CRG African Urban Dynamics
The rapid pace of urbanization across the African continent places Africa at the center of global urban development in the coming decades. African cities now garner increased attention from scholars, practitioners, and policymakers. The enhanced focus on urban Africa – as place(s), practice(s), and concept(s) – encompasses a range of (inter)disciplinary themes no longer constrained to specific geographic boundaries. The study of African cities, and urban processes more broadly, is now not only put in comparative conversation with other locales around the world, but has a growing role in driving debates, old and new, across scholarly, policy, and practitioner fields.
Established in 2020, the African Urban Dynamics CRG thus arrives at an exciting moment in urban scholarship, as Africanist scholars play a leading role in the study of cities. The CRG seeks to coalesce researchers working on African cities under a unified thematic umbrella in order to put scholars embedded in divergent fields in dialogue with one another, as a means to innovate new projects across disciplines and to function as a network that will guide scholarship on urban Africa for years to come. We further seek to highlight the ways that innovative research can inform dynamic new rethinking of teaching practice, embedding cutting-edge research in the classroom in support of creative pedagogies, and expanding opportunities for students at all levels at institutions within and outside of the AEGIS network.
Conveners
Jennifer Hart, Associate Professor, Department of History, Wayne State University, jennifer.hart4@wayne.edu
Stephen Marr, Senior Lecturer, Department of Global Political Studies, Malmö University, stephen.marr@mau.se
Patience Mususa, Senior Researcher, Nordic Africa Institute, patience.mususa@nai.uu.se
Kenny Cupers, Professor, Department of Urban Studies, University of Basel, kenny.cupers@unibas.ch
Resources
Follow the African Urban Dynamics Facebook page for regular announcements and opportunities.
The CRG co-hosted a virtual book launch with the Nordic Africa Institute on March 16, 2022, featuring new work by Mile Larmer and Patience Mususa. The authors were joined by chair Prof. Eleanor Fisher (NAI) and discussants Prof. Karen Tranberg Hansen (Northwestern University) and Dr. Stephen Marr (Malmö University). Access the recording here.
The CRG hosted a virtual conversation about Garth Myers' new book, "Rethinking Urbanism: Lessons from Postcolonialism and the Global South", featuring commentary by Armelle Choplin, Martin Oteng-Ababio, Jennifer Robinson, and Jonathan Silver. Access the recording here.
Upcoming Events
Join the AEGIS African Urban Dynamics CRG and the Global Urban History Project on April 7, 2022, 2:00pm (UCT) for a "Dream Conversation" on "Urban Theory from the Global South, featuring moderator Abdou-Maliq Simone (Urban Institute, University of Sheffield) and panelists Wangui Kimari (University of Cape Town), Prince Guma (British Institute in East Africa, Nairobi), Anwesha Ghosh (National Law School of Indian University, Bengaluru), and Rafael Soares Goncalves (Pontificiao Universidade Católica do Rio De Janeiro)
How to Join
We are open to all researchers working on urban issues in Africa. Please send an inquiry to: africanurbandynamics@gmail.com.
Please include your name, position, institutional affiliation, and 5-7 keywords identifying main areas of research.