Originally published in Program of African Studies Newsletter, Winter 2021
Northwestern graduate students continue to build on insights gained from hosting the 2020 Africa Seminar (AfriSem) conference virtually, asserting the relevance of African studies at the critical juncture of the multiple crises in which we work and live. I can report that we are working to develop new opportunities to build community. As AfriSem coorganizer Sasha Artamonova observed in the fall 2020 PAS newsletter, our virtual conference made it easier to preserve the presentations of graduate students, which are now publicly available via Northwestern University Libraries’ research and data repository, ARCH.
AfriSem has continued to adapt and to create opportunities for collaboration at Northwestern and around the globe. We now convene online twice a month. In the fall quarter, AfriSem gatherings included a town hall, presentations from librarians, a workshop on adapting research methodology during the global pandemic, and a screening and discussion of a Kenyan film.
In addition to these regular meetings, AfriSem members have established three committees dedicated to our major projects for this academic year:
The committee for the AfriSem annual conference has scheduled this year’s virtual event for June 10–12. The theme of the conference will center on capital, sociality, and knowledge production. The committee is recruiting keynote speakers and finalizing a call for submissions.
A committee has formed to relaunch The Pan-Africanist, a journal published from 1971 to 1988 by PAS graduate students, which included essays by notable thinkers such as Ibrahim Abu-Lughod, Ali Mazrui, Sterling Stuckey, Alma Stuckey, and Dennis Brutus. The relaunch is slated for the AfriSem 2021 conference in June. The publication will be renamed The Africanist to expand the question of what it means to produce knowledge on Africa beyond the response to Pan-Africanism in which the journal was first developed. The committee is also developing a two day workshop, to be held in June, for invited contributors to convene, build community, and receive feedback on their papers.
The committee for the digital future of AfriSem has been working on a proposal to launch a website that will host a digital archive for AfriSem, its history, its alumni, and The Africanist journal.
AfriSem extends a warm invitation to all PAS alumni to join our virtual meetings on the second and fourth Tuesdays of each month. We regularly hold presentations, film screenings, and informal discussions that have proven to be a great way for graduate students to connect across Northwestern. To join us, sign up for the AfriSem listserv at afrisem@u.northwestern.edu.
Austin Bryan, an anthropology graduate student, is co-organizer of the 2020–21 Africa Seminar.