EXC 2052:  Africa Multiple: Reconfiguring African Studies

• Subject Area: Social and Cultural Anthropology, Non-European Cultures, Jewish Studies and Religious Studies ; Geography ; History ; Literary Studies
• Term: since 2019
• Website: Homepage
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 390713894

Founded on more than forty years of experience at the University of Bayreuth (UBT) in conducting Africa-focused research, the Africa Multiple Cluster of Excellence (AM) is designed to develop new responses to the theoretical, methodological and structural challenges facing African Studies. Since its inception in 2019, AM has spearheaded innovative approaches and forms of collaborative research, with the objective of reconfiguring African Studies on both the conceptual and the structural level. Long-established as a presence in the field, UBT has not only emerged as one of the leading African Studies institutions worldwide, but is also pioneering changes to power imbalances in the production and transmission of knowledge in African Studies. Through building close partnerships with four African institutions – Rhodes University, Makhanda, South Africa; Moi University Eldoret, Kenya; Joseph Ki-Zerbo University, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso; the University of Lagos, Nigeria – we have been able to co-create a transformative space in which to advance the study of African and African-diasporic ways of life and world-making, via the pursuit of new inter- and transdisciplinary forms of cutting-edge research and theory-building. Predicated on the proposition that Africa is, was and always will be constituted through its ever-changing relations, globally entangled and in flux, we developed three core concepts as a framework to capture the simultaneity of heterogeneous and mutually influential African life-worlds as they emerge in relational processes: multiplicity, relationality and reflexivity. We now seek to expand the scope of our joint knowledge production and continue our reconfiguration of African Studies by organising our future research into six new Research Sections (RSs) that address the empirical, analytical and ethical agenda of world(s) and world-making in synergetic ways. Going forward, we will expand and improve our research and governance infrastructures and tools to promote gender equity, advance intersectionality and critical diversity in research, and to implement our innovative working formats of research data management and Data Science. As part of this, we will establish a new transcontinental, whole-Cluster hub for early career support, and continue to develop creative approaches to joint science communication, on the basis of our experience so far. We are ready to set ever higher standards in transcontinental and interdisciplinary research on, in, and from Africa and its diasporas, thus contributing to a broader re-imagining of the world from African perspectives. Strategically evolving to ensure its academic excellence, AM will radiate through its host institutions, shining in the field of African Studies and beyond.

• DFG Programme: Clusters of Excellence (ExStra)
• Applicant Institution: Universität Bayreuth
• Participating University: Moi University; Rhodes University; University of Lagos; Université Joseph KI-ZERBO
• Spokespersons: Professorin Dr. Ute Fendler; Professor Dr. Rüdiger Seesemann
• Participating Researchers: Privatdozent Dr. Eric Anchimbe; Professorin Dr. Susan Arndt; Yacouba Banhoro; Dr. Eveline Compaore-Sawadogo; Professor Dr. Martin Doevenspeck; Professor Dr. Olumuyiwa Falaiye, Ph.D.; Professor Dr. Joël Glasman; Professorin Dr. Jana Hönke; Professorin Dr. Lisa Hülsmann; Professor Thoko Kaime, Ph.D.; Dr. Melina Cassandra Kalfelis; Professor Dr. Jia Hui Lee; Professor Enocent Msindo, Ph.D.; Professorin Dr. Susanne Mühleisen; Professor Dr. Stefan Ouma; Professorin Dr. Alena Rettová; Professor Dr. Cyrus Samimi; Professor Dr. Mirco Schoenfeld; Professorin Dr. Katharina Schramm; Professor Dr. Peter Simatei, Ph.D.; Professorin Dr. Eva Spies; Professor Dr. Alexander Stroh-Steckelberg; Professorin Dr. Clarissa Vierke