News & Events

No continent will be struck as severely by the impacts of climate change as Africa. However, most predictions on the consequences of climate change focus on humans. But the threat of climate change is about a whole web of life that holds our planet together. Therefore, writes Harry Wels of the Collaborative Research Group 'Trans-species perspectives on African Studies', bringing climate change to the top of our attention requires a radical decentring of the human. Read his latest contribution to the ASCL Africanist Blog!

Loes Oudenhuijsen, alumna of the Research Master in African Studies, has won the 2018 MA thesis prize of Amsterdam Research Centre for Gender and Sexuality (ARC-GS) for her thesis "‘You Have to Know How to Play, Otherwise They Will Catch You’. Young Women and the Navigation of Same-Sex Intimacies in Contemporary Urban Senegal". The jury unanimously argued that this is 'a blueprint for MA theses'. More great news about our Research Master students: Miriam Ocadiz Arriaga received a special mention for her thesis "(E)motion of Saudade. The Embodiment of Solidarity in the Cuban Medical Cooperation in Mozambique" from the Jury of the IDleaks Thesis Award 2018. Congrats to both!

How can we make sure that economic growth and development investments start benefitting the poor and those who are now excluded? Simply investing will not do the trick: the assumed trickle-down effect does not take place. Meanwhile, evidence has showed that too much inequality can be bad for societies. The World Bank and IMF explicitly advice policymakers to consider the distributive effects of their economic policies. Time to confront inequality, Marleen Dekker writes in the ASCL Africanist Blog.