The New Uppsala University´s Forum for Africa Studies is inaugurated!
Vice-Chancellor of Uppsala University, Professor Anders Hagfeldt, together with Professor Kajsa Ahlstrand and Professor Sten Hagberg. In 2023, Forum for Africa Studies received funding from the Vice-Chancellor for a broad university-wide mandate, including all university faculties. The full-day launching event started with Vice-Chancellor Professor Anders Hagfeldt officially inaugurating Uppsala University’s Forum for Africa Studies.
Professor Sten Hagberg, director of Uppsala University´s Forum for Africa Studies, gave a presentation about the history of the Forum, from the start as a network in 2012, to forming a Centre in 2017 and now receiving the university-wide mandate in 2023. Looking forward, Sten highlighted a few of the Forum's new initiatives, including strengthening Uppsala University as a partner to African universities, being a framework for collaboration, and forming an umbrella structure for Ph.D. students and postdocs engaged in research in/with Africa.
(Image removed) Sten Hagberg, Professor in Cultural Anthropology and Director for Uppsala University's Forum for Africa Studies.
In session 2 followed five short presentations on current Africa Research at the university by younger scholars. Among them where the Department’s Ph.D. student Emy Lindberg, who talked about the Gift Economy of football shirts among Ghanaian football players migrating to Sweden.
(Image removed) Emy Lindberg, Ph.D. student in Cultural Anthropology, together with Professor Sten Hagberg and Professor Birgitta Essén.
In the afternoon the event continues with a Round-Table discussion on how to engage with higher education and research in/with Africa and a Key Note address by Professor Amanda Hammar, from the University of Copenhagen, on the topic of “A Spanner in the Machine/s: Why Critical African Studies Matters (in Sweden and Everywhere)”.