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| Centre for African Studies (Oxford) | |
|---|---|
| Name | Centre for African Studies (Oxford) |
| Established | 1960s |
| Location | Oxford, United Kingdom |
| Parent institution | University of Oxford |
Centre for African Studies (Oxford) is an interdisciplinary research and teaching unit within the University of Oxford focused on African studies, African politics, African history and African societies. The centre convenes scholars, students and practitioners from across faculties including the Social Sciences Division, the Faculty of Oriental Studies, the African Studies Centre, and the Oxford Department of International Development to foster comparative research on Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya and Ethiopia. It engages with archives, museums and libraries such as the Bodleian Library, the Pitt Rivers Museum and the Rhodes House Library to support scholarship on decolonisation, postcolonialism and transnational networks.
The centre traces its intellectual lineage to postwar initiatives at the University of Oxford and to figures associated with the decolonisation era including connections to the Colonial Office, the Royal African Society and the British Academy. Early activities intersected with research on the Mau Mau Uprising, the Independence of Ghana, the End of Empire debates and the Angolan Civil War, while its archive work engaged with collections from the Imperial War Museum and the National Archives. Over decades the centre expanded alongside changes in Africanist scholarship involving scholars linked to the School of Oriental and African Studies, the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, the African Studies Association and the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa.
Governance is exercised through links with the University of Oxford's Social Sciences Division board, the Faculty of History, the African Studies subcommittee and college fellows from All Souls College, St Antony's College and Balliol College. The centre coordinates academic appointments with the Oxford Department of International Development, the Blavatnik School of Government and the School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography, while advisory input is drawn from trustees with affiliations to the British Academy, the Royal Society, the Leverhulme Trust and the Carnegie Corporation. Funding and administration interact with grant-holders from the Economic and Social Research Council, the Wellcome Trust and the Arts and Humanities Research Council.
Teaching links include graduate supervision across DPhil programmes in African Studies, doctoral training partnerships with the British Library and taught units that coordinate with the Faculty of Law, the Saïd Business School and the Department of Politics and International Relations. Research clusters cover comparative politics with case studies on Liberia, Sierra Leone, Uganda and Rwanda; historical studies on the Scramble for Africa, the Berlin Conference and the Boer Wars; and studies of urbanism in Lagos, Johannesburg, Accra and Dar es Salaam. Interdisciplinary projects bring together experts in public health who collaborate with the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, economists affiliated with the International Monetary Fund and development researchers working with the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa and the World Bank.
The centre sponsors seminars, lecture series and workshops in partnership with journals and presses such as the Journal of African History, African Affairs, Cambridge University Press and Oxford University Press. Events have featured invited speakers from the African Union, the Economic Community of West African States, the Southern African Development Community and NGOs like Oxfam and Amnesty International, as well as historians researching the Atlantic slave trade, the Trans-Saharan trade and the Indian Ocean world. Annual conferences, public lectures and policy briefings draw participants from universities including Harvard University, the University of Cape Town, Makerere University and the University of Nairobi.
Collaborative networks include formal ties with the Royal African Society, the African Studies Association (USA), the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, the Institute for Security Studies and the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs. The centre has partnered on fieldwork and archival projects with institutions such as the Institut Français, the Goethe-Institut, the Smithsonian Institution and the Aga Khan Foundation, and on digitisation initiatives with the British Library, the Wellcome Library and the Digital Library of Africa. Exchange programmes have linked scholars with the University of Lagos, Stellenbosch University, Cheikh Anta Diop University and Addis Ababa University.
Notable associates have included historians and political scientists who have contributed to Africanist scholarship and public policy: scholars previously affiliated with or visitantes from Harvard University, Yale University, Princeton University, the London School of Economics, Columbia University and the University of Chicago; notable regional experts from Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya and Ghana; and policy figures connected to the United Nations, the African Union and national ministries. Visiting fellows and alumni have gone on to positions at think tanks such as Chatham House, the International Crisis Group and the Brookings Institution, and to roles in diplomatic services, parliaments and international courts.