Africa Desk

SCOLMA Annual Conference 2013 “Hidden Collections in African Studies”

Tue, 21 May 2013 00:00:00 +0100

Tuesday 9th July 2013, 9.30am - 5.00pm

Senate House Library, University of London, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HU

Last year’s RLUK Hidden Collections report, http://www.rluk.ac.uk/files/RLUK%20Hidden%20Collections_0.pdf, shared the findings of a survey into “hidden collections” carried out by Research Libraries UK and the London Library in 2010, which aimed to gather evidence about the ongoing need for retrospective cataloguing of UK collections.

The report found that “hidden collections” (defined as material for which there is no online catalogue record) remain an immense problem for UK libraries. Over 13 million volumes were uncatalogued in the libraries that responded, 18.5% of the total number of volumes held by those libraries. Over 4 million more (in a smaller number of libraries) had unsatisfactory catalogue records. The report noted that foreign language material and formats which require particular skills and expertise (such as maps, music, and archives) were heavily represented in “hidden collections”, and found that while there were significant retrospective cataloguing projects underway the scale of the problem is often beyond individual institutions.

In addition, as more material becomes available online and researchers expectations of digital content expands, those resources not easily available in digital format in turn become “hidden”.

This conference will discuss the extent and scope of “hidden collections” in different formats in African Studies in the UK, look at examples of projects addressing this problem and work towards ways forward at a national level.

Programme (to be confirmed):

Mike Mertens, RLUK Deputy Executive Director and Data Services Manager will give an overview of the RLUL Hidden Collections project http://www.rluk.ac.uk/content/hidden-collections and speak about current thinking nationally.

Papers will follow including discussions of political pamphlets and ephemera, missionary and church records, research reports from Africa, and the FCO ‘migrated archives’.

There will be time set aside for facilitated workshop discussion on ways forward for revealing and making available hidden collections in African Studies from a national subject/area studies perspective.

Enquiries to:

Lucy McCann, Archivist, Bodleian Library of Commonwealth & African Studies, Rhodes House, South Parks Road, Oxford, OX1 3RG

Tel: +44 (0) 1865 270908

Email: lucy.mccann@bodleian.ox.ac.uk

http://scolma.org/events/

Booking Form

http://scolma.org/scolma-2013-conference-on-line-booking-form/

Conference Fee

Conference fee £30. Retired, unwaged, students £20. Includes coffee/tea and lunch. This form should be returned by 24th June 2013 with your remittance, made payable to SCOLMA, to :

Lucy McCann, Archivist, Bodleian Library of Commonwealth & African Studies, Rhodes House, South Parks Road, Oxford, OX1 3RG

Tel: +44 (0) 1865 270908 Email: lucy.mccann@bodleian.ox.ac.uk

Urban Studies Foundation - Postdoctoral Research Fellowships

Mon, 20 May 2013 00:00:00 +0100

The Urban Studies Foundation is pleased to announce a major new funding opportunity for Postdoctoral Research Fellowships.

Details of the award(s) can be found on the attached document and further particulars and the application form are available on the Foundation's website at http://www.urbanstudiesfoundation.org/funding-opportunities/.

Applications should be submitted electronically to Ruth Harkin at ruth.harkin@glasgow.ac.uk by 14 June 2013.

Anthropology in London Day 2013

Mon, 20 May 2013 00:00:00 +0100

Organised by the anthropology departments of Goldsmiths and UCL in collaboration with University of East London, Brunel, SOAS, LSE and KCL departments.

Monday 17 June 2013
UCL, Department of Anthropology

Visibility and Concealment

Call for Papers – EXTENDED UNTIL 28 MAY

Anthropological writing involves rendering hidden and overlooked social facts tangible, and, as such, concealment and visibility are central to anthropological endeavour. Three issues would appear to arise: substantive, epistemological, ethical. In the first case, the performance and crystallisation of underlying significance has to a large extent displaced the ideological concealment of asymmetry as a major focus in analysis. What place, thereby, does concealment – as well as performance – come to occupy as a preoccupation and presence in the lives of our research participants/informants? Secondly, post-representational claims would seem to terminate the anthropological disclosure of implicit relations which might be hidden to research participants/informants and which they do not perform. How does contemporary anthropology survive this interdiction? And, have any impact as a result? In the third case, one cannot necessarily write about everything discovered in the field without betraying confidences or breaching ethical guidelines. Often those things that cannot be discussed from fieldwork (like love, gossip, conflicts and other intimacies) form the most interesting parts of our field experiences and, indeed, a vital part of our ideal analysis. Yet they must remain undocumented in order to protect our research participants/informants. More recently issues of concealment have also come to the fore for anthropologists in regards to open access. How is contemporary anthropology unmade and renewed in relation to such stringent ethical codes and in light of growing expectations regarding impact?

Anthropology in London welcomes papers and panel proposals from post-fieldwork PhD students, post-doctoral researchers and staff on these themes, and on any others that relate to matters of visibility and concealment.

We also welcome fieldwork photos and posters (maximum of one per presenter) fitting with the conference theme.

Submission of Abstracts:

The organising committee welcomes 300-word (max.) abstracts for individual papers and posters and 500-word (max.) abstracts for panel proposals.

We also invite submissions for separate ‘fieldwork photography’ and poster categories. All staff and post-fieldwork students are encouraged to submit one fieldwork photograph relating to the conference theme.

Please include the following information with your submission:

institutional affiliation and department indicating whether you are a staff member or student (students to indicate year of study).

Please note that we are unable to guarantee inclusion of all papers, photographs, posters and panels, so early submission is advised.

Please send submissions to Gavin Weston, g.weston@gold.ac.uk copying to Stephanie Kitchen, sk111@soas.ac.uk.

Deadline: 28 May 2013

Call for Participants: Critical Debates With(In) Development: Power, Resilience and Change

Thu, 09 May 2013 00:00:00 +0100

Please see below the Call for Participants for the upcoming interdisciplinary postgraduate development studies conference, on the theme of "Critical Debates With(In) Development: Power, Resilience and Change". The conference is organised by IDS and the School of Global Studies at Sussex, with support from the Development Studies Association (DSA).

One of the major goals of the conference is to bring together a wide diversity of early careers scholars working on development issues from different disciplines and departments across the Sussex campus.

The conference will take place at the University of Sussex on 13th-14th June 2013. The conference will include a half day of methods workshops on 14th June. The deadline for registration is 31st of May.

We would be most grateful if you could circulate the call widely among the Postgraduate students in your respective departments.

Regards,

The Conference Organising Team

CALL FOR PARTICIPANTS

The online registration form can be found here: http://goo.gl/rBRYQ Online registration closes on the 31st of May 2013.

The aim of the conference is to share research that fosters original ideas, new narratives and alternative ways of thinking about the central concepts of Power, Resilience and Change within development. In the dominant development paradigm certain issues can be disregarded as peripheral and unimportant. Yet the potential of these issues to contribute to processes of knowledge production and transformative practice should not be overlooked. Questions we plan to explore include: How can we begin to critically explore the “silences” in development discourse and practice? How can we explore these issues which are still seen as “external” to the dominant development discourse and practice? What power relationships are revealed when we explore these issues? How can we reclaim these alternative spaces, topics and narratives? How can the potential of marginalised issues be harnessed to become revolutionary? What is resilience in the development context? What does ‘not coping’ look like? How can we begin understanding agency in ways that enable development to better serve its transformative potential?

The two day conference will include panels with paper presentations and discussions on the first day followed by a half day of workshops on the second day.

Panel presenters come from across the globe including: Canada, India, Mexico, Sweden and the United Kingdom.

Thursday the 13th of June 2013

Panel Presentations will be held 09:00-17:00 § Alternative Visions of Development § Challenging Knowledge; Reviewing Linkages § Gender and Sexuality § Geographies of Development § Knowledge, Technology and Society § Locating Resilience and Resistance § Methodology and Development Research: When, how, why and to what extent should people’s perspectives inform development practice?

§ Power and Politics in Development

§ Religion, Relationships and Discourse

§ Transformations in Food Security: Wellbeing, Development and Imagination § Violence, Conflict and After

Friday the 14th of June 2013

Workshops will be held from 09:00-12:00

§ A creative writing workshop led by Kim Lasky to help doctoral researchers look creatively at their identity as researchers and the challenges and opportunities that presents.

Dr. Lasky’s Profile: http://kimlasky.com/

§ A workshop on activism led by Professor Andrea Cornwall to force researchers to engage with and examine will the model of 'expert' anthropologist as 'advocate', to revisioning anthropology as a new way of working with others in development settings.

Professor Cornwall’s Profile: http://www.sussex.ac.uk/profiles/92604

§ More to be announced

We strongly believe that our conference will provide an excellent opportunity to connect scholars across disciplines and for ideational creativity. We encourage you to attend, participate and engage.

Registration for the conference is £5.00 Online registration closes on the 31st of May 2013: http://goo.gl/rBRYQ

Organising Committee

Critical Debates With(in) Development Conference, 13 and 14th June 2013

University of Sussex, Falmer, Brighton

criticaldebatesconf@sussex.ac.uk

University of Bristol International Office Scholarships

Wed, 08 May 2013 00:00:00 +0100

The University of Bristol is delighted to announce ten International Office Scholarships for new international students:

Five scholarships of £8,500 each will be available for prospective undergraduate students for 2013 entry.
This is divided as follows: £3,000 in Year One, £3,000 in Year Two and £2,500 in Year Three. No awards will be made for subsequent years.
Five scholarships of £8,500 each will be available for prospective Masters students for 2013 entry.
Who can apply?

Eligible students:

All applicants must be classed as overseas students for fee purposes.
All applicants must already hold an offer of a place on a full-time undergraduate or masters programme at the University of Bristol.
Applicants may be from any discipline.
Sponsored students and students in receipt of another scholarship/award over £3000 are not eligible to apply.
Current University of Bristol students are not eligible to apply.
How to apply

All applicants must apply online at http://www.survey.bris.ac.uk/acreg/intsch13-14.

Applicants are required to submit a short personal statement of up to 350 words outlining why they feel they should be awarded a University of Bristol International Office Scholarship.

Applicants may like to include information on their academic/ personal achievements and their career goals.

Deadline

The deadline for the receipt of applications is: 09h00 (UK time) on Friday 14 June 2013.

No late applications will be accepted.

Results will be communicated to successful applicants by Friday 28 June 2013.

Please e-mail iro@bristol.ac.uk if you have any queries about this scholarship.