WARA Summer 2005 Institute - U Ghana, Memory & Community,
02/05
The WEST AFRICAN RESEARCH ASSOCIATION if offering ~
The Changing Dynamics of Memory and Community in West African History &
Anthropology
A summer institute for college and university faculty
Summer 2005, July 17 - July 30
University of Ghana
Legon, Ghana
- Program statement
- The lack of written sources and the oral nature of
African societies once left Africa in the domain of anthropology, not
history. Pioneering historians of Africa formulated a methodology that
would submit oral traditions to the methods and techniques of textual
criticism. Using written sources to amplify and cross-check oral traditions
and eye-witness accounts was crucial for pioneers like Jan Vansina to
establish the validity of oral evidence. Historians today embrace memory as
dynamic, with different recollections of an event at different points in an
informant's lifetime not necessarily contradictory or divergent.
Anthropologists grapple with a similarly basic challenge in critiques of
their concept of community. It assumes a culture and society that are
neatly bounded and relatively homogeneous, and it underpins the central
ethnographic methodology of participant observation. Recognizing the
reality of multiple conflicting identities within and intimate
transnational connections between communities, researchers now question
common-sense dichotomies like insider//outsider, traditional//modern, and
local//global. Going beyond these simple definitions has involved paying
serious but critical attention to historical imagination and textual
history. As shifting paradigms in both fields bring their methodologies
closer together, this summer institute will investigate how much these new
approaches to memory and community have privileged African voices and
advanced the pursuit of usable knowledge. The institute will also address
non-oral sources, written and visual, and examine scholarly approaches
within and outside Africa.
Tentative Schedule and Itinerary: The institute will be based at the
Institute for African Studies at the University of Ghana and will consist
of a series of lectures, seminars and discussion sessions. In addition, as
part of the institute, participants will travel to Kumasi and to Cape Coast
and Elmina castles.
- Costs
- The cost per participant is $2,500. This fee will include the full
cost of the seminar sessions at the University of Ghana (all lectures and
seminars); lodging, breakfasts, lunches, and approximately one half of the
evening meals; and all local and in-country transportation. Participants
will be responsible for their own airfare to and from Accra; bar, telephone
and other incidental expenses; and occasional evening meals.
Dr. Ibrahima Thioub (Universite Cheikh Anta Diop, Dakar, Senegal) and Dr.
Emmanuel Akyeampong (Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA)
will team up to serve as directors of the 2005 WARA Summer Institute.
Professor Thioub is the Chair of the History Department at Universite
Cheikh Anta Diop in Dakar. He holds a doctorate in African Modern History
and teaches courses on the history and historiography of Africa, the
history of Islam, and African historiography of slavery and the Atlantic
slave trade. His research interests also include art, music and literature;
the history of film; labor history, diplomatic history and international
affairs, educational technology, environmental and agricultural history and
geography. Professor Thioub is the president of the Association de
Recherche Ouest Africain and is on the advisory board for H-West Africa.
Professor Akyeampong is Chair of the Committee on African Studies at
Harvard University and professor of history. He holds a doctorate in
African History and his research and teaching have focused on West African
history, Islam in Sub-Saharan Africa, comparative slavery, gender in
African history, health, disease, and ecology in African history, and the
social history of alcohol. He is the author of Between the Sea and the
Lagoon: an Eco-Social History of the Anlo of Southeastern Ghana, c.1850 to
Recent Times (2001) and Drink, Power, and Cultural Change: A Social History
of Alcohol in Ghana, c. 1800 to Recent Times (1996). Professor Akyeampong
is a fellow of the Royal Historical Society and is the Vice President of
the West African Research Association.
Application: Participation in the seminar will be limited to 12. For more
information or an application form please contact WARA at wara@bu.edu.
Applications must be received by February 15. A $500 deposit is required to
reserve a space upon notification of acceptance to the institute. This
deposit will be non-refundable after 1 April 2004. The balance of $2,000
must be paid before the start of the institute. A detailed program will be
sent to all participants in early May.
The Changing Dynamics of Memory and Community in
West African History & Anthropology
A summer institute for college and university faculty
Summer 2005, July 17 - July 30
University of Ghana
Legon, Ghana
Name:
Title:
Institutional Affiliation:
Mailing Address:
Email: Tel: Fax:
Area(s) of research interest:
Courses taught:
| Please |
attach a brief statement of 1-2 pages addressing the following: |
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Any previous African experience(s) (research, teaching, travel)
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Any previous experience teaching African history
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Your expectations of the institute in terms of its contribution to your |
| teaching/research agenda |
Applications may be submitted electronically to wara@bu.edu or can be
mailed to:
WARA Summer Institute
Boston University African Studies Center
270 Bay State Road
Boston, MA 0221
NOTE: THE DEADLINE FOR THE RECEIPT OF APPLICATIONS IS FEBRUARY 15, 2005
Page Editor: Ali B. Ali-Dinar, Ph.D.