The African Studies Centre Leiden is the only multidisciplinary academic knowledge institute in the Netherlands devoted entirely to the study of Africa. It has an excellent library that is open to the general public. The ASCL is an interfaculty institute of Leiden University.
The ASCL is increasingly focusing attention on urbanisation in Africa, organising two major events in the coming weeks that deal with the African city: the conference ‘The future of the African City’ on 24 January (co-organised with African Architecture Matters); and the ASCL seminar ‘Before Johannesburg; a newly discovered Tswana city from around AD 1800’ by Prof. Karim Sadr (University of Witwatersrand) on 31 January.
We are happy to announce that the Knowledge Platform INCLUDE will continue working towards making Africa more inclusive. The ASCL is part of the Secretariat of INCLUDE, together with the African Economic Research Consortium (AERC) and The Broker. Six years after its initiation, the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) has granted INCLUDE a new subsidy to support its efforts in policy making for inclusive development.
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 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).
