Deadline: 15 November 2010
Politics in Africa: Decolonization, Citizen and State in the Postcolony
Emory University, 14-16 April 2011
It is almost exactly a half century since African independence. This period of extraordinary change witnessed empire’s dissolution, the creation of a world of sovereign states, and the emergence of institutions, movements, and politics that powerfully shape the contemporary world. At the same time, Africa has seen the creation of unexpected, hybrid forms of governance, contestations over the meanings of citizenship, the rise of international development and human rights interventions and the genesis and evolution of political violence and instability.
The two-day conference, “Politics in Africa: Decolonization, Citizen and State in the Postcolony,” is the culmination of a year-long effort within Emory’s Institute of African Studies to begin critically examining the past and present of power, authority, gender relations, rights and politics in Africa since independence. The conference will center on intensive conversation of pre-circulated papers over the course of two days. We look forward to proposals from scholars as well as from members of the NGO community. Our goal is to initiate new areas of research, to begin opening up new ways of considering Africa’s past and present, and to create unexpected conversations among scholars and practitioners.
Please send a short one-page abstract to Clifton Crais (ccrais@emory.edu) no later than 15 NOVEMBER 2010.