Many ASCL / Leiden University researchers are (co)organizing panels for the European Conference on African Studies, to be held in Edinburgh 11-14 June 2019. This year's overall theme is: 'Africa: Connections and Disruptions'. Check out the list of panels that invite paper proposals. Deadline: 21 January!

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!

The ASCL has invited four distinguished scholars to present their research at the ASCL in 2019. The invited scholars are: Karim Sadr (University of Witwatersrand) on the newly discovered Tswana city in South Africa; Ayodeji Olukoju (University of Lagos) on UAC - Government relations in British West Africa, 1929-1941; Hussein Solomon (University of the Free State), on the Islamist militancy in the Sahel ; and  James Ferguson (Stanford University) on the notion of sharing as a principle of distribution of social protection payments. You are very welcome!

The library will undergo major maintenance, and will be temporarily relocated to the neighbouring Library of Social Sciences. The ASCL Library will return to its own location at FSW at the beginning of March. Another relocation the ASCL Library has faced is the temporary move of some 30,000 books from the ASCL collection to the Leiden University Libraries at the Witte Singel 27. All books can be requested and picked up at the ASCL Library (2-day service) or at the Witte Singel (1-hour service).