Application Deadline: June 1, 2018
The first CHCI Africa Workshop, Addis 2019, will be held at Addis Ababa University (Ethiopia). Hosted by the Consortium of Humanities Institutes and Centers (CHCI) in collaboration with the College of Performing and Visual Art and the Center of African Studies at Addis Ababa University, the workshop will include intensive seminars, mentoring and training workshops, and guest lectures. CHCI invite humanities graduate students studying in African universities and those who have received their PhDs since 2010 and are based in Africa, to apply to participate.
The Addis 2019 workshop will include three intensive seminars focused on re-conceptualizing Africa as both a theoretical category and a prism to examine the contemporary world. Through art, literature, performance, and philosophy, the seminars will build on the possibility of Africa that flourished across the continent and into the diaspora during the early years of decolonization. During the course of the workshop, participants will critically engage the category of Africa itself, looking beyond both the post-Cold War focus on Africa as a metaphor for regression, decay, and urgent intervention and the limited opposition between ‘crisis’ and ‘renaissance.’ The new public debates on freedom and emancipation in the continent cut across differences framed in terms of ethnic or national affiliation, language, region, religion, or historical background.
Addis 2019 will focus on redefining and multiplying the images of Africa and Africans past and present. Through intensive seminars and related activities, which will include lectures, panels, artists talks, and site visits, participants will explore a range of critical positions and cultural practices. They will reflect on current and historical modes of theorizing Africa – and develop new ones. The thematic seminars will be led by:
- Simon Gikandi (Princeton University, USA)
- Elizabeth Giorgis (Addis) and Dagmawi Woubshet (University of Pennsylvania, USA)
- Mshai Mwangola (Nairobi, Kenya)
The mentorship and training of new cohorts of graduate students in the humanities and related social sciences will form a core element of Addis 2019. In addition to the mentorship and training that will be a key aspect of the thematic seminars, practical sessions, offered throughout the two-week workshop, will focus on publication and article development; grant and proposal writing; pedagogy and syllabus development; and collaborative research. Academic leaders and journal editors will convene these sessions, they include:
- Akosua Adomako Ampofo (University of Ghana, Legon)
- Carli Coetzee (Journal of African Cultural Studies)
- Catarina Gomes (Catholic University, Angola)
- James Ogude (University of Pretoria)
Seminars, readings, and discussions for Addis 2019 will take place in English.
Benefits:
- Participants from outside of Addis will receive housing and most meals during the course of the workshop, as well as reading packets and air transportation to/from Addis.
How to Apply:
- CHCI seek applications for participation in the full two-week program. We expect to select 15 participants from African universities (outside of Addis) and up to 20 local participants.
Applicants should be doctoral students at the dissertation-writing stage or early-career academics and scholars at African universities. Interested applicants who do not fit these criteria but are based in Africa should contact Guillaume Ratel.
Applications are due by June 1, 2018, via the electronic form below. If you would prefer to apply by email, please download and fill out this form and email it to Guillaume Ratel, CHCI Director of Programs (ratel@wisc.edu), together with a 1-page description of your research project, a letter of support from your advisor if you are at the thesis/dissertation stage, and your Curriculum Vitae.
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