European Conference on African Studies ECAS in Paris

The Sixth European Conference on African Studies (ECAS-6) took place in Paris 8-10 July 2015. The co-organisers were IMAF (Institut des mondes africains) and LAM (Les Afriques dans le monde). The principal theme of ECAS 6 was Collective Mobilisations in Africa: Contestation, Resistance, Revolt. At the conference, the ECAS 2015 book Collective Mobilisations in Africa, Enough is Enough! Mobilisations collectives en Afrique Ça suffit!, to which the ASC's Benjamin Soares contributed, was presented. Also Mayke Kaag's book État, sociétés et islam au Sénégal. Un air de nouveau temps? (ASC/Karthala), as well as the ASC published book Liberia: From ‘The Love of Liberty’ to Paradise Lost by ASC Community member Fred van der Kraaij were presented. Alongside ECAS, the weeklong cultural event AFRICA ACTS took place. 

Take a look at the overview of ASC researchers who hosted or contributed to ECAS panels:

Jon Abbink: The coming ecological crunch in Africa: Growth narratives vs. local environmental realities

Jon Abbink (contr.): Espaces autoritaires en Afriques

Akinyinka Akinyoade (ASC) and Will Jones: Under what conditions does economic development become politically attractive? From resource bounties to fiscal constraints

Mirjam de Bruijn (ASC/Leiden University) and Jonna Both: Mediated itineraries under duress: Information access and mobilization-choices in conflict zones in Africa

Mirjam de Bruijn (contr.): African artists in times of political turmoil and global attention

Jos Damen and Walter van Beek: Sports and politics in Africa

Jos Damen (contr.): Publish or Perish in African Studies

Rijk van Dijk (ASC) and Rachel Spronk, Gitty Petit (ASC, contr.): The sexual making of African middle-classes; bodily techniques and social sensibilities as new markers of social differentiation?

Mathijs van Leeuwen and Han van Dijk (ASC): Land governance in conflict-affected settings

André Leliveld (contr.): African capitalisms

Laura Mann (ASC) and Marie Berry: Vulnerability, Legitimacy and Growth: Explaining the political logic of development in post-genocide Rwanda

Iva Pesa (contr.): Micropolitics of State and Infrastructures in Southern Africa

Marcel Rutten (contr.): Large scale land and water acquisitions in East Africa: opportunity, opposition and oppression?  

Benjamin Soares (ASC) and Ruediger Seesemann: Muslims and media landscapes in Africa: Contestation, subversion, revolt

Credit photo: International Women’s Day, by Albert González Farran, UNAMID, licence Creative Commons by (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)