Call for application: Workshop: Reclaiming African History (with Jacques Depelchin)

Date: 2–4 July According to Jacques Depelchin, African history continuously needs to be reclaimed. In his writings, he offers detailed analyses and critiques of the existing Africanist literature and systems of academic knowledge production. He emphasises the importance of rethinking analytical categories, especially such concerned with silences and healing. Moreover, he has vigorously searched for alternatives to the dominant ways of producing knowledge on Africa, and continuously pushes disciplinary boundaries. This is illustrated in his most recent research endeavours, which include collaborative translations and publications of literature of Ancient Egypt, a book project concerned with the legacy of Cheikh Anta Diop, and a further project concerned with the discipline of history and the humanities. The three-day workshop wants to bring together doctoral and postdoctoral students interested in discussing questions of theory and criticism and current debates on the historiography of Africa and beyond. The workshop includes lectures, text discussions, roundtables and public events. It allows participants to closely engage with Jacques Depelchin and the topics he has been working on, in par-ticular questions of silences and healing in history, the legacies of Frantz Fanon and Cheikh Anta Diop, and the literature of Ancient Egypt and its contemporary relevance. Jacques Depelchin is an eminent Congolese historian whose professional career has unfolded over the past 40 years, on the African continent as well as in North and South America. He has written about a wide range of topics, including slavery, genocide, development theory, literature, anthropology, historiography and the history of the Congo and Haiti. In preparation for the workshop, participants will be expected to read key texts (to be circulated ahead of the workshop) and write short reading responses. Application Applicants should send a short statement of motivation to the organisers (melanie.boehi@unibas.ch, anna.voegeli@unibas.ch) before 30 April 2015. Unfortunately no funding is available to assist partici-pants with travel and accommodation.