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

CALL FOR PAPERS   Africa’s natural environment is rich and diverse, ranging from its wildlife and plants to its land and resources. It is also one of the continents most severely affected by climate change, with increasingly erratic weather events adversely impacting biodiversity, agriculture and those living there. This conference will explore library and archive materials relating to Africa and the environment and how they are collected, catalogued, preserved and used in research and teaching. We would welcome papers relating to a range of media including documents and manuscripts, photographs, newspapers, historical printed collections, audio-visual material and born-digital material. Subjects might include: How the archives of individuals and organisations working on environmental issues are being preserved and made available How library and archive materials are used to chart and address climate change How collections are used to research renewable energy in Africa How current field research is being preserved and published How environmental challenges affect libraries and archives in Africa and how they respond Librarians, archivists and researchers are invited to submit abstracts of up to 350 words for consideration to Sarah Rhodes (sarah.rhodes@bodleian.ox.ac.uk) by 31 March 2022. http://scolma.org Read more

Stata is a complete and integrated data management software. It is fast, accurate, easy to use and provides all that can be considered as data science needs including data manipulation, visualization, statistics and automated reporting.   Date: March 23rd to June 15th 2022 (every Wednesday). Time: 5:00pm – 7:00pm WAT. Mode of delivery: ZOOM   Certificates shall be offered based on request and satisfactory level of participation during training.   Who can participate: Academics Researchers Students (Undergraduates & Postgraduates) Data Analysts & Scientists Civil Servants Entrepreneurs   Download training module here:  PILAF STATA TRAINING MODULE FACILITATORS Prof. O.E. Olubusoye Dr. O.A. Otekunrin     Registration closes 17th March, 2022. Register at PiLAF STATA Training Registration Form (google.com) 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

The Einstein Foundation Berlin has announced an international award to provide publicity for researchers and institutions seeking to improve the quality of research.Einstein Foundation Award for Promoting Quality in Research is the first award to recognize outstanding efforts that enhance the rigour, reliability, robustness, and transparency of research.To honour researchers and institutions whose work helps to advance the quality and robustness of research findings, awards worth €500,000 have been allotted across various categories.    Individual researchers or small teams of collaborating researchers can be nominated. The laureate will be awarded €200,000.   Governmental and non-governmental organizations, institutions, or other entities can apply or be nominated. The award-winning organization or institution will receive €200,000.    Early career researchers or small teams of collaborating researchers can submit a project proposal that seeks to foster research quality and value for an award of €100,000   Nominations and applications close on April 30, 2022   Apply now: Award – Einstein Foundation Berlin 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 Einstein Foundation Award for Promoting Quality in Research aims to provide recognition and publicity for outstanding efforts that enhance the rigor, reliability, robustness, and transparency of research in the natural sciences, the social sciences, and the humanities, and stimulate awareness and activities fostering research quality among scientists, institutions, funders, and politicians. To acknowledge the outstanding role early career researchers (ECRs) have in promoting research quality, ECRs will be invited to propose projects that foster research quality and value. Projects will be competitively selected for funding and internationally showcased.   The Einstein Foundation Award honors individual researchers from all fields, as well as collaborations, institutions, and organizations (NGO or governmental), that have made substantial contributions to fostering research integrity through outstanding measures that increase the quality and reliability of research, e.g. by improving transparency, access to research results (‘Open Science’), overcoming the fragmentation of research (‘Team science’); have developed and/or implemented quality-improving interventions, governance and policies; have delivered groundbreaking research on research to identify opportunities for improving research practice, have generated evidence for potential interventions, and have developed metrics and policies that incentivize the adoption of best possible research practices; have developed innovative approaches that foster research on research integrity, have conducted and designed novel measures or programs preventing misconduct and safeguarding validity and reliability in science and research; have identified and addressed systemic factors leading to improved research integrity and more responsible research; have performed or supported studies on the reproducibility of scientific results; have made a significant contribution to the teaching of good research practice; have identified research standards and incentives that directly or indirectly constrain the quality of research (e.g. reliance on purely quantitative output measures) and have designed more adequate means to assess the quality of research and researchers; have demonstrated exceptional integrity when facing difficult circumstances and/or conflicts of interest; have significantly contributed to increasing the diversity of research by taking into view aspects such as gender, race/ethnicity, geography, career stage, etc.; guarantee the long-term archiving of data and publication (generation-spanning archives); or that seek to make such developments and/or contributions in future Award Categories The Einstein Foundation will honor successful candidates in the following three categories:   Individual Award: Individual researchers or small teams of collaborating researchers can be nominated. The laureate will be awarded €200,000.   Institutional Award: Governmental and non-governmental organizations, institutions, or other entities can apply or be nominated. The award-winning organization or institution will receive €200,000. If governmental organizations or institutions are the recipients of the award, they will not receive any funds in addition to the award itself. Non-Governmental organizations can be publicly funded; although government representatives may sit on an NGO’s governing board(s), governments cannot unilaterally determine the use of the organization’s funds, its structure, or its activities.   Early Career Award: Early career researchers or small teams of collaborating researchers can submit a project proposal that seeks to foster research quality and value for an award of €100,000. Eligibility and Requirements This award is open to any researcher or group of researchers, organizations, or institutions involved in science and research, education, and scholarship. To be eligible for the early career award, candidates must hold a doctorate or have equivalent research experience, and should have been an independent researcher for no longer than five years.   Nominations of individual or small teams should include a nomination letter, a CV, and a list of relevant publications of each nominee, as well as letters of support from eminent experts and former trainees.   Applications or nominations of organizations and institutions should consist of a nomination or application letter, as well as letters of support from eminent experts.   Early career researchers or small teams of early career researchers should submit a letter of motivation, a project proposal, as well as a CV and a list of relevant publications for each team member. Find out more about the nomination and application requirements in the different categories.   Learn more: https://www.einsteinfoundation.de/en/award/?sap-outbound-id=DA302B06ABF7EE060E3DEC6F13812012898900E7&utm_source=hybris-campaign&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=000_SDR8597_0000020206_CONR_AWARD_APPL_GL_SCON_EFA22_NomEFA22&utm_content=EN_internal_38102_20220301 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

Fish4Thought Event:Gender-inclusive innovations in aquatic food systems A virtual event to celebrate International Women's Day and highlight the importance of gender-sensitive approaches to empower women actors in aquatic food systems.Tuesday, 8 March 202215:00-16:20 (UTC+8) / 08:00-09:20 (UTC+1) Click here to register and save your spot Growing evidence points to gender equality playing a key role in aquatic food systems’ crucial contributions to achieving the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. However, despite recent progress in advancing gender equality and women’s empowerment, inequity and barriers still remain in most parts of the world.In this upcoming Fish4Thought virtual event held in conjunction with International Women’s Day, WorldFish's research experts will come together to highlight gender-sensitive approaches that empower women actors and ensure gender-equal opportunities in food, nutrition and income security in aquatic food systems.The presentations will focus on WorldFish’s years of research work in designing and implementing gender-inclusive innovations in response to climate and COVID-19 impacts. The panel of experts will also share regional innovations in aquatic food systems to increase the visibility, agency and leadership capabilities of women in small-scale, artisanal fisheries and aquaculture sectors in Asia, Africa and the Pacific.    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