ODID staff and doctoral candidates will join 1,500 leading researchers, policymakers, and leaders from across the world with topics addressing the theme of Africa: Connections and Disruptions.

Professor Jocelyn Alexander and Departmental Lecturer Dan Hodgkinson will be convening a panel on ‘Storytelling and social order in Africa’ (Friday 14 June).

The panel will feature papers by Professor Alexander on ‘Broken journeys: ZAPU soldiers’ stories of war inside a Rhodesian prison’, by Leverhulme Early Career Fellow Susanne Verheul on ‘Paying respect or playing to the gallery? Truth, justice, and performative politics in the commission of inquiry into Zimbabwe’s post-election violence of 1 August 2018’, by DPhil Myfanwy James on ‘From rebel to humanitarian: redemption, pragmatism and sense-making in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’ and by Dr Hodgkinson on ‘The politics of post-colonial war stories: soldiers widows and the second Congo War in Zimbabwe’.

Dr Hodgkinson is also convening a panel on ‘The Vietnam War in Africa, 1963-1975’ with Luke Melchiorre of the Universidad de los Andes in Bogotá (Thursday 13 June), where they will also present their paper on ‘Global conspiracies & third world solidarities: the political uses of the Vietnam War in east and southern Africa’.

Associate Professor Simukai Chigudu will be convening a panel with DPhil Sa’eed Husaini on ‘Western citizens and African subjects?’ (Thursday 13 June), where Dr Chigudu will also present a paper on ‘Blindspots; or is it ethical for white people to study Africa?’.

He will also be participating in a roundtable titled ‘Decolonize now: if everyone is decolonizing why does so little seem to change?’, organised by the University of Edinburgh’s Centre of African Studies and the journal Critical African Studies (Thursday 13 June).

Leverhulme Early Career Fellow Robtel Neajai Pailey wil be taking part in a roundtable discussion on ‘Turning down the heat: (mis-) representation of African migration in the media and the role of researchers’ (Thursday, 13 June)

She will also be presenting a paper on ‘Post-party politics, forum shopping and Liberia’s 2017 elections’ in a panel on ‘Regime change, democratic experiments and trends in succession politics in Africa’ (Friday 14 June).

DPhil Claire Walkey is convening a panel on ‘Refugees and the state in Africa’ with Hanno Brankamp of SOGE, Oxford (Wednesday 12 June), where she will also present her paper on ‘The limits of bureaucratic knowledge: understanding the everyday refugee registration practices of the Government of Kenya’.

ECAS 2019 takes place at the University of Edinburgh, organised by the University’s Centre of African Studies, June 11-14.

Find out more here.