Africa 2020

2020 was the year in which 17 countries on the African continent celebrated 60 years of independence. The Africanists from Leiden University, TU Delft and Erasmus University (united in ‘LeidenASA’) organised ‘Africa 2020’, a year full of workshops, film screenings, peer coaching for PhD students, and two large conferences: ‘Africa: 60 years of independence’ in January, and ‘Africa knows!’ that started in December and continued into 2021. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many events had to be postponed to 2021.
 

Please find the timeline of the events in 2020-2021 below. If you have any questions regarding the events, please contact Maaike Westra (m.a.westra@asc.leidenuniv.nl).

28-29 January 2020

Workshop: Law, governance and rights in Africa. A look to the future

Read the call for papers
Read the workshop report

29 January 2020

Conference: Pushing Boundaries in Advocacy for Inclusion

30 January 2020

International conference: Africa, sixty years of independence

Watch the film registration of this conference

20-21 February 2020

Workshop: The Nile. Inclusion and Exclusion over a trans-boundary resource

Read the workshop report

June, September, October, November 2020

How to handle my PhD supervisor and other bumps in the road
 
Online Peer-Coaching for PhD students

A PhD involves doing amazing fieldwork, reading libraries full of literature, analyzing interesting data, and presenting your innovative findings at lively conferences –it is exciting and enriching. At least, that’s what we are told! But …. there is also a downside. A PhD trajectory is long, can leave you feeling lonely or isolated, and can leave you needing to address all kinds of daily yet serious issues. For example, your supervisor might not give appropriate feedback to your draft chapters; you experienced feeling very insecure when doing fieldwork or perhaps even sexual harassment; you are facing a writer’s block; you are running out of time; you miss having contacts with peer PhD students; you are doubting your future as a researcher….
 
Peer-coaching (or, inter-vision) is a way of sharing your issues with peer PhD students. It can make your problems lighter or at least more manageable. The basic idea of peer supervision is that you can learn from each other by sharing your problems and receiving and giving feedback and suggestions. Trust is indispensable in this regard and therefore the information shared will remain confidential.

November 2020

Africa 2020: ASCL & Leiden International Film Festival Screenings

2 December 2020 - 28 February 2021

International conference: Africa Knows!

Organizing team:

Ton Dietz, ASCL
David Ehrhardt, FGGA, Leiden University
Robert Tijssen, CWTS, Leiden University
Chibuike Uche, ASCL
Antonio Frank, De Haagse Hogeschool
Ingrid Samset, FGGA, Leiden University
Harry Wels, ASCL and VU University
Jan Nouwen, Erasmus University Rotterdam
Antony Otieno Ong'ayo, International Institute of Social Studies, Erasmus University Rotterdam
Paul Nugent, Centre of African Studies, University of Edinburgh
David van Kampen, Nuffic
Samira Zafar, Nuffic
Michael Bollig, University of Cologne
Marieke van Winden, ASCL, conference organizer

12 June 2021

HANDS! Festival on African Sign Languages and Deaf Studies

29 June 2021

Somali Day. Culture and Politics throught the lens of Somali literature and orature

17 September 2021

Debat series 'Multilingualism in Education: Africa and the Netherlands'.

Further details to follow.

2021

Two day workshop: From the ashes reborn. Reconsidering the “Time of Troubles” in Southern Africa in the context of global history

2021

Workshop & publication: A General Labour History of Africa, 1600-1900

From 2016 to 2019, LeidenASA (the Leiden African Studies Assembly) had the privilege of creating synergy between Leiden-based Africanists, later on joined by Africanists from TU Delft, Erasmus University Rotterdam and the University of Edinburgh, via collaborative research projects, research leave (temporary relief from teaching), field schools, e-learning initiatives, visiting research fellowships, lectures, workshops, and much more, made possible financially by Leiden University. From 2020 onwards, LeidenASA will continue to exist as a network of  Africanists.