CAS@50: Cutting Edges and Retrospectives 50th Anniversary Conference of the Centre of African Studies, University of Edinburgh, 6-8 June 2012

Over 2012, the Centre of African Studies (CAS) in Edinburgh will celebrate its 50^th anniversary. The focal point for the year-long celebrations will be an international conference from 6-8 June on the theme ofCAS@50: Cutting Edges and Retrospectives

Emerging out of the Hayter enquiry into Area Studies in the United Kingdom, CAS was established with an explicitly interdisciplinary brief. Since 1962, our reseachers have maintained one foot in a core discipline – such as Social Anthropology, History, Geography, Education, Economics, Development Studies, and Politics – and the other in African Studies more broadly. Over the past 50 years, CAS has generated leading research on themes as diverse as Pan-Africanism; Creole communities in colonial West Africa; hunter-gatherer societies in Southern and Central Africa; democratisation; migration and urbanisation; Africa and international education; labour and politics; gender and legal pluralism; and religion and society. More recently, reflecting a generational turnover, it has added biotechnology, borderlands, information technologies, land- and waterscapes, heritage and commemoration, and post-conflict transitions to the list of current research.

CAS@50 expects to use the anniversary not merely to look back upon the history of the Centre with a critical eye, but also to reflect on the trajectories of African Studies itself: to what extent is the terrain of academic debate from the early decades recognisable today, and might there be something to be said for looking afresh at some debates that have become obscured with the passage of time? Also, in what respects can one talk of genuine breakthroughs in our understandings, and where do unresolved issues reside? Other parts of the conference look forward to emerging areas of research and, whether construed in terms of methodology or perspective, what might we regard as cutting edge today?

CAS invites both panel and roundtable proposals on any theme that relates to the interplay beween past perspectives and current research, but is especially interested in the following:

Politics, Power and Popular Culture: labour and politics; popular culture; electoral politics; the politics of the local; youth; international organisations; constitutionalism; urbanism

Histories and Connectivities: the slave trade, Africa and the Atlantic world; alcohol; consumption, ethnicity; nationalism; the African city

Religion: methodologies for the study of religion; religion in the public sphere; religion and politics; religion and health; diasporic religion

Development: international education; climate change; bioenergy; food systems; law; veterinary health; Scotland-Africa connections.

Peopling Places and Placing People: symbolising culture and thought, materialising bodies and places, and environmentalising futures.

Borderlands: It is anticipated that this strand will be run through ABORNE as a linked conference. Further information will appear in due course on the ABORNE website and through e-mail communications to ABORNE members.

Panel and roundtable proposals should consist of a ten line rationale and a list of speakers and paper titles. Please entitle your message ‘CAS@50 Proposal’ and send to African.Studies@ed.ac.uk. You should also indicate which strand the proposal is intended to relate to and whether it is a panel or a roundtable. We positively welcome proposals from disciplines not traditionally associated with CAS. These might include cultural studies, linguistics, or archaeology.

Proposals should be submitted by FRIDAY 9 SEPTEMBER. It is expected that notification of the outcome will be communicated at the end of September.

The University of Edinburgh is a charitable body, registered in Scotland, with registration number SC005336.