The aim of this 2-hour workshop is to informally brainstorm future opportunities for collaboration between early career researchers in African Studies affiliated with Swedish and South African universities (Stockholm, Uppsala, Rhodes, Stellenbosch). The rationale behind organizing an event addressed to early career scholars specifically (MA, doctoral, postdoctoral and junior lecturers) has to do with the limited opportunities for young scholars to present their own research, receive feedback, collaborate on publications and discuss academic challenges facing our generation in a relaxed non-hierarchical environment.
In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, opportunities to create research networks have been violently curtailed, and mentoring young academics has also been de-prioritized. This session will attempt to level the playing field by formulating a forum for exchanging and brainstorming ideas for future collaborations and networks. Each researcher will give a 5-minute presentation on a significant research idea or roadblock in their current work. This will be followed by a short Q&A, a summary of common themes touched upon and a general discussion about future forms of collaboration. At the end of the session, breakout rooms will be set up where small groups can brainstorm project ideas and offer career advice to each other.
Schedule
5 Minute Pitch Presentations - 13.00 - 13.45
Q&A - 13.45 - 14.15Collaboration Brainstorm - 14.15 - 14.45
Presenters
Agenda
- Walter Kudzai Barure – Searching for comfort: The rhetoric and reality of circular migration in post-2000 Zimbabwean Short fiction
- Tasnim Qutait - The Anomalous Case of Anglophone North African Literature
- Tesfaye Woubshet Ayele – Colonial Education in East and Southern African Literature
- Joanna Woods - Space as Rhetorical Resource in Contemporary Short Speculative Fiction in Southern Africa
- Pearl Munemo - Counterstorytelling: Young African writers in the Digital Space
- Maria Zirra – Print and African Memory?
- Sanja Nivesjö – Sex and Gender in African Literature
- Nomonde Ntseppo – Female Friendship in South African Literature
- Kimmera Pillay - TBA
