University of Basel

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Interdisciplinary Areas Studies and Transdisciplinary ResearchResearch Network Africa

Basel has become a centre for Africa-related research. This development is rooted in a long research tradition at various institutions in the region and has been fostered by the University of Basel's strong commitment to research on, in, with and for Africa. Our Centre acts as an interface for exchange between disciplines, faculties and institutions outside the University.

Six key areas of activities (KAAs) have been defined on the basis of the competence and fields of research at the University of Basel and its partner institutions. In addition, each affiliated subject area, department and institution has its own research profile.

Key areas of activities

Research in the five key areas will help to close important gaps in our understanding of the processes of rapid change in Africa, provide opportunities to tackle conceptual and methodological challenges in interdisciplinary and disciplinary research, and contribute to social development on the continent.

Departments and partner organisations

The Research Network Africa is based on the competences and activities of different research groups, subject areas and departments at the University of Basel and at various partner organisations. They all contribute to research on, in, with and for Africa, as well as to teaching and training at ZASB.

Recent publications

book cover
/ Research

Publication: "Worlding Home. An Urban Ethnography of Peacekeeping Camps in Goma, DRC"

Maren Larsen's book interrogates the social, spatial, and architectural lifeworlds of United Nations (UN) peacekeepers accommodated in contingent camps throughout Goma, the capital of North Kivu in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

book cover
/ Research

Publikation: "BildWelt Mission. Ästhetische Perspektiven christlicher Transkulturationsgeschichte"

Der von Andreas Heuser mit herausgegebene Sammelband bietet innovative methodische Zugänge zur Missionsgeschichte anhand von Bildmaterial und materieller Kultur, leuchtet missionswissenschaftliche Horizonte Interkultureller Theologie aus…

African Thresholds
/ Research

Publication: "African Thresholds: Borders and Places of Passage in Africa, c.1450 to Present"

Ettore Morelli is the editor of a volume that questions the concept of border. Arguing that a border is a threshold made to be crossed, this book studies places of passage from all over the African continent. In a time when state borders…

cover page
/ Research

Publication: "‘Peace-kept’ urbanism: Ephemerality and endurance in eastern DRC"

Inspired by literature from southern urbanism and camp urbanism that focuses on temporal aspects of the built environment, Maren Larsen's article traces the various spatio-temporal horizons through which peacekeeping camps come in and out…

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