European Conference on African Studies ECAS 2017

The biennial European Conference on African Studies of the Africa Europe Group of Interdisciplinary Studies AEGIS is the largest and most important convention in the field of African Studies in Europe. Since its first edition held in London in 2005 it has grown steadily and its last edition in Paris in July 2015 saw 1980 participants. The 7th edition of the ECAS will take place at the University of Basel in summer 2017, organized by the Centre for African Studies Basel and the Swiss Society for African Studies. The conference and the accompanying cultural program will make Africa the center for attention in the town of Basel.

The conference theme “Urban Africa – Urban Africans: New encounters of the rural and the urban” addresses issues raised by current African urbanization trends. These range from politics, through economics, all the way to social and cultural issues. The key issue at the conference is how urbanization processes in Africa transform conventional objects of African Studies and how scholars of Africa gear up to face such changes.

Date: 29 June to 1 July 2017
Venue: University of Basel

Convening institutions: Centre for African Studies Basel (CASB), Swiss Society for African Studies (SSEA/SGAS/SSAS), Africa Europe Group of Interdisciplinary Studies (AEGIS)

Call for papers: 18 November 2016 to 19 January 2017
Early-bird registration: 2 March to 2 April 2017

Conference website: www.ecas2017.ch