"Reconfiguring African Studies" Africa Multiple Cluster of Excellence at the University of Bayreuth

This latest episode of the Cluster Conversatioins features Prof. Dr. Ute Fendler and artist Migline Paroumanou reflecting on her work during a residency in Bayreuth, where she explores identity, memory and belonging through the historical context of La Réunion, the Indian Ocean and Africa. Drawing on colonial history, slavery and ritual practices, she describes her artistic approach as a symbolic...

In this episode of the Cluster Conversations , host Dr. Christine Vogt-William sits down with the Cluster's artist fellows Dr. Epifania Amoo-Adare and Ann-Marie Ellmann for a thought-provoking exchange on knowledge-making, creative research practices, and navigating the spaces between disciplines. Together, they explore how intellectual curiosity, personal experience, and collaborative inquiry...

In this latest episode of Cluster Conversations, Prof. Eric Anchimbe sits down with Dr. Feyi Ademola-Adeoye, Senior Research Fellow at the University of Lagos and a fellow at the Africa Multiple Cluster of Excellence at the University of Bayreuth. Together, they delve into the evolving world of Nigerian proverbs and explore how younger generations are remixing and reinterpreting these age-old sayi...

In this latest episode of the Cluster Conversations, fellow Dr. Renu Modi talks with her host Prof. Dr. Clarissa Vierke about her recent fellowship with the Cluster of Excellence in Bayreuth. Modi reflects on three decades of India-Africa relations, highlighting how economic cooperation and culturalexchange have reshaped the landscape of South-South collaboration. From her stay in Bayreuth, she co...

In this latest episode of the Cluster Conversations, artist fellow Thandeka Mfinyongo talks with her host Dr. Katharina Greven about her recent residency with the Cluster of Excellence in Bayreuth. During her stay, Thandeka Mfinyongo was working on her project “Ingoduko” which she  considers a sort of homecoming and an appreciation of African music – her music encapsulates where it began and a nos...

In this episode of the Cluster Conversations, Cluster fellow Dr. AbdulGafar Fahm talks with this host Prof. Dr. Britta Frede about his Cluster project, in which he investigates thetransformative role of digital technology on Islamic learning within Nigerian Muslim societies, with a focus on the ethical implications that arise in the contemporary digital landscape. Digital technology, including soc...

Dr. Christabel Aba Sam is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of English at the University of Cape Coast, Ghana and currently a Cluster fellow at the University of Bayreuth. In this episode of the Cluster Conversation, she talks with her host Dr. Christine Vogt-William (Director of the Cluster of Excellence’s Gender and Diversity Office) about her work on images of masculinities in Ghanaian Afrobe...

Neelima Jeychandran is an Assistant Professor of African Visual Culture in the Department of Art History at Virginia Commonwealth University, Qatar. In this episode she talks with her host Clarissa Vierke (Professor of Literatures in African Languages at the University of Bayreuth ) about Jeychandran's work on oceanic crossovers and material histories of West and East Africa and western India....

In this episode of the Cluster Conversations, fellow Dr. Nyindem Nancy Sirih-Nagang talks with her host Dr. Eric Anchimbe about her research on the linguistic dynamics in the ongoing violent crisis in Cameroon. It exposes the creation of new lexemes and describes the linguistics and non-linguistic techniques employed in communicating through the labelling of concepts, individuals, or situations by...

In this episode of the Cluster Conversations, fellow Dr. Habibat Oladosu-Uthman talks with her host Prof. Dr. Rüdiger Seesemann about her project on identity politics in the various Houses of God in West Africa. The research scrutinizes gender politics and dynamics among Vodun worshippers in Lome, the capital city of the republic of Togo, and Sango worshippers in Yoruba land, Nigeria vis a vis the...

In this episode of the Cluster Conversations, artist fellow Sabelo Mcinziba talks with his host Dr. Serawit Debele about his residency and the exhibition “With his hands” that he has curated in Bayreuth during his stay. The exhibition tells people’s life stories through the medium of hands as narrative portals. He also shares how his ideas about being “human” flowed into his curatorial work. Find...

In this latest episode of our podcast, Cluster fellow Dr. Victor Iwuoha talks with his host Prof. Dr. Doevenspeck about his latest research on  Biometric ID Policies, Gendered Dynamics, and Political Mobilization of Migrants in West Africa. The senior lecturer at the Department of Political Science at the University of Nigeria scrutinizes how the intrusion of biometric ID technologies into the con...

This latest episode features Prof. Dr. Valentina Serreli talking with Cluster fellow Dr. Elshifa Elamin about her research project, in which she scrutinizes the language rights regime in Sudan enforced by the British colonial system. Sudan was under British colonial rule from 1899 to 1956, referred to as the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan or the Condominium. During this time, the British colonial system aim...

During this episode, Cluster fellow Valerie Nur talks with her fellowship host Prof. Dr. Joël Glasman (Chair of African History at the University of Bayreuth) about her research on the topic of artisanal knowledge and skills from a mobility perspective. Artisans in Niger often offer their services on the road and, in doing so, rely on a broad kinship network during their travels, within which know...

In this latest episode Prof. Dr. Sabelo Ndlovu Gatsheni talks with associated fellow Dr. Halil Ibrahim Arpa about his research project entitled “Decolonial Hi/stories: Literary Subversion of Colonial and Post-colonial Historiographies”. In this project, Arpa scrutinizes the coloniality of knowledge against Black and Islamic communities in the Global North and alternative epistemologies to the cris...

In this episode of the Cluster Conversations Dr. Franz Kogelmann talks with Cluster fellow Dr. Chembea Suleiman Athuman about his project "Poetry (Qasidah) and Women’s Bodies in the Creation, Dissemination of Islamic Knowledge and Cultural Identity in Zanzibar". The study examines how active involvement of women in Islamic poetry ( qasidah ) helps (de-)construct traditional dynamics in t...

In this episode, Cluster fellow Prof. Dr. Don Edward Walicek (University of Puerto Rico) talks with his host Prof. Dr. Susanne Mühleisen (University of Bayreuth) about Walicek's research project “Language Ideologies and Social Contact Involving West Africans and the English on the Gold Coast.” Working on this project during his fellowship with the Africa Multiple Cluster of Excellence, Walicek...

In this episode, Cluster fellow Dr. Josph Kasule talks with his host Junior Research Group Leader Dr. Joschka Philipps about Kasule’s research in general and the latest book project “Intimate colonialities, public intellectualism and political revolution in Uganda” that he has been working on during his fellowship in Bayreuth. Find out more about Dr. Joseph Kasule here . Find out more about the Af...

In this episode, Cluster fellow Dr. Maja Figge talks with her host Prof. Dr. Christine Hanke about her research that focuses on the notion of circulation. During her fellowship Figge looked at the transtemporal bonds between militant African cinemas and Afro-diasporic post-cinemas, contributing to her recent book project, a collection of essays entitled “Black (Post-)Cinemas: Genealogies, Practice...

In this episode, Cluster fellow Alexandre Vieira talks with his host Ute Fendler about the African influence on Brazilian music in general and his music in particular. For videos on the mentioned concerts please visit: https://youtu.be/Beq56_Llge8 and https://youtu.be/-RIyuNIh2m4

Cluster fellow Dr. Noemi Alfieri talks with her host and Junior Research Group Leader Dr. Cassandra Mark-Thiesen about her latest research project "Mapping anti-colonial networks through literature. Transnational connections of African thinkers in the reconfiguration of space and thought (1950s - 70s)".

Cluster fellow Dr. Thokozani Mhlambi talks with his host Dr. Katharina Fink about his life, his love for music, his artist fellowship in the Cluster and his latest project - a music-based story set in the ancient Zulu capital of Umgungundlovu. https://www.bayreuth-academy.uni-bayreuth.de/en/people/Fellows-list/title-Thokozani-Mhlambi/index.php

In this latest episode of the Africa Multiple Cluster Dr. Anthony Diala (University of the Western Cape) talks with his host Prof. Dr. Thoko Kaime (Chair of African Legal Studies at the University of Bayreuth) about his fellowship during which he worked on a book project on the theoretical framework for legal integration. More info: https://www.bayreuth-academy.uni-bayreuth.de/en/people/Fellows-li...

In the latest episode of the Cluster Conversations fellow Prof. Dr. Pamila Gupta talks with her hosts Prof. Dr. Ute Fendler and Prof. Dr. Clarissa Vierke on her latest project “From Indian Ocean to African Indian: Through the refracted lens of Capital Art Studio, Zanzibar

In this latest episode of the Cluster Conversations fellow Dr. Faisal Garba Muhammed talks with his fellowship host Prof. Dr. Stefan Ouma about his research project in which he scrutzinizes datasets on mobility in Africa that he collected for almost 20 years. They also explore the need for a macrosociology in/of Africa.