Call for Panels "Knowledge and Science in Africa" International Conference African Studies Association in Germany Centre for Interdisciplinary Research on Africa Frankfurt/Main (Germany) July 13-16, 2006
The African Studies Association in Germany meets every two years to discuss current developments and the status of research in Africa within the framework of an international conference. At the conference planned for 2006, various conceptions of knowledge in the broadest sense are to be dealt with, whereby local concepts of knowledge are to play just as much a role as the knowledge accumulated and institutionalized by academics. Central topics are the production, dissemination, and preservation of knowledge. But also questions concerning the power to define what knowledge is and how this knowledge has changed in the history of African studies are to take center stage at the conference: Which questions are posed by African and nonAfrican scholars/scientists, and which thematic priorities condition their research? Under what political and economic conditions is scholarship conducted in Africa, and what attempts have been made to achieve forms of cooperation in terms of equal partnership? Does Africa need more scholarship/science to solve its problems and what role can be played by the research on Africa pursued at universities? In addition to the thematic focus on the networking of local and academic conceptions of knowledge, interdisciplinary panels are to receive special attention in Frankfurt. The Centre for Interdisciplinary Research on Africa (CIRA) will host the conference. The conference will be divided into panels with a relatively variable scope. In contrast to the last VAD conference in Hannover (June 2004), an organizational uniformity among the sessions will be foregone. Panel coordinators are more or less free to organize their panels as they see fit (presentations, podium discussions, film, performance, etc.). A small panel covers a maximum of two hours (including a break), which corresponds to approximately three presenters plus discussion. A standard size panel consists of a half-day event with a double program. Larger panels are to a great extent dependent on room capacities and the demand expressed for them. Decisions concerning the acceptance of panels will be made at a meeting of the executive committee and board of the VAD on April 4, 2005. German, English, and French are allowed as conference languages. Out of consideration for foreign guests, all presenters will be required to submit an English abstract, which is to be no longer than one page. For presentations in French, a more detailed English abstract modeled on the outline of the presentation will be required. Please submit your proposals for panels no later than March 20, 2005 to Dr. Stefan Schmid (e-mail address given below) with the following information: - Classification under a topic heading - Estimated duration (2/4/6/8 hours) and estimated number of presenters - Short description (half a page) Please note that panels can only be proposed in cooperation with a german partner. Once a panel is accepted, each panel coordinator will have the opportunity to post a call for papers on the VAD homepage (web address shown below). The panel coordinators are urged to give special consideration to young scholars when organizing their panels. They are emphatically encouraged to invite African presenters, in which case early correspondence with the conference coordinator is necessary. In order to complete the DFG application to finance the costs for foreign guests, all relevant information must be submitted to the conference organizer no later than May 15, 2005, even if such information has only a provisional character. Suggested Topics: - Production, communication and adaptation of knowledge - Changing 'sites' of knowledge - Knowledge, development and shaping the future - Transmission of knowledge - Environmental Changes and Environmental Knowledge - Generation and Transfer of Religion-Knowledge - Knowledge and Action in the Context of Disease and Poverty - International Science/Scholarship Cooperation and International Knowledge Exchange - African studies in Europe: A by-product of the (post) colonial experience? Contact: Dr. Stefan Schmid Leiter der Geschäftsstelle/Koordinator Zentrum für interdisziplinäre Afrikaforschung (ZIAF) Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität Grüneburgplatz 1 60323 Frankfurt/Main Germany Tel.(004969) 798 32097 Fax (004969) 798 32098 Mobil 0049179 / 2136059 Email: [email protected] Website: http://www.vad-ev.de _________________________________ InterPhil List Administration: http://interphil.polylog.org/ Intercultural Philosophy Calendar: http://agd.polylog.org/cal/
