Seminar linked to SPHERE (UMR 7219), the University Paris Diderot and the Centre d’Etude des Mondes Africains (UMR 8171).
Organisation: Guillaume Lachenal (Université Paris Diderot, IUF) & Aïssatou Mbodj-Pouye (CNRS, CEMAF). Contact : Guillaume Lachenal - lachenal@univ-paris-diderot.fr & Aïssatou Mbodj-Pouye - mbodj@free.fr
PROGRAMME 2013 – 2014:
this year is devoted to the editing project of the working group, especially in the context of a special issue of the journal Politique Africaine: http://www.politique-africaine.com/
In this context, the colonial and post-colonial past of science in Africa is the object of complex emotional investments. They express, at the same time, memories of colonialism, neo-liberal critiques of the present and longings for development. Monuments, ruined or renovated buildings, archives, old machines register a past where the state, through science, projected a future and promoted specific forms of belonging, participation and citizenship. Today experimental stations or " pilot projects " update and extend as enclaves or remains, a long history which shaped places, communities and subjectivities .
This seminar examines how the traces of the past are commemorated, erased or appropriated in scientific institutions and African landscapes. It brings together anthropologists and historians of science around a series of lectures, case studies and thematic explorations of the physical and emotional presence of the past of science and development in Africa.
More details on http://mereaf.hypotheses.org/
