News & Events

The final book by the late Stephen Ellis, This Present Darkness: A History of Nigerian Organised Crime, was launched at the ASCL on 9 June. To mark this occasion, the ASCL Library has compiled a web dossier on Crime in Africa, with a special focus on Nigeria. The dossier is divided into four themes: Crime general; Illicit trade, drugs and human trafficking; Corruption and commercial crime; Police and Vigilante groups. It opens with a personal word on Stephen Ellis by ASCL director Ton Dietz, and a thematic introduction on crime and the quest for integrity by ASCL researcher Chibuike Uche. Read the web dossier.

Miriam Siun, student of the Research Master African Studies and initiator of the seminar 'Where is the African in "African" Studies?' (31 May), was interviewed by the Faculty of Humanities. Read the entire interview. If you missed the seminar, you can now watch the video registration or read the presentations.

The University of Edinburgh Centre for African Studies and the Global Development Academy organized the conference ‘Decolonizing the Academy’ on 21-22 April. The conference focused on African Studies and researching Africa, main questions being: How do our institutions reinforce unequal access to power, opportunities, and knowledge? What are our responsibilities as scholars and teachers to decolonize our work - and how do we do it? ASCL researcher Akinyinka Akinyoade participated, web editor Fenneken Veldkamp wrote a report.

The ASCL receives funding from the Nationale Postcode Loterij (NPL) through UNICEF Netherlands for a research project in the Central African Republic (CAR). The ASCL will carry out independent research on the outcomes of previous reintegration programmes for children formerly associated with armed groups. The programme is carried out by researchers from the Connecting in Times of Duress team in close collaboration with researchers and students from the University of Bangui.