~ CONSIDERING THE ONGOING COVID-19 PANDEMIC, THE CONFERENCE WILL BE VIRTUAL FROM MARCH 1ST UNTIL MARCH 5TH, 2021 ~
From Monday March 1st to Friday March 5th, 2021, the Université libre de Bruxelles and the Royal Museum for Central Africa will welcome international scholars from disciplines as diverse as linguistics, anthropology, archaeology, genetics, palaeobotany and others, to discuss methods and the latest results regarding the precolonial past of Africa. Contributions must address the precolonial history of Africa, but may be both theoretical or presenting research results, mono- and multidisciplinary. We especially encourage contributions reflecting on the central theme of the conference: “Extracting the Past from the Present”. Many of us analyze data that have been collected recently – words and phrases, observations of contemporary pottery techniques, genes, etc. – in order to formulate hypotheses on the past. Hardliners argue that only direct evidence – such as ancients objects – may inform us on the past and that such inferences are mere speculation. Yet, many of the insights we value today are based on contemporary evidence. Given its controversial nature, we also welcome critical approaches. More details on the conference’s incentives and central theme can be found here.
We foresee five days of conference as to avoid parallel sessions and instead foster the exchange between scholars working at opposite sides of the continent, on different epochs and diverging research interests, but all facing the same multidisciplinary challenge.
Proceedings
Proceedings of the conference will be published in a special volume of the international bilingual open-access journal Afriques: Débats, méthodes et terrains d’histoire.
Program
The program will be announced early 2021.
Practical information
Conference dates: March 1-5, 2021
Online format: the conference will be online, asynchronous, with a discussion forum. Presentations can be video-recorded or written and must be submitted in advance. More details will be available soon.
Registration
Please confirm your participation in the virtual conference here.
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Organizing committee: Birgit Ricquier, ULB Daou Véronique Joiris, ULB David Kopa wa Kopa, ULB – UNIKIS Shingo Takamura, ULB Els Cornelissen, RMCA Alexandre Livingstone Smith, RMCA Laurent Nieblas Ramirez, RBINS
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Scientific committee: Chiara Batini, University of Leicester Koen Bostoen, Ghent University Kathryn de Luna, Georgetown University Pierre de Maret, ULB Jeffrey Fleisher, Rice University Olivier Gosselain, ULB Alexa Höhn, Goethe University Susan Keech McIntosh, Rice University Alice Mezop Temgoua, University of Yaoundé 1 Karim Sadr, University of the Witwatersrand |