Submission deadline: July 15, 2025.
The 4th edition of the Interdisciplinary Congress of African Studies (online/hybrid, in Cluj-Napoca) aims to bring together specialists in African studies to analyze political transformations in Africa and the continent’s current political and societal dynamics. As in the three previous editions, the proceedings of COAFRO25 will be conducted in French and English, with bilingual and monolingual panels.
This year’s edition will focus (primarily, but not exclusively) on three main thematic areas.
• Under thematic area (A), we echo the scientific concerns of the “Water and Land for Well-Being in Africa” cluster (Sustainable Water and Land Resource Management for Human Well-Being – Africa-Europe CoRE) regarding the increasingly complex relationship between climate change, access to water and land resources, and the diversification and intensification of social, economic, and political conflicts. We invite interested contributors to submit proposals on related topics, approached from a single- or multidisciplinary perspective. A more specific call for contributions for this panel is attached to this general call.
• Thematic area (B) will bring together proposals exploring how the revolution brought about by the explosion of new forms of communication and the widespread use of social media has profoundly disrupted the political and social frameworks of African societies. We encourage proposals addressing the theoretical and methodological aspects of the study of the transformation of communication and social media, as well as those focusing on one or more case studies.
• Thematic area (C) will consist of a broader exploration of the new wave of democratic challenges facing African societies in a geopolitical context marked by the return of power politics. Speakers are invited to problematize and analyze phenomena such as illiberalism, populism, autocratization, coups d’état, secessionism, ethno-religious conflicts, etc., with an emphasis on their specificities in North Africa and sub-Saharan Africa. […]