BEYOND LOCALITY AND UNIVERSALISM
NEGOTIATING THE FABRIC OF THE AFRICAN UNIVERSITY
Thank you very much for your interest in the workshop.
We are delighted about the great interest and numerous very interesting input proposals. The Call for Participation has now ended and the evaluation has started. You will receive a response about your participation status until mid July 2022.
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Our images and imaginations of universities in the 21st century are very much shaped by an ‘Emerging Global Model’. Against this background, the conference reflects on the past, present and future character of the modern ‘African’ university and the university in Africa. It aims to shed light on the conditions of possibility of a decolonial African university as it negotiates its characters between pressures of local realities and global trends. By doing so, it intends to better understand the trajectories of universities in Africa and to contribute to strengthening the development of these institutions and the higher education systems in which they are embedded. Furthermore, the salient sociological understanding of the university as a unified global cultural reference system is to be challenged and recalibrated.
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The two-part conference will be organized and held in Mozambique and South Africa, respectively, in September 2022 and September 2023, assembling a selected number of scholars from across the globe to critically examine the historical genealogy, current developments and the emerging features of the ‘African’ university as we enter the beginning of the second quarter of the millennium. Both conferences are open for presentations of conceptual approaches of the “Fabric of the African University” as well as empirical research and case studies. Therefore, contributions to the following research questions are welcome
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The two-part conference at Eduardo Mondlane University, Mozambique, and University of Western Cape, South Africa is funded by the Volkswagen Foundation (grant number 9B702) and jointly organized by the team around Prof. Dr. Patrício Langa and Prof. Dr. David Kaldewey
- The conference intends to advance the next generation of academics, scholars and researchers. Therefore, it will integrate workshops for doctoral students and early career researchers in the fields of comparative higher education, sociology of science, technology, and innovation, research policy and related disciplines or area studies.
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Participants can apply with an abstract of 300-500 words to be actively included in the program workshops. Successful candidates compete for a sponsored conference attendance and a possibility to contribute a chapter in an edited volume (to be published open access in cooperation with a renowned publisher). The sponsored attendance covers airfare, accommodation, visa fees, Covid-19 tests, travel insurance, and meals. After having been selected for presenting at the conference, participants will be asked to hand in their paper for contribution before the conference. The selection of the best papers will be made and announced during the conference.
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Presentations and discussions are to be held in English. Abstracts can also be handed in French, German and Portuguese. Keynotes and panel discussions will be open to the public.