The Nordic Africa Days: Gender and Change: Global Challenges for Africa?
23 – 24 September 2016 in Uppsala, Sweden
Call for Panels
The Nordic Africa Days (NAD) is the biennial international conference of the Nordic Africa Institute and it has been organized since 1999 in the Nordic countries. NAD invites panel organizers/researchers working on Africa-related knowledge production and representing the state of the art on African studies.
The Nordic Africa Days 2016 has a thematic focus on gender relations in contemporary Africa. Gender has been central in the Nordic cooperation with Africa, and will continue to be a major focus also in the global development agenda, as recently indicated in the Sustainable Development Goals.
Although NAD 2016 has a thematic focus on gender, it is open to panel proposals on a variety of subjects within African studies.
NAD 2016 wishes to establish a platform to discuss gender in contemporary Africa, building on existing research and opening new perspectives on the transformative processes lived in the continent. We encourage discussion on both structural elements shaping gender relations (state legislations, markets and economic processes, global religions) and local dynamics of re-appropriation, agency and identity creation. Theoretical and methodological research on gender with relevant reference to Africa is also welcome. The conference aims to be a venue for highlighting emerging issues and setting new agendas for research and policy.
Gender relations in Africa is a central development issue, which needs to be integrated into research and policy that affects both men and women. In the social sciences, important research areas and debates regarding gender in Africa include the following broader themes: development and economics (access to resources, property rights, female entrepreneurship); health (sexual and reproductive health, family violence and bodily rights); peace and security (conflict-related sexual violence, local and national public decision-making and education); politics (law reform and political participation); gender roles in social interaction and the public sphere (socialization to gender roles in childhood and teenage; stereotypes and media representation; construction of masculinities and femininities) and LGBTI activism and representation in Africa (gay and transgender rights, violence against sexual minorities, and constitutional rights for sexual minorities).
The conference aims to be a forum for academic exchange and intellectual development, where contributions from a new generation of researchers are important and welcome. PhD candidates, other young scholars and Africa based scholars are particularly encouraged to participate in the conference. The conference also provides a venue for dialogue between Africa specialists within academic and policy arenas.
One of the Keynote speakers is Maria Eriksson Baaz, senior researcher at the Nordic Africa Institute and School of Global Studies, Gothenburg University. Her research areas are African politics and security, military and police reform, postcolonial theory, diaspora and gender studies.
Submission of Panel Proposals
Panel abstracts should include a description of the topic not exceeding 300 words, list of potential presenters and titles of papers, as well as name and contact details of the panel organizer. Panel organizers are expected to be the chair of their panels and should present a paper. A person can only propose one panel and present one paper at the conference.
Panel proposals should be submitted to: nad2016@nai.uu.se no later than 3 March 2016.
Conference Registration
The conference registration fee is SEK 1000 (EUR100) in general and SEK 500 (EUR50) for registered students and participants with residence in Africa. Conference registration opens as of April 2016.
NAD web page: http://www.nai.uu.se/nad-2016/
The Nordic Africa Days: Gender and Change: Global Challenges for Africa?
