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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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Call for Papers: Religion, Spirituality and the New African Diaspora
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The Journal for the Academic Study of Religion, the publication of the Australian Association for the Study of Religion, is inviting expressions of interest for a planned special issue on the theme of “Religion, Spirituality and the New African Diaspora” to be published in 2021.In contrast to the African diaspora created through the slave trade, the “new” African diaspora is the product of recent and voluntary human movement (Okpewho & Nzegwu 2009), as individuals, families and communities have sought asylum, education, employment and other opportunities outside Africa. Recognizing that continuities and changes in religious and spiritual practices are a foundational aspect of diasporic experience, and that religion can be the “motor” of migration and migrant identity formation (Adogame 2007), this special issue is open to research articles on all aspects of religion, spirituality and the new African diaspora. We are particularly interested in studies from the Asia-Pacific region, but welcome articles focusing on any part of the world.
Although the Journal for the Academic Study of Religion does not publish purely confessional articles, we welcome cross-disciplinary contributions from across the humanities and social sciences addressing the topic through various theories and methodologies. Representative (but not exhaustive) of the themes scholars may wish to address, we would welcome contributions engaging with: theories of the Black Atlantic, or more recent conceptualizations of the “Black Mediterranean” and “Black Pacific”; religion, spirituality and new expressions of racism and xenophobia; religion, identity, and the securitization of migration; indigenous African religions in the new diaspora; religion and spirituality as resources for individual and collective resilience and resistance; transnational religious networks; Pentecostalism and the new African diaspora; religion and the production of the local; religious music and popular culture in the new African diaspora; postcolonial and decolonial approaches to religion and spirituality in the new African diaspora.
Contributors should initially submit an abstract of up to 300 words and a brief biography by 31 July 2020 to both editors. Full papers will be due by 31 December 2020. Articles should not exceed 8000 words (including references).
Dr Ibrahim Abraham (Australian National University, co-editor JASR) ibrahim.abraham@anu.edu.au
Dr Victor Counted (Western Sydney University, guest editor JASR) v.counted@westernsydney.edu.au
References:
Adogame, A. 2007. “Raising Champions, Taking Territories: African Churches and the Mapping of New Religious Landscapes in Diaspora,” in T. L. Trout (ed.), The African Diaspora and the Study of Religion. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Okpewho, I. & N. Nzegwu (eds). 2009. The New African Diaspora. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
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Music, Health, and Power in The Gambia
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Research Seminar and Book Launch by Dr Bonnie McConnell, ANU School of Music, Thursday May 7th, 3.30 pm.
Details of the book, ‘Music, Health, and Power: Singing the Unsayable in The Gambia
are given below
This is a virtual seminar only. You can join the Zoom meeting by selecting this link:
https://music.cass.anu.edu.au/news-events/events/research-seminar-dr-bonnie-mcconnell-1
(If this does not open you will need to copy the link to your browser).
You will then be invited to ‘join the Zoom meeting here’ and you should click on ‘here’The seminar will be recorded as well.
‘Music, Health, and Power: Singing the Unsayable in The Gambia. (Routledge, 2020). The book offers an original, on-the-ground analysis of the role that music plays in promoting healthy communities. It brings the reader inside the world of kanyeleng fertility societies and HIV/AIDS support groups in The Gambia, where women use music to leverage stigma and marginality into new forms of power. Drawing on ethnographic research conducted over a period of 13 years (2006–2019), the author articulates a strengths-based framework for research on music and health that pushes beyond deficit narratives to emphasize the creativity and resilience of Gambian performers in responding to health disparities.’
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The Prejudice Census: Making Sense of Prejudice
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How many African Australians will complete this questionnaire?
Project Title: The Prejudice Census: Making Sense of Prejudice
Researchers:
Professor Michael Platow and Dr. Dirk Van Rooy from the ANU Research School of Psychology are leading this research.
General Outline of the Project:
Description and Methodology. This is an on-line questionnaire that asks you to describe an encounter with prejudice.
Participants. We have opened this Census up to the entire world, and hope to get thousands of volunteers to respond.
Use of Data and Feedback. We hope to report the results in published journal articles, chapters, books, student theses, and professional conferences. We will also periodically update our Prejudice Census Facebook page with reports on what we find; we anticipate our first update after we receive our first 1,000 responses.
Project Funding. This research is funded by the Australian Research Council.
See:
https://anupsych.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_8AG8RwpF3Yc4Q17?Q_JFE=qdg
