News & Events

The ASCL Library has just published a bibliography of Stephen Ellis (1953-2015), who was an extremely productive researcher: Ellis published some 20 books and more than 130 scholarly articles. The bibliography starts with an introduction by Jos Damen (head of the ASCL Library) and contains a list of publications: books, articles & book chapters, book reviews, blogs, press articles and interviews. Suggestions for the revised edition of 2017 are welcome.

The Call for Papers for the 7th European Conference on African Studies (Basel, 29 June-1 July 2017) is open! Scholars in African Studies are invited to propose papers to the panel(s) of their choice. This year's theme: 'Urban Africa - Urban Africans: New encounters of the rural and the urban'. Deadline for submitting abstracts: 19 January 2017. We made an overview of the Leiden related panels.

Prof. Jan-Bart Gewald and Leonor Faber-Jonker have contributed to the exhibition 'Le premier génocide du XXe siècle: Herero et Nama dans le Sud-Ouest africain allemand, 1904-1908' in Paris. The exhibition deals with the genocide on Herero and Nama in German South West Africa (current Namibia) at the start of the 20th century. Leonor Faber-Jonker is scientific curator of the exhibition, Prof. Gewald has made his archive available and gave a lecture at the opening of the exhibition on 24 November 2016. 

The links between conservation and livelihood concerns remain much debated, and there is no agreement about the degree to which these concerns are linked, and how they should be tackled together. The main objectives of the PhD dissertation by Michiel van den Bergh are to uncover the local values of birds, the environment and conservation for rural people in Burkina Faso’s Sahel region, and to increase insights into interventions that aim to achieve integrated (migrant bird) conservation and sustainable development objectives in this area.

ASCL director Ton Dietz gave a Cleveringa lecture in Rabat on Tuesday 29 November. Title of his lecture: 'Africa 2016-2100: Demographic Trends and Consequences for the Continent and for the World'. Professor Dietz considered the consequences of the rapid population growth, urbanization, migration, resource competition and their impact on the population. He also investigated what the current global situation, with economic growth slowing down and the start of the Brexit-Trump era, mean for Africa. Take a look at his (French) presentation.