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WATER, ENERGY, AND THE ENVIRONMENT
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UNLEASH Rwanda

Would you like to make a difference in your community? Are you passionate about the Sustainable Development Goals? Join the next UNLEASH Innovation Lab in Rwanda, a thriving start-up hub on the African continent. The UNLEASH Innovation Lab in Rwanda will take place from December 2 to December 8, and changemakers aged between 18-35 will have the opportunity to apply for this transformative (and fully-funded!) experience until July 19. During the Lab, 1,000 young participants from all over the world will come up with new ideas and co-create innovative initiatives through human-centered design thinking – a process that focuses on the real needs of the people that the solution caters to. Experienced facilitators and experts will guide the participants through different stages of the innovation process. Who can apply? The Innovation Lab in Rwanda is open to young people between the ages of 18 and 35. We select participants that are: Passionate and committed to solving the world’s sustainability challenges Creative and have an innovative mindset Enthusiastic about working together with peers and experts Able to understand and communicate in English Apply Now: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdKQHPtjR2UTrJjzxFPhc8MkZOmRMjFeOrp8jac5JQZ4tTNyQ/viewform Learn More: https://unleash.org/rwanda/

By: Raquel Acosta

CULTURE AND SOCIETY
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CFP: Summer School ‘service – servility – servitude’.

SERVICE–SERVILITY–SERVITUDE CALL FOR PAPERS—SUMMER SCHOOL Labour history has long been framed through the ‘free/unfree’ divide. Moreover, slavery as well as wage labour, indentured work and convict labour, as well as other labour relations, have traditionally been studied in isolation from each other. In the last decades, however, labour historians have highlight- ed the need to move beyond the ‘free/unfree’ divide (van der Linden and Brass, 1997; van der Linden 2008), expanded the range of labour relations un- der study, and insisted on the relevance of a proces- sual perspective (De Vito, Schiel and van Rossum, 2020; Schiel and Heinsen, forthcoming). Especially the latter approach highlights the complex making of labour coercion, and offers the possibility to re- think key concepts, e.g. the ‘working class’, and pe-riodisations in labour history. Building on these new insights, the summer school foregrounds the potential of the concepts of ‘service’, ‘servility’ and ‘servitude’ to provide further entry points into this expanded labour history. At the same time, it seeks to uncover the historical importance of service and servile forms of labour that have been marginalized through discourses that focus on ‘free/ unfree’ labour, or have been addressed within isolat- ed fields of research. We think of labour regimes as diverse as family la- bour or domestic service, we look at shopworkers sharing work-spaces as well as close social ties in an Asian ‘bazaar’, we address inmates who worked in private households, or doing service as a pun- ishment for certain crimes, workers in ‘informal’ backyard manufacturing units, farm hands living on the margins of agricultural households, or tributary and enslaved workers tied to service provision with- in the relationship to their ‘employers’ or polity. The triad of ‘service – servility – servitude’ operates as a structuring element particularly for types of work marked by high socio-spatial proximity with capital, one that provides an alternative facet for the inquiry into labour relations and enriches our understanding of the complexities of labour coercion. Thus, we are not only expanding the scope of current discourses on labour, but also the theoretical – more often than not binary – framework often applied. Using the triad ‘service – servility – servitude’ opens up new perspectives in the study of labour, and will consider overlooked histories. We seek to bring together early-career and estab- lished scholars working in the field from across the world, specifically highlighting the implications of studies on and from the Global South towards our understanding of global modernities in labour re- gimes without restricting our inquiry by excluding the contexts of the Global North. The summer school is designed to allow PhD students not only to present their own work, but also to engage with theoretical and methodological questions in training groups organized and moderated by established scholars. Reading sessions of key texts from diverse regions, small reading groups and discussing writing meth- ods will provide a space for students to openly dis- cuss challenges faced during research and writing phases. Participants are encouraged to suggest or provide a paper or a source which inspired their re- search. The summer school will be held at the Universidade Federal Fluminense, Niterói-Brazil. It is open to grad-uate students in history, sociology, anthropology, and archaeology, based in any part the world. We welcome paper proposals: •focusing on any geographical and chrono- logical context; • addressing different aspects of the triad ‘ser- vice – servility – servitude’; •exploring aspects like race, gender, sexuali- ty, and even an intersectionality perspective in connection to the applicants’ research themes. Please submit your paper proposal (approx. 500 words), abstract, a short summary of you argument, current affiliation and short bio-note latest by 15 July, 2023 to: paulocruzterra@id.uff.br Subject: Summer school: Service – Servility – Servitude Candidates with PhD funding are expected to fund their trips. However, candidates without funding can apply in their application for support of their travel expenses. You will be informed about the outcome of your application by 15 August 2023. Successful applicants will be expected to pre-circulate their papers among the participants by 30 October 2023. For further information and queries, please contact: Paulo Cruz Terra - paulocruzterra@id.uff.br Michaela Dimmers - dimmers@mwsindia.org Organizers Paulo Cruz Terra, Universidade Federal Fluminense, Niterói-Brazil Christian G. De Vito, Bonn Center for Development and Slavery Studies, Bonn, GermanyMichaela Dimmers, Max Weber Forum for South Asian Studies, Delhi, India and Centre for Modern Indian Studies, Göttingen, GermanySebastian Schwecke, Max Weber Forum for South Asian Studies, Delhi, India Nitin Varma, Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/networks.h-net.org/user/login?destination=node*12878235__;Lw!!HXCxUKc!xG5cbwfRnov-_t-LpqbdmKgrFR4aMSR-jpJ-WKppfFGWfbc_46W3Wl5bm0vTb77mKSxcc-a89NQmldaz8PKLLeW2UPnw$

By: Raquel Acosta

CULTURE AND SOCIETY

Call for Papers: Colonialism and Development

Yearbook for the History of Global Development ed. Iris Borowy, George Bob-Milliars, Nicholas Ferns, and Corinna R. Unger Colonialism and Development Joseph Hodge, Miguel Bandeira Jerónimo, and Sarah Stockwell, coords. Call for Papers The historical understanding of the multifaceted trajectories of development – as a set of contested discourses, as multiple institutional complexes and as a heterogenous repertoire of policies and practices – has evolved significantly in the past few years. This scholarship has included a fresh historical assessment of ‘colonial development’, critically engaging with its varying chronologies and dynamics; geographies and actors; motivations and ends; and its repertoires and consequences, planned and unintended. We now have a rich literature that engages with the diverse contexts, dynamics and problems of development and its intersection with other major historical phenomena of the twentieth century, such as the institutionalization of international organizations, the intensification of urbanization and industrialization, the widening of globalizing dynamics and global integration, decolonization, and the emergence of the ‘Cold War’ and the ´Third World’. This volume aims to register many of these historiographical achievements specifically as they relate to colonialism offering a critical overview of existing scholarship and documenting its variety and richness, while also probing existing chronologies (e.g., the colonial/postcolonial) and geographies of development. While engaging with established fields of interest (for example, those related to international development; the relationship between science and development; and the connected histories of politics and development in a context of global decolonization), the volume seeks to open up new avenues of enquiry by adopting a more capacious approach to ‘colonial development’. It proposes to do this, first, by incorporating a wide range of empires and sites of development and exploring their connected histories, focusing on the circulation, and selective appropriation, of ideas, knowledge, human resources, and of capital and goods associated with development. Secondly, the volume will foreground a greater variety of state actors than usual (the military, for example) as well as the non-state actors that alongside colonial, international, and trans- and inter-imperial organizations were key players in the historical unfolding of development in colonial contexts. These non-state actors include missionaries, churches, NGOS, and philanthropic agencies; and banks, commercial organizations, and especially, mining and plantation companies. Finally, the volume will explore development in all its different modalities. These might include representations and other cultural expressions of development (from literature and film to advertising); the techniques, technologies and the business of development (including infrastructures, patent history, and companies); ecological issues (from environmental consequences to the birth of ‘sustainable development’); the gendered dynamics associated with developmental discourses and practices; or the role played by racism and forms of racialization in the formulation and enactment of development policies (including in relation to population politics, and the spatialization of difference and welfare policies). The expansive approach taken by our volume will be underpinned by two methodological goals. The first is to promote the cross-fertilization of historiographies focused on (colonial) development and those dealing with human rights, humanitarianism, philanthropy, welfare, security, and business. For example, contributions to the volume might explore the intersection between developmental projects and educational and welfare schemes (e.g., housing or public health). Second, the edited collection seeks to incorporate local voices and arguments, expanding the number of individuals and communities (men and women) understood as contributing to the dynamics of development (e.g., farmers, workers, ‘traditional’ authorities and white settlers, diverse ‘middleman groups’, and ‘experts’). It will seek to recover their inspirations and expectations, resources and agency, aims, solidarities and commitments. In short, a (plural) view from the ‘global south’, including its articulation with wider individual and institutional networks (in the ‘global north’, but also in other geographies of the ‘global south’) is fundamental to new, critical histories of (colonial) development. The editors would welcome contributions dealing with these questions and addressing the following themes (including contributions that connect two or more themes), to be published at the series Yearbook for the History of Global Development (De Gruyter: https://www.degruyter.com/serial/yhgd-b/html?lang=en#volumes ), in early 2025: (1) Genealogies of colonial development: chronologies and periodizations (2) Geographies colonial development: the spatialities, scales, and sites of developmentalism (3) The internationalization of (colonial) development: national, international, transnational, inter-imperial and trans-imperial, connected histories of development (4) Trajectories of colonial development: experts and expertise, networks and careers; (5) Cultures and manifestations of colonial development: representations and materialities of development (6) Gendered development: women and the historical dynamics of developmentalism (7) The political economy of development: techniques, technologies, and the business of developmentalism (8) The sciences of development: knowledge, institutions, practices (9) The racialization of development: race and racism in the idioms and repertoires of development (10) The agents of developmentalism: state and non-state actors (11) Ecologies of development: environmental problems and consequences (12) Development and the ‘social question’ in colonial contexts: connected histories of welfare, education, humanitarianism, human rights, housing. (13) The infrastructures of development: communication, energy, logistics (14) Repressive developmentalisms: the intersections between security and development If interested, please send your proposal (title, abstract of 300–500 words, and a 2-page CV) to colonialism.development@gmail.com by August 30, 2023.

By: Raquel Acosta

CULTURE AND SOCIETY
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CFA: Prize: Queer African Studies Association Prize for Best Published Scholarly Essay by a Graduate

Articles published in 2022 are eligible for the QASA prizes: The Queer African Studies Association Prize for Best Published Scholarly Essay by a Graduate Student The Queer African Studies Association Prize for Best Published Scholarly Essay by a Junior Scholar To nominate, use this form https://forms.gle/X1BoufgL5R4ZkZxS6 (self-nominations are encouraged). The full information is: These two prizes are awarded for the best published essays (i.e., journal articles or chapters in a multi-author volume) to appear in a scholarly publication (broadly defined, including peer-reviewed journals and university press books but not limited to them) in the previous calendar year (e.g., online or in print between January 1, 2022, to December 31, 2022) in the field of queer African studies (broadly defined, including essays within any discipline, on any topic, on any African region, people, culture, etc.). The prizes go to, respectively, graduate students (at the time of the essay’s publication) and junior scholars (those who are, at the time of the essay’s publication, postdocs, adjuncts, independent scholars, activists, visiting untenured professors, or untenured faculty at the time of publication). Nominees need not be QASA or ASA members. The QASA Prize Committee selects the best essay from among the nominated essays. Essays must be nominated using the authorized Google Form at https://forms.gle/YcN93ACtzEeYhEV57. The award winners will be announced at the annual African Studies Association conference every November. Award winners will receive a small cash prize.

By: Raquel Acosta

EDUCATION
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CFP: AIMS Dissertation Workshop, submissions due August 1, 2023

Announcing the 2023 AIMS Graduate Student Writing Workshop October 5th and 6th University of Maryland - College Park The American Institute for Maghrib Studies (AIMS) invites doctoral and masters candidates to its annual Dissertation Workshop scheduled for October 5th and 6th hosted by the Department of History at the University of Maryland - College Park. The workshop provides the opportunity for current doctoral or master candidates to present, discuss, and receive valuable feedback on work related to North Africa. Accepted applicants will submit a piece of writing from their dissertations or theses at any stage (prospectus, dissertation chapter, or article draft). Participants will be organized into panels to present their work and read and discuss other participants’ work. Scholars working on North African studies in a variety of disciplines will offer feedback, as well as perspectives on publishing, job market conditions, and other topics germane to professional academic development. The workshop further affords the chance to meet, learn from, and develop relationships with colleagues in the field. Graduate students from all disciplines are welcome. In the past they have included: history, political science, sociology, anthropology, archaeology, comparative literature, psychology, public health, musicology, and more. Some funding will be available for travel expenses and lodging. Additional details: This workshop is open only to AIMS members. To become a student member ($50) or to renew your membership, please visit www.aimsnorthafrica.org or email Terry Ryan at aims@aimsnorthafrica.org To apply, please submit your contact information, CV, and a short (300-word) abstract on your paper via this Google Form: https://forms.gle/iYcw7HjWCY85LDrP9 The deadline for submissions is August 1, 2023. Selected participants will be notified via email by August 15th and asked to submit a chapter, prospectus, or article draft for review by September 15th. Please share this announcement with interested colleagues and friends! If you have any questions, please contact Caroline Angle Maguire at cangle@umd.edu. This event is co-sponsored by the American Institute for Maghrib Studies and the Department of History at University of Maryland - College Park. https://aimsnorthafrica.org/annual-dissertation-workshop/

By: Raquel Acosta

CULTURE AND SOCIETY
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The Unilateral Proclamation of Independence of Guinea-Bissau: Fifty Years Later (1973-2023)

Call for Papers International Conference: Online and In-Person Lisbon, 22-23 September 2023 Venue: NOVA University of Lisbon, Portugal In January 1963, the PAIGC (Partido Africano para a Independência da Guiné e Cabo Verde – African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cabo Verde) engaged in an armed struggle against Portuguese colonial rule in Guinea-Bissau. Soon afterwards, the movement started to claim control over part of the Guinean territory, the so-called liberated areas. From 1965 onwards, liberated areas became a key concept and one of the linchpins of the PAIGC diplomacy and were linked by the movement to the attempt to establish a proto-state through state-building programs to provide health, economic, educational, technical, judiciary, and administrative assistance to the local populations. The movement conceived the liberated areas and state-building programs to fit into contemporary paradigms of statehood and to be used as means to gain the support of formal allies and informal networks of solidarity, as well as to place internationally the struggle and the demand for independence of Guinea and Cabo Verde. This becomes evident in the way the PAIGV endeavoured to delegitimize the Portuguese rule and to convince the international community that the situation in Guinea was comparable to an independent state with a portion of its territories, namely the urban areas, occupied by foreign armed forces. Claiming that Portugal was no longer capable of ruling over most of the Guinean territory, the PAIGC leader, Amílcar Cabral, started in May 1968 to contemplate the unilateral proclamation of independence as part of his strategy to win the war. The proclamation was postponed several times and only in the early 1970s the idea came to fruition. The progress of the armed struggle coupled with the United Nations (UN) visiting mission to Guinea, held between 2 and 8 April 1972, became a strong stimulus to the intention of unilaterally proclaiming independence. After securing recognition by the UN as the sole and authentic representative of the Guinean population, the PAIGC held elections to the People’s National Assembly and established the Republic of Guinea-Bissau on 24 September 1973. Soon, many countries recognized the unilateral declaration of independence, and 50 UN member states requested a General Assembly debate on the situation in the territory. From the beginning, the intention behind the request was clear since the wording of the issue in the agenda reproduced the PAIGC rhetoric of “illegal occupation by Portuguese military forces of certain sectors of the Republic of Guinea-Bissau and acts of aggression committed by them against the people of the Republic.” Resolution 3061 (XXVIII), of 2 November 1973, approved by the General Assembly took the independence of Guinea-Bissau for granted, although Portugal denied the existence of the Republic and argued that it did not meet the criteria of a nation. Nevertheless, the resolution only welcomed the accession of the people of Guinea-Bissau to independence, failing to recognize the formation of a new sovereign state. This was a symptom of how divisive the recognition of the Republic of Guinea-Bissau was for member states, with the United States and the United Kingdom threatening to use the veto power in case of a request for admission at the UN. No attempt was made for the membership of the Republic at the UN, but resolution 3061 (XXVIII) deeply influenced the future of the independence struggle in Guinea-Bissau. The document established that since the PAIGC held control over part of the territory, a unilateral proclamation of independence was a legitimate action. Moreover, the resolution refused Portugal’s claim to represent the colony, branding the country as an aggressor that was violating the sovereignty and integrity of an independent state. The proclamation of independence significantly increased the international notoriety of the PAIGC and of Guinea-Bissau. The event played a crucial role in the process of recognition by Portugal of the independence of Guinea-Bissau that occurred on 10 September 1974. Overall, the Guinean anticolonial liberation struggle transformed the face of the world politics: it worked as a catalyst for the regime change in Portugal. It was one the driving forces behind the Carnation Revolution (25 April 1974), that brought the Estado Novo dictatorship to an end. The Guinean anticolonial struggle also influenced the whole Portuguese decolonization in Africa and opened pathways to establish state partnerships and placed Guinea-Bissau as a global political actor. This is why, as a local historical fact, the proclamation of Guinea independence should be scrutinized through the lens of connected histories, to consider its local, regional, international and transnational dimensions and scopes in order to shed light on the multiple aspects, dynamics, impacts and ramifications the event generated in Africa and elsewhere. Although the unilateral proclamation of independence has been highlighted in the scholarship regarding the struggle for the independence of Guinea-Bissau, there is a need to explore the subject in greater depth. To expand the parameters of inquiry on the Guinea-Bissau rise to statehood (and taking into account the upcoming 50th anniversary of the Unilateral Proclamation of Independence), the Institute of Contemporary History–NOVA University of Lisbon and the CEIS 20–University of Coimbra will organize an international conference to be held online and in-person on 22 and 23 September 2023. Proposals for 20-minute presentations on issues related to the unilateral proclamation of independence will be accepted, including but not limited to the following topics: -comparison with other cases of unilateral declarations of independence; -the PAIGC’s strategies for internal legitimacy and international recognition of the unilateral declaration; -the recognition of the state of Guinea-Bissau by other countries around the globe; -how the proclamation impacted the work of networks of international solidarity with the PAIGC; -the intersection of the unilateral proclamation with the Cold War and the Third-Worldism dynamics; -the narratives about the proclamation of the state of Guinea-Bissau created by different actors (journalists, filmmakers, writers, artists, diplomats, and so on); -the reactions of Portuguese authorities; -how the Guinea-Bissau’s unilateral proclamation contributed to the Carnation Revolution and to the end of Portuguese colonial rule; -the recognition of the proclamation by Portugal after 25 April 1974; -the transfer of powers after the recognition and the relations of Guinea-Bissau with neighboring countries, namely Senegal and Guinea-Conakry; -the impacts of the proclamation on the negotiations for the independence of Cabo Verde and the other Portuguese African colonies. Abstracts of presentations (300 words) and biographical notes (250 words) should be sent to: unilateralindependence@gmail.com Deadline for submission of abstracts: 30 June Notification of acceptance: 30 July Working language: Portuguese, English and French. The organizers foresee the publication of the communications. Organizing Committee Aurora Almada e Santos – IHC-IN2PAST-NOVA University of Lisbon Julião Soares Sousa – CEIS 20-University of Coimbra Víctor Barros – École des Hautes Études Hispanique et Ibérique–Casa de Velázquez and IHC- IN2PAST-NOVA University of Lisbon Scientific Committee Carlos Cardoso – Center of Social Studies Amílcar Cabral Rui Jorge Semedo – National Institute of Studies and Research Odete Semedo – National Institute of Studies and Research Miguel de Barros – Center of Social Studies Amílcar Cabral Patrícia Godinho – Federal University of Bahia P. Khalil Saucier – Bucknell University Read more or reply

By: Raquel Acosta

CULTURE AND SOCIETY
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Call for papers "Women and the history of state building in postcolonial African countries"

Conference - 6-7 June 2024 - Department of African Studies - University of Vienna, Austria As African countries became independent, being represented in state institutions was a political goal for many women, but undoing the legacy of colonial politics and gaining public visibility in the political field was no easy task. Despite serious difficulties and challenges, women vied for offices, campaigned, talked and wrote about politics, voted, and expressed their ideas within various institutions (organizations, political party, unions, local and national assemblies…). They were strategic actors in the processes of postcolonial state building. Yet, their history has remained confined to a separate section of African politics, the “women’s section”. While African political history has long been dominated by male actors, the history of African women in politics has been primarily written from the perspective of grassroots politics and women’s role in social and economic development projects. A new wave of scholarship has recently begun to address this discrepancy in the historiography, with scholars exploring the ways women have challenged established political orders “from the top”, from creative writing to frontal opposition to presidential rule (see for example (Tchouta Mougoué, 2019; Musila, 2020; Adima 2022). This literature shows that African women’s politics must be placed at the heart of narratives of state building, party politics, governance and presidential rule, that political narratives need to be complexified, concepts rethought, and that new sources must be sought to acknowledge African women’s complex modes of political imagination, action, and language.Building on this trend, this conference aims to retrieve histories of African women’s contribution to the postcolonial politics of state building. Who were the women who vied for positions of power, how/why did they campaign (or were appointed), for which ideas? What did they achieve during their political mandates, which challenges did they face? What did they do afterwards, what impact did they have? Which sources are available to document their stories? What are the methodological challenges that emerge when retrieving these sources and/or writing these histories? Case studies focusing on specific leaders, historical periods and/or countries are welcome. Papers may explore (but are not confined to) the following themes: · Documenting generations of African female politicians: pioneers, outsiders, through the lens of elite reproduction… · Documenting women’s modes of action in elite politics: via state and non-state organizations; informal and formal networks; African women’s roles in connecting multiple political spaces: at home, in local, national, or international politics. · Documenting the lives of non-conventional actors and the politics of silencing, cooptation, or amnesia. · Sources & Methodologies to retrieve women’s postcolonial political history; oral, visual, and/or material sources; personal testimonies. · Political languages: use of symbolic political languages (motherhood, politicization of the body…); how precolonial forms of politics inform African women’s postcolonial politics/activism; feminist discourses (applying a longue durée perspective). · Conceptual reflections: exploring the politics of “empowerment” and “disempowerment”; “women’s political space”… Please send an abstract (250 words max) and a short biography (100 words) to womenafricanhistory2024@univie.ac.at before 15th October 2023. Limited funding is available to cover hotel and travel costs for participants based in African countries. Please indicate in your proposal if you require financial assistance. Thank you!

By: Raquel Acosta