenty years researching and teaching in Nigeria, Uganda, Kenya and Zambia before returning to Australia in 1975 where she worked at Flinders University and Curtin University. Her wish to establish this annual bursary is a generous legacy and testament to her lifelong dedication to advancing the field of African Studies. More information about Prof. Cherry Gertzel is available at cherrygertzel.net.
Eligibility
Women who are enrolled in an Australian or New Zealand University
who have embarked on a post-graduate degree of which the subject matter is the study of Africa and who are able to undertake travel to an African state to conduct fieldwork, research or study related purposesFunding
One bursary of $10,000 will be awarded annually.
Funds can be used for conference attendance, purchase or hire of equipment, costs of study commitments or short-term assistance with living expenses in an African State, for the purposed of field work, research, or study.
Funds must be used within 12 months of the date of the award
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Application processInformation about the Bursary and application forms will be available on the AFSAAP website https://afsaap.org.au/ and the Cherry Gertzel legacy website https://cherrygertzel.net/ by May each year. The closing date for applications will be in September each year and the selected recipient will notified, with details made available on the website, in November of each year.
Applications, including supporting documents, should be lodged by email to Dr. Karen Miller (karen.miller@curtin.edu.au) before or on the closing date. Incomplete applications, or applications received after the due date, will not be considered.
For enquiries about the award and eligibility, please contact AFSAAP President Prof. Peter Limb president@afsaap.org.au or Dr. Karen Miller karen.miller@curtin.edu.au