Conferences

From 18 - 20 March 2019 a workshop on "Parliaments and Democracy in Africa" took place in Dakar.

The workshop “Parliaments and Democracy” brought together three types of scholars: members of the DLEDA Project Group, future fellows of the MIASA-Interdisciplinary Fellowship Group “Parliaments and Democracy”, and other scholars working on legislatures, political parties, and democratization. Participants came from all over the world, about half of them were African scholars. The mix between junior and senior scholars, ranging from early PhD students to full professors, guaranteed the inclusion of diverse voices.

From the beginning to end, all debates were lively and productive. The format gave future fellows an opportunity to present their MIASA research proposals and receive valuable feedback from the audience. In addition, established and younger scholars presented papers and work in progress. We gained insights into a number of different topics, such as public opinion towards elected officials, candidate selection and nomination processes, opposition politics in authoritarian regimes and dominant party systems, cabinet formation, elections campaigns and parliamentary debates, and many more. The workshop helped to map the field of African legislative studies and drew attention to existing gaps in research. It also gave scholars the opportunity to link up to their peers and discuss possible future collaborations.

Since the bridging of the gap between Anglophone and Francophone Africa is one of the explicit goals of all activities surrounding the IFG 2, presentations were held in either English or French. The academic program was completed by a visit of the Senegalese National Assembly and the Monument of African Renaissance. As a host of the activities, CREPOS  lent us great support. Thus, the workshop was a big success on the academic, social, and organizational level.

The Maria Sibylla Merian Institute for Advanced Studies in Africa (MIASA) has held its inaugural conference at the University of Ghana. Under the theme “Africa’s Institutions for Sustainable Governance” the event spanned between Thursday, 27th and Friday, 28th of September, 2018. The conference was attended by over 300 scholars from universities in Germany and across Africa. Participants were enlightened on topics in the areas of Gender, Democracy, Sustainable Energy, Agriculture, Elections and Peace during keynote addresses and plenary session.

The programme of the conference can be found here.