Research Teams are invited to submit Concept Notes for two-year research projects. Teams successful at the Concept Note stage will be invited to submit Full Proposals. The following types of research are considered in scope: Epidemiological studies that describe and analyze patterns of diseases or health among women and consider different population and occupational factors. Population health research that explores diverse women’s experiences as individuals and within the society (e.g., family and community, intergenerational relationships, socioeconomic groups, work groups and enterprises). Intervention and Implementation research focused on exploring how policies, practices and strategies already put in place to alleviate the impact of COVID-19 influence the relationships between women’s paid and unpaid work and their health. Specific Research Areas A subset of funds is available to support research that is relevant to the scope and objectives of Women RISE and specifically addresses one of the following three Specific Research Areas: Infectious diseases research focused on understanding how relationships between women’s work and health have been shaped by and are shaping disruptions to infectious disease prevention, immunization programs and care services. HIV/AIDS STBBI research specific to women living with HIV/AIDS, COVID-19-related disruptions to HIV and STBBI prevention or care services, or the health of women in occupations that put them at increased risk for HIV and STBBI acquisition. Pandemics and other health emergencies research that investigates ways the COVID-19 experience can inform, improve, and safeguard women’s health and socioeconomic well-being against future health emergencies. Eligibility The Research Team must include a Principal Investigator (PI) who is a low- and middle-income country (LMIC) researcher based in the LMIC Lead Applicant Organization and residing in an eligible LMIC country/territory where the research is proposed. The PI will be the team lead and will work in close collaboration with a Canada-based Co-Principal Investigator (Co-PI) and a Decision-Maker Co-PI based in the same country as the Lead Applicant Organization or in a country where the research will take place. For applications involving Indigenous communities, the RT must include at least one member who self-identifies as Indigenous or provides evidence of having meaningful and culturally safe involvement with Indigenous Peoples in an Indigenous Health Research Environment.   The Research Team must also include a Lead Applicant Organization and a Canadian Co-Applicant Organization. More details For more information, please read the detailed call for concept notes. Please also consult our frequently asked questions. Read more

Two organizations are looking for interns with good writing skills, in Dar es Salaam and Arusha, Tanzania. Both can provide secure and well-appointed housing for the volunteer, but other expenses (food, transport, visa) will have to be covered by the volunteer. Both would be good opportunities for graduate students with an interest in East Africa to meet people and become part of a community. Swahili proficiency is not needed, but some familiarity with Swahili would be valuable for a good experience.    Mkuki na Nyota Publishers is Tanzania's most prestigious publisher and the volunteer will work under the direction of the owner and director, Walter Bgoya, one of Tanzania's elder statesmen of letters. The intern will be involved in all aspects of publishing depending on expertise, but mainly marketing and copyediting in English. The volunteer would be provided with a safe and well-appointed apartment in downtown Dar es Salaam near the Mkuku na Nyota office. Interested candidates should contact Walter Bgoya by email.    Pamoja Tuwalee grows out World Education Inc. (WEI) and continues to implement projects in education and care for orphans and vulnerable children. The volunteer would work with Lilian Badi, who has worked with WEI and its associated programs for over a decade. The volunteer would work primarily on proposal writing. The volunteer would be provided with a safe and well-appointed apartment near the Pamoja Tuwalee office. Interested candidates should contact Lillian Badi by email.   For more questions you can also reach out to Paul Bjerk at Texas Tech University Read more

CFP for IJIA Special Issue on Climate Change and the Built Environment in the Islamic World Special Issue: Climate Change and the Built Environment in the Islamic World Thematic volume planned for May 2024 (IJIA 13.2)Proposal submission deadline: April 30, 2022 This special issue of IJIA focuses on the impact of the current climate crisis on the built environments of the Islamic world. Environmentalist scholar and eco-theologist Seyyed Hossein Nasr once said that the natural environment occupies a type of ‘sacred’ space in the world, an elevated position that exists only because nature is ‘always in danger of desecration’ (Chidester and Linenthal 1995). In fact, many scientists are now seeing our current global predicament as evidence of the emergence of a ‘fifth nature’ or ‘post nature’, referring to a world ‘after’ nature or potentially beyond or in addition to it, which expands the central definition of the ‘natural’ to include man-made waste, environmental pollution, and importantly climate change as part and parcel of a lived and living ecosystem (Apotsos and Venter 2020). To this end, this special issue takes up the challenge of unpacking this complex topic by utilizing architecture as a space of discourse for thinking about how one might craft a theory of ‘critical environmentalism’ across the Islamic world. Currently accounting for 40 per cent of the world’s total energy usage per year, the built environment provides a fitting platform for a consideration of climate change and attendant environmental themes such as sustainability –  broadly defined as ‘the endurance of systems and processes’ – towards examining how such realities are made manifest through the lens of diverse spatial templates within Muslim societies around the globe.   To this point, many architectural approaches being explored in the contemporary period as potential solutions to building in an increasingly unstable climatic future are rooted in historical practices, many of which emerged in proto-Islamic lands. Archaeological evidence from North Africa and the Middle East, for example, not only suggest that early civilizations used thermodynamically efficient materials like earth to build in desert environments, but also developed an understanding of how to generate livable microclimates through infrastructural design and engineering. Some of these early approaches have also served as the basis for some of the first modern attempts at crafting climate-appropriate design, spearheaded by architects such as Hassan Fathy (Egypt) and his utilisation of AT (Appropriate Technology), and even certain contemporary structural counterparts like Dubai’s new eco-mosque in Hatta, which opened in 2021 and uses both solar panels to reduce its energy usage and water treatment units to reuse water for irrigation and cleaning due to the lack of potable water sources in the region. Importantly as well, such building projects and approaches also gesture towards shifting conditions and modes of being in the world, realities informed by numerous different perspectives ranging from social, cultural, economic, and even religious modes of existence. In 2021, the Saudi Arabian government issued a fatwa on the topic of water reuse, requiring mosques in both Mecca and Medina to recycle wastewater or ‘grey water’ due to the limited potable water resources in the region and the extreme drain on regional water resources that events like the annual Hajj provoke. Some see this as evidence of the emergence of a ‘Green Deen’, or an approach to sustainability that positions environmental stewardship as a faith-based ordinance.   Contemporary considerations of the effects of climate change on built environments throughout the Islamic world also compel a reconsideration of the continuing fallacy imposed by western Enlightenment thought that the relationship between architecture and the environment is one of mutual exclusion. Although advancements in green technology, the growth of design fields oriented around biomimetic applications, and the development of sustainable building materials such as ‘cradle to cradle’ products are shifting the relationship between built form and the environment in a more cooperative direction, the fact remains that architectural practice continues to position the natural environment as a separate, distinct realm to be studied and above all controlled, a largely non-collaborative system that rarely overlaps with the built environment unless forced and often actively opposes it. To this end, this special issue encourages contributions that explore the role of architecture and the built environment in shaping the contours of current climate change and environmentalist discourse in the context of diverse socio-political, cultural, and economic spheres throughout the Islamic world. Contributions might consider past and present events, circumstances, and spaces that offer different or nonconventional interpretations of environmentalism and even the idea of ‘nature’ itself as a space of multiple perspectives, definitions, and concerns, as well as how communities individually encounter and define environmental concerns and incorporate natural design elements into structural responses and solutions specific to the context. Papers might additionally address how architecture as an analytical mechanism challenges established approaches and tendencies that position the built environment in opposition to environmentalist concerns by recognizing its capacity to act as a type of text composed of multiple narratives and registers of knowledge that reflects the value system and frameworks operating within a society at a particular moment with regards to the environment. Papers should adhere to the IJIA’s remit, which is defined broadly as ‘the historic Islamic world, encompassing the Middle East and parts of Africa and Asia, but also the more recent geographies of Islam in its global dimensions’. Further, contributors should fully exploit the self-reflexive potential of this remit towards addressing a spectrum of critical approaches to the built environment in the Islamic world that not only position architecture as a theatre of environmental performance, but also a platform from which to consider additional conditions revolving around issues of race, gender, ethnicity, culture, and politics as they relate to environmental challenges and concerns. To this end, this special issue not only aims to be strongly interdisciplinary, drawing from fields ranging from urban design, history, architecture, archaeology, sociology, and anthropology, but also accommodate a diversity of discourses that focus on regions, communities, and built environments not widely addressed in scholarship on Islamic space. Such case studies are particularly important toward generating a comparative interrogative approach to effectively consider the ongoing encounter/relationship between humanity and the natural world over time and space. Examples of themes contributors might wish to explore include, but are not limited to, the following: Imagining sustainable futures/architecture as an environmentalist frontier Global warming, climate change, and its social/cultural impacts Natural aesthetics as design inspiration Green architecture in desert environments Environmentalism, heritage, and its discontents Eco-Islam and the ‘Green Deen’ Armed conflict and its environmental impacts/implications Petropolitics and sustainable space Architecture and ecological conservation/preservation Non-traditional/emerging designs, materials, and spaces Colonial/postcolonial frameworks in environmental discourse AT (appropriate technology) Articles offering historical and theoretical analysis (DiT papers) should be between 6000 and 8000 words, and those on design and practice (DiP papers) between 3000 and 4000 words. Practitioners are welcome to contribute insofar as they address the critical framework of the journal. Please send a title and a 400-word abstract to the guest editor, Michelle Apotsos, Williams College (IJIAsustainability@gmail.com), by April 30, 2022. Authors of accepted proposals will be contacted soon thereafter and will be requested to submit full papers by January 30, 2023. All papers will be subject to blind peer review. For author instructions, please consult: www.intellectbooks.com/ijia. Read more

CALL FOR PAPERS Conference Weaving Histories from Below in the Global South Needlework, Gender, and Empowerment in Southern Africa Johannesburg 2-3 November 2022   Wrapped around the walls of the Parliament in Cape Town is the Keiskamma Tapestry, created in the 2000’s by more than a hundred Xhosa women. Modelled on the Bayeux tapestry in France, and spanning 120 meters in length, this tapestry tells the epic history of the Xhosa people on the Eastern Cape Frontier.i This work of embroidery brings the voices and the experiences of women into one of the most powerful buildings in South Africa: where policies are made and debated, where budgets are decided, and where power is negotiated. It offers an interesting echo to the tapestry made by Afrikaner women embroidered in the 1950s at the height of apartheid with the ambition to exalt the Boer Great Trek of the nineteenth century — and still on display in the Voortrekker Monument in Pretoria, a landmark of the Afrikaner memory. As these two examples show, politics, history and memory can surface at the end of a needle and sometimes a needle can be as powerful as a pen, if not as a sword.   Beyond such political questioning, various issues emerge around the objects related to needlework and ornamental activities in Southern Africa. The ambition of this conference is to interrogate how the rich material culture of “needlework” —embroidery, beadwork, weaving, tapestry, spinning, knitting, etc. — can give access to subaltern voices and social actors. Mainly related to women, such culture is often considered ‘modest’ in comparison to male productions. However, in addition to its practical purposes, it provides genuine forms of cultural and artistic expression. In addition, they are part of an economic sector in their own right, whose importance has long been diminished, as women’s labour is often “free” or underpaid. Of particular interest is the positioning of these activities within the everyday, at the intersection of art versus labour, and culture versus history, together with their materiality, and their ability to communicate in non-verbal and non-textual ways that endows them with such potential. Needlework is also part of these so-called “traditions” where innovation has been constant, from the bone needles of prehistoric times to the computer-assisted design of our era.   Black women, who have historically been triply marginalised on the basis of race, class and gender often remain invisible in records and archives. In this context, needlework traditions hold the potential “to give voice to those who might otherwise go unheard”ii as emphasised by Clare Hunter. For instance, the Amazwi Abesifazane (Women’s Voices) memory cloth programme allowed several thousand Zulu, Sotho, and Xhosa women to document their experiences of violence and discrimination under apartheid, and find healing, community with other women, and a place in history.iii By bringing together researchers from diverse disciplinary backgrounds (history, art history, anthropology, archaeology, economics, sociology, geography, visual arts, etc.), the main objective of the conference is to reflect on how a new set of material objects and practices can offer “new sites” and encourage innovative “critical pedagogies” from which to write gendered and subaltern histories. This perspective has long been advocated by Achille Mbembe and Sarah Nuttall who called for “identifying sites within the continent, entry and exit points not usually dwelt upon in research and public discourse that defamiliarize common-sense readings”.   In the United States, research on African American quilting traditions has shown the way in which quilt patterns were used to guide runaway slaves navigate the perilous journey from south to north as part of the underground railroad, contributing to our understanding of the gendered nature of black liberation and the retention of African technologies, culture and aesthetics, despite enslavement. Passed down across generations such patterns furthermore speak to the relationship between oral histories, story-telling, migration and needlework traditions.v Returning to the African continent, Anitra Nettleton’s work on the changing patterns of beadwork and clothing decoration in nineteenth century South Africa illustrates how such traditions were used by African women to navigate between tradition and modernity, and renegotiate identity in a transforming world thrown open by capitalism, migrant labour and Christianity.vi Contemporary African American artist Bisa Butler also takes up a similar theme – that of the renegotiation of identity — in her work, producing textured quilts from contemporary African fabrics, but drawing inspiration from archival photographs of famous and ordinary African Americas. In so doing her quilts “resurface and reimagine historical narratives of Black life simultaneously situating them in the present withinthebroadercontextofadiasporicidentityandnetworks.”vii Whileneedleworkactivitiescan provide a powerful means for bearing witness and expressions of trauma, they can indeed be mined as expressions of agency.   In line with this approach, the Weaving Histories from Below Conference organisers call for abstracts studying needlework activities from diverse perspectives: as forms of autobiography/biography; as markers, makers of identity, both individual and collective; as discourses on history and on the past; as memory-building tools; as forms of resistance and disruption; as ways of negotiating/renegotiating complex identities; etc. They also expect proposals that consider, in their tangible dimension (both social and economic), these generally artisanal or artistic activities (which places and modes of production? Which networks? marketing channels? organisation of the workforce? etc.) — activities which often lead to the creation of gendered communities (women's cooperatives, for example), of gendered identities and spaces(feminine,orpossiblyqueer,non-binary);etc. Thislistisofcoursenotexhaustiveandall proposals in line with the theme will be welcomed. Contributions can cover a large time period, from the Prehistoric era to nowadays, and stem from all the disciplines of the social sciences. Dr Annie Devenish (University of the Witwatersrand) Prof. Sophie Dulucq (IFAS-Research) Line Relisieux (IFAS-Research)   Please submit your abstract before 30 April 2022, together with a short autobiography, at the following addresses: comm.research@ifas.org.za and sophie.dulucq@frenchinstitute.org.za   Abstracts should not exceed 300 words (or 2500 characters). Read more

PAYC is organized by the African Students Association (ASA) of Notre Dame, in conjunction with the Pan-African Students Union (PASU) at Northwestern University. The Conference will bring together young people from across the world with the aim of fostering a critical understanding of Africa’s historical and contemporary challenges. This year’s Conference will be held under the theme "Which Way, Africa?" which will explore explore alternative paths for Africa’s political, economic and cultural development.Discussions at the Conference will be guided by four critical questions; 1) WHO are we as Africans? 2) WHERE are we as a continent? 3) HOW did we get where we are? and 4) WHERE do we go from here? Discussions will take place within three committees; a) Politics & Governance b) Socioeconomic transformation and c) Culture & Identity. The Conference will feature a keynote address by Prof. Lwazi Lushaba from the University of Cape Town. For more information, please visit our website.Please do not hesitate to reach out to me should you have any questions about the Conference  - Olemo Brian payc2022@gmail.com.   Registration deadline Friday, March 11, 2022 https://www.panafricanyouthconference.org/ Read more

This two-day ICT training will be held in two sessions. The first will be Monday, March 28 from 9:00 – 10:00 AM (Eastern Time/US). The second session will be Tuesday, March 29 from 9:00 – 10:00 AM (Eastern Time/US). ​In order to complete this training, attendance is required on both days.Kindly use this link to compare time zones https://timezonewizard.com/?gclid=Cj0KCQjwz7uRBhDRARIsAFqjulkIzMc5eqvDZToeBekhc0cNy_zVpO9BUAdagZRUeb2QM-egXUTj4ocaAoUGEALw_wcB Certificates will be presented to all attendees who complete the two-day training.Training will be held through Zoom and is accessible through your computer. Click https://zoom.us/ to download Zoom to your computer.Registration will be limited to 20 participants. Please ensure you are able to commit to attending both days of the training before you register.Please click the SUBMIT button at the bottom of the registration form linked here: Zoom based free SAWBO/Kataru network training: Scaling of impact through WhatsApp - March 28 and March 29, at 9:00 AM EST/USA (google.com) to complete your registration. Your spot in the training will not be reserved unless the SUBMIT button is clicked.Kindly send any questions about this form to Severina Adames at seveadames@sawbo-animations.org. Read more

To stimulate new and diverse lines of discourse about the Middle East and Africa, ASMEA’s Research Grants Program seeks to support research on topics that deserve greater attention. The topic areas and sub-topics listed below are intended as a guide for potential participants in the program and constitute the types of subjects that ASMEA intends to support. An applicant may submit a proposal on any topic as long as it is directly relevant to the five broad areas outlined below, and constitutes new and original research. Grants of $2500 will be awarded. For eligibility and requirements, refer to the grant guidelines.   Topic Areas: Minorities and Women Feminism, women’s rights, family law Christians in the Middle East and Africa Alevis, Bahai, Berbers, Druze, Kurds, Yazidis Military History Terrorist groups- ideologies, intentions, and methods Conventional conflict and proxy war Approaches to national security, deterrence, and proliferation Governance and Economy Maintaining power- elections, patronage, coercion Political and economic reform movements Economy and state corruption Dealing with bounty: oil, gas and other resources Faith Islamism Islamic heterodoxy Islamic reform movements Shia/Sunni rivalry Iran Current political affairs Center vs. periphery and Persians vs. minorities Traditional approaches to domestic rule and empire Expressing opposition- protest, culture, youth, migration, violence   The deadline to submit is April 15, 2022. Contact ASMEA at info@asmeascholars.org for questions on the application process.   Link to apply/more info: 2022 Research Grant Program (asmeascholars.org) Read more

Gender sensitive institutional structures and policies. Using Evidence and data to #BreakTheBiasEducation Sub Saharan Africa (ESSA), European Women Rectors Association (EWORA) and the International Association of Universities (IAU) have come together for International Women Day 2022 to launch a global conversation on women in leadership in education, with a special focus on Europe and Africa. The focus of this initial conversation is gender-sensitive institutional structures and policies.During the webinar, evidence and data from research will be shared, including findings from the ESSA The State of Women Leading Report, the European She figures 2021 - Statistics on Gender in Research and Innovation by EWORA and information from the IAU World Higher Education Database (WHED).University leaders and organisations from Europe and Africa will present gender equality issues in higher education and research. This webinar will set the scene for a panel discussion on gender-sensitive institutional structures and policies to support female leadership development in education.   To register: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/2116457046730/WN_8ZGkWOc6QsauclNkXXfZAQ Read more

THE, in partnership with UNESCO IESALC (the International Institute for Higher Education in Latin America and the Caribbean) invite you to join five experts from five regions of the world to share how their universities are beacons of excellence in driving progress towards gender equality.On International Women’s Day, THE and UNESCO-IESALC will publish a new White Paper presenting a global analysis of exclusive data across 18 indicators, and five detailed case-studies that will help you support your own institution’s efforts to tackle gender inequality and discrimination.We will reveal regional examples which are making outstanding progress, and the possible factors and strategies behind their success.Gain access to the new research that is designed to guide strategic decision making towards promoting SDG5.We will explore:• Which regions are working towards greater equality when it comes to the average shares of female students across different subject areas• How universities are becoming more focused on improving women’s access to higher education than improving their outcomes and success rates• In which areas are women underrepresented within the university staff and academics.• What is a new emerging frontier in the fight for gender equality?Speakers:• Erika Adriana Loyo Beristáin, Head of the Gender Equality Unit, University of Guadalajara• Emma Deraze, sr data scientist, THE• Eileen Drew, director, Centre for Gender Equality and Leadership, Trinity College Dublin• Rosa Ellis, rankings reporter, THE• Victoria Galán-Muros, chief of research and analysis, UNESCO-IESALC• Kathryn Maud, assistant professor of women and gender studies, American University of Beirut• Bhavani Rao, director, Ammachi Labs and Unesco chair in gender equality and women’s empowerment, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham• Judith Waudo, director of the Center for Gender Equity and Empowerment, Kenyatta University   To register: https://timeshighereducation.zoom.us/webinar/register/6016439759437/WN_dT2C5wYDTWOojK8RoUzhkg?mc_cid=5d6cfd5ca7&mc_eid=7136de6cb6 Read more

To support action-based projects with a direct impact on society, the Elsevier Foundation is partnering with TWAS – the World Academy of Sciences to provide research grants for projects led by women scientists that address concrete problems in climate change through collaboration and interdisciplinary research.   The program is community-focused: a competitive, open call for applications will consider projects that respond to the needs of, and to the development requirements, of the applicants’ community and/or national or regional context in one of the 66 scientifically and technologically lagging country (STLCs). The TWAS-Elsevier Foundation Project Grants Programme for Gender Equity and Climate Action aims to: • Promote gender equality by creating opportunities for women in climate action projects that take them outside the lab, enabling them to deepen their scientific skills, while acquiring, through training, soft skills such as project management and leadership. • Respond to and tackle communities’ needs in ways that are in line with the principles of sustainable development, focusing on the brunt of climatic changes. • Effectively transfer knowledge from scientific research to real-life scenarios for practical and tangible change under the umbrella of the “climate action” SDG. Knowledge deriving from scientific research often suffers from not being applicable to real-life scenarios, especially in the Global South – slowing down tangible improvements. Greater progress in the livelihoods of individuals are achieved when research is done in cooperation with local populations, and when scientific know-how is effectively shared by those living in the same communities. UN Women reports that globally, one fourth of all economically active women are engaged in agriculture, where they regularly contend with climate consequences such as crop failure and experience an unequal burden of care for collecting increasingly scarce water and fuel.   The grants will support women researchers from the Global South to reinforce both scientific and soft skills such as project management, leadership and science diplomacy – with the aim of sustainably improving the livelihood of their entire community by supporting women’s wellbeing.   To learn more: https://elsevierfoundation.org/partnerships/inclusive-research/twas-women-climate-action-research/ Read more

Over the last century, girls, long ignored as sources of knowledge, have engaged in activism and creative endeavors to express their visions and aspirations for a future society inclusive of their needs. In the last decade a flourishing of girls’ creative agency and incisive voices has given rise to growing and vibrant scholarship on girlhoods and their politics, histories, economics, arts, and cultures. The establishment of Girlhood Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal in 2008 encouraged scholars to take girls’ lived experiences more seriously.   Girlhood studies provides a critical means to counter the historical tendency of feminist scholarship to center adult women and marginalize or even ignore girls. While recent scholarship has shifted from focusing on girls as largely vulnerable and in need of protection, most of the research has been about girlhood in the Global North. Notable exceptions include studies that highlight the resilience and agency of African girls (Moletsane et al. 2021; Mitchell and Moletsane 2018). Additionally, research on girlhoods by Corrie Decker (2010), Abosede George (2014), Sadiyya Haffejee et al. (2020), Jen Katshunga (2019), and Heather Switzer (2018) reflects a range of approaches that move beyond the focus on precarity in Africa. Ensuring that girls are seen to be knowers and narrators of their own stories is essential. In this issue we aim to bring together a diverse group of scholars in contributions that will analyze critically and present creatively the experiences and agency of girls and young women in Africa and its diasporas.           The focus here will be on the voices of girls in Africa and, more specifically, on how girls as active agents inform our understandings of girlhood and how colonial and post-colonial interventions have shaped and re-defined African girlhood through pseudo-scientific developmental models that were introduced to the continent via missionary education systems that have continued, largely, to operate in the twenty-first century. While contributions might examine how African girls negotiate cultural, gendered, racialized, and/or sexualized identities shaped by underlying issues of African self-determination, genocide, slavery, migration policies, violence, and colonialism we seek contributions that center girls’ perspectives, resistance, resilience, and innovation even in the midst of precarity and vulnerability. By turning questions about empowerment away from how we empower girls to those about how societies, institutions, and families can support the ways in which girls have empowered themselves and address the ways in which they have been ignored, we can better understand and deal with issues related to African girls in the twenty-first century.               Contributors to this special issue could address the need to theorize girlhoods across the vast geographies of Africa and problematize how these have been constructed and deployed as the justification for development interventions and anti-poverty alleviation programs. We are particularly interested in analyses engaging different feminisms and Afro-Indigenous studies as well as queer and trans studies, theories, and methods. Authors are invited to examine embodied, political, and conceptual artifacts produced by girls and young women living in Africa. Comparative studies are welcome as are individual case studies that highlight historical and locationally specific processes and events. We welcome contributions authored by young people who identify as girls. The following questions, among others, may be addressed. How can we problematize the very category of girl as a deeply colonial heteropatriarchal    construct? How do colonial politics of deservedness and biopolitics function to position African girls as targets of state violence? What influence have African girls had on policy or programs and to what extent have they been mere targets and objects of such policies and programs? Which methodologies enable or enhance girls’ participation in research and community (or institutional) development? What kinds of adaptive regimes, practices, and policies do African states deploy and how do these have an impact on girls’ bio-autonomy and shape their relationships with issues of subject formation, nationhood, violence, justice, and solidarity? What does disrupting the white, able, heteronormative categories of girlhood mean for analyses of girlhood and for queer, trans, and gender-fluid lives? What creative, grassroots, decolonizing, resurgent strategies have young women living in African countries taken up and with what outcomes Guest Editors This special issue is to be edited by Catherine Cymone Fourshey, Marla Jaksch, and Relebohile Moletsane. Please direct enquiries to africangirlhoods@gmail.com   Catherine Cymone Fourshey is an Associate Professor in History and International Relations at Bucknell University. Marla Jaksch is Professor and Barbara Meyers Pelson Chair in Faculty-Student Engagement/ Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at The College of New Jersey Relebohile Moletsane is Professor and John Langalibalele Dube Chair in Rural Education, University of KwaZulu-Natal.   Article Submission Abstracts are due by 15 March 2022 and should be sent to africangirlhoods@gmail.com Full manuscripts are due by 15 July 2022. Authors should provide a cover page giving brief biographical details (up to 100 words), institutional affiliation(s) and full contact information, including an email address. Articles may be no longer than 6,500 words including the abstract (up to 125 words), keywords (6 to 8 in alphabetical order with no duplication of words from the title), notes, captions, tables, and acknowledgements (if any), biographical details (taken from the cover page), and references. Images in a text count for 200 words each. Girlhood Studies, following Berghahn’s preferred house style, uses a modified Chicago Style. See http://journals.berghahnbooks.com/_uploads/ghs/girlhood-studies_style_guide.pdf If images are used, authors are expected to secure the copyright themselves and they are expected to follow IRB protocols and ethical research standards regarding girls and young women as subjects.   References Decker, Corrie 2010. “Reading, Writing, and Respectability: How Schoolgirls Developed Modern Literacies in Colonial Zanzibar.” International Journal of African Historical Studies 43(1): 89–114. George, Abosede A. 2014. Making Modern Girls: A History of Girlhood, Labor, and Social Development in Colonial Lagos. Athens, OH: Ohio University Press. Haffejee, Sadiyya, Astrid Treffry-Goatley, Lisa Wiebesiek, and Nkonzo Mkhize. 2020. “Negotiating Girl-led Advocacy: Addressing Early and Forced Marriage in South Africa.” Girlhood Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal 13 (2): 18–34. Kashunga, Jen. 2019. “Contesting Black Girlhood(s) beyond Northern Borders: Exploring a Black African Girl Approach.” In The Black Girlhood Studies Collection, ed. Aria S. Halliday, 45–79. Toronto, CA.: Women’s Press. Mitchell, Claudia, and Relebohile Moletsane 2018. Disrupting Shameful Legacies: Girls and Young Women Speak Back through the Arts to Address Sexual Violence. Leiden, NL: Brill Sense. Moletsane, Relebohile, Lisa Wiebesiek, Astrid Treffry-Goatley, and April Mandrona 2021. Ethical Practice in Participatory Visual Research with Girls: Transnational Approaches. New York, NY: Berghahn Books. Switzer, Heather D. 2018. When the Light is Fire: Maasai Schoolgirls in Contemporary Kenya. Champaign, IL: University of Illinois Press. Contact Info:  Catherine Cymone Fourshey is an Associate Professor in History and International Relations at Bucknell University. Marla Jaksch is Professor and Barbara Meyers Pelson Chair in Faculty-Student Engagement/ Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at The College of New Jersey Relebohile Moletsane is Professor and John Langalibalele Dube Chair in Rural Education, University of KwaZulu-Natal. Contact Email:  africangirlhoods@gmail.com URL:  https://journals.berghahnbooks.com/_uploads/ghs/GHS_cfp_AfricanGHS.pdf Read more

Since its re-establishment in 2000, the East African Community’s (EAC) integration and cooperation agenda has made significant strides over the previous two decades. However, in recent years, this progress has come up against a series of political challenges including a fragmented response to the Covid-19 pandemic, tensions between national governments, border closures, the endurance of non-tariff barriers and rising economic protectionism. Although some have drawn parallels between these trends and those that led to the collapse of the first EAC in 1977, there are reasons to not be overly fatalistic about the future prospects of regional integration East Africa. For one thing, intra-EAC trade has grown significantly over the last twenty years, creating economic linkages across the region and an imperative to retain (if not strengthen) the regional integration process. Moreover, while the ‘high-politics’ of the EAC has recently been defined by division, it is important not to lose sight of the fact that the ideals of regional cooperation continue to endure outside of official summits and directives. This conference aims to bring together academics, policymakers and stakeholders to take stock of the opportunities and enduring challenges facing the contemporary EAC integration agenda. In doing so, the conference will aim to take stock of the historical legacies of regional integration in East Africa, examining how the idea and practice of regionalism has evolved over time. It will also bring together experts and practitioners to offer insights into the future prospects and trajectory of the EAC. We are inviting paper abstracts for this conference in themes such as: The history of regionalism in East Africa – what are the continuities and changes between different periods of regional integration? The ideologies and ideas that sustain the East African regional integration project Cultural expressions of East African identity Regionalism and development in East Africa Participatory regionalism in East Africa – to what extent is the EAC’s regional integration agenda ‘people-centred’ and ‘private-sector’ driven? The EAC and continental integration initiatives (i.e. AfCFTA) Comparative regionalism – how does East African integration compare to other integration projects in Africa and across the world? The deadline to submit abstracts of up to 250 words is the 1st April 2022. The conference will be hosted by the British Institute in Eastern Africa (BIEA) in Nairobi, Kenya. It is hoped that the event will run in a hybrid format that will allow participants to attend either in person, at the BIEA, or online. Please note, however, due to potential disruption from Covid-19, the event may have to be moved to an online only format. Abstracts and general queries should be sent to: east.african.regionalism2022@gmail.com Contact Info:  Dr. Chris Vaughan and Dr. Peter O'Reilly School of Humanites and Social Sciences Liverpool John Moores University Contact Email:  east.african.regionalism2022@gmail.com Read more