Addis 2019 African Humanities Workshop Program

The first African Humanities Initiative Workshop, Addis 2019, will be held at Addis Ababa University in Addis Ababa in January. Hosted by the Consortium of Humanities Centers and Institutes (CHCI) in collaboration with the College of Performing and Visual Art and the Center of African Studies at Addis Ababa University, Addis 2019 aims to gather artists, art commentators and humanists from across the continent. The goal of the Addis 2019 workshop is to re-conceptualize Africa as a theoretical category, as well as a prism to examine the contemporary world. We propose to explore Africa as concept and method, discussing current modes of theorizing Africa in the humanities and the arts.

The Addis 2019 workshop will include three intensive seminars focused on re-conceptualizing Africa as both a theoretical category and a prism to examine the contemporary world. Through art, literature, performance, and philosophy, the seminars will build on the possibility of Africa that flourished across the continent and into the diaspora during the early years of decolonization. During the course of the workshop, participants will critically engage the category of Africa itself, looking beyond both the post-Cold War focus on Africa as a metaphor for regression, decay, and urgent intervention and the limited opposition between ‘crisis’ and ‘renaissance.’ The new public debates on freedom and emancipation in the continent cut across differences framed in terms of ethnic or national affiliation, language, region, religion, or historical background. Addis 2019 will focus on redefining and multiplying the images of Africa and Africans past and present. Through intensive seminars and related activities, which will include lectures, panels, artists talks, and site visits, participants will explore a range of critical positions and cultural practices. They will reflect on current and historical modes of theorizing Africa – and develop new ones.  The thematic seminars will be led by: 

• Simon Gikandi (Princeton University, USA)
• Elizabeth Giorgis (Addis) and Dagmawi Woubshet (University of Pennsylvania, USA)
• Mshai Mwangola (Nairobi, Kenya)

The mentorship and training of new cohorts of graduate students in the humanities and related social sciences will form a core element of Addis 2019. In addition to the mentorship and training that will be a key aspect of the thematic seminars, practical sessions, offered throughout the two-week workshop, will focus on publication and article development; grant and proposal writing; pedagogy and syllabus development; and collaborative research. Academic leaders and journal editors will convene these sessions, they include: 

• Akosua Adomako Ampofo (University of Ghana, Legon)
• Carli Coetzee (Journal of African Cultural Studies)
• Catarina Gomes (Catholic University, Angola)
• Julie Mehretu
• James Ogude (University of Pretoria)

Seminars, readings, and discussions for Addis 2019 will take place in English.

The full program is found here.

Participants in the Addis 2019 Workshop “Africa as Concept and Method: Emancipation, Decolonization, Freedom” have been selected from an impressive and competitive pool of 400 applicants from across the African Continent. Originating from 11 African countries, the 35 early-career scholars selected reflect this geographical range but also the diversity of fields and research projects represented in the applications.

The list of selected participants is found here.