Short Abstract

This panel explores the impact that different academic traditions of knowledge production about Africa have on international collaboration in the field of African Studies, on the basis of case studies.

Long Abstract

African Studies is a global academic field, yet in different regions and countries the study of Africa has very different histories, and of course, depending on location, the disciplines and methods that characterise African Studies may be quite different. This is well known, yet much of the critical literature on African Studies has focused on decolonising African studies in Europe and North America, as if the interaction between these specific locations in the Global North and Global South is the only relevant or problematic one. In this panel we will widen the critical discussion, asking how traditions of African Studies in various African and European countries, Brazil, India, or China relate to Africa in different ways. Furthermore, we will reflect on the question what these differences mean for international collaborations, not only between scholars inside and outside of Africa, but also between scholars from different African countries, as well as collaborations between scholars based in different regions outside Africa? This panel invites contributors to discuss case studies exploring different traditions in African studies and of international collaborations.

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