Laura Royer: Thesis PM "African Research Institutions & the Postcolonial World of Science (1960-2000)"

Laura Royer

Abstract:

As academia is working towards decolonising knowledge and developing equitable research agendas, it is crucial to understand how North-South – and more generally global – relations in science have evolved in the contemporary period. My PhD research project focuses on the global relations of African research institutions in the post-colonial period (1960-2000). Following independences, there has been a boom of new research institutions created on the African continent. I am interested in understanding how these newly established academies developed relations with counterparts, funders, and governments worldwide, and engaged with the challenges and transformations related to the decolonisation movements, the Cold War context, and globalisation at large. I aim to analyse how these (geo)politics of knowledge contributed to transforming global practices and representations in and of science. Thereby, I intend to shed light on the centrality of African institutions and researchers in shaping these transformations, and to critically reflect on global knowledge production and exchanges in the last half century.

Chair: Jenny Beckman