Interact with The Africa Institute at the 65th ASA Annual Meeting, USA

The Africa Institute, Sharjah participates in the 65th Annual Meeting hosted by African Studies Association (ASA) in Philadelphia from November 17-19, 2022, to encourage the production and dissemination of knowledge between Africa and the Arab world.

During the 65th Annual Meeting themed, ‘Africa Urbanities: Mobility, Creativity, and Challenges’, the Africa Institute hosts a specially curated roundtable that features our senior faculty and fellows and sets up an exclusive visiting booth to promote the Institute’s mission, programs, fellowships, publications, and more.  

The African Studies Association (ASA) is the flagship membership organization based in the United States that is devoted to enhancing the exchange of information about Africa since its establishment in 1957. With almost 2,000 individual and institutional members worldwide, the ASA aims to cultivate a better understanding of the continent, taking a holistic approach to its areas of focus. This includes all facets of Africa’s political, economic, social, cultural, artistic, scientific, and environmental landscapes, to name a few.

Join us at Africa Now! Roundtable:

Outside Africa/Outside the West: Visions and Prospects for Building “African Studies” in the Gulf

Date: November 18, 2022  
Time: 3:45 PM
Venue: Conference Room 408

“African Studies” has been an outgrowth of Western knowledge production, informed by Eurocentric disciplines and based on racist colonial epistemological paradigms. Although the field has grown and its paradigms have experienced major shifts, in which enduring divides, such as the ones between North and Sub-Saharan Africa, or continental Africa and its diasporas, have been challenged and transcended, cultural, political, and racial divides continue to inform the Western academy. That academy remains stubbornly hegemonic on a global scale.  

While ongoing calls for decolonization of the field and critical revisions of its history and origins continue to challenge the status quo and the hegemony of whiteness in organizations like the ASA (US), what has actually been achieved? Black Lives Matter protests and movements for reparations and for the repatriation of African cultural artifacts continue to resonate across the global south and embolden demands for critical reflection on what precisely it means to do “African Studies” today. 

This roundtable is proposed by The Africa Institute’s scholars involved in establishing a new research and postgraduate global institute for the study of Africa in Sharjah, UAE. The intention is to critically reflect on what it means to do “African studies” outside the west. Can such a program be shaped in a way that can transcend the colonial legacy of the field? What paradigm shifts do such a move require? Finally, what are the theoretical imperatives that must be adopted to build a progressive model for the study of Africa outside Africa?

Chaired by:

Professor Salah M. Hassan, Director, The Africa Institute, Sharjah.

The panelist presenters include:

• Jean Allman, Professor of History, The Africa Institute;
• Elizabeth Giorgis, Associate Professor of Art History, Theory and Criticism, The Africa Institute;
• Naminata Diabate, Ali Mazrui Senior Fellow, The Africa Institute and Associate Professor of Comparative Literature at Cornell University;
• Ahmad Sikainga, Professor of African History at the Ohio State University and;
• Robert Vinson, Director & Chair of the Carter G. Woodson Institute for African American & African Studies at the University of Virginia

Visit us at our Booth

The Africa Institute – Booth at the Annual Meeting is set up at booth 16A between November 17-19, 2022. Visit us to have a conversation and learn more about our work.

Click here to attend the ASA meeting & learn more