RESEARCH GROUP IN
MIDDLE EASTERN AND AFRICAN STUDIES
AHKR, University of Bergen
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Research Group in Middle Eastern and African studies The Research Group in Middle Eastern and African Studies at the Department of Archaeology, History, Culture Studies and Religion was set up in spring 2008. Its purpose is to provide a forum for researchers at the Department and outside, working broadly in this field. Currently its main activities are:
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Research seminar:
Africa, the Middle East and Beyond: Border Zones and Connectivity.
Africa has often been seen as "the other side", the "periphery" and the object of other people's agendas. But how would our perceptions change if we see Africa as the centre from which impulses are spread out? The Middle East is Africa's closest neighbour, across the Sahara or the Indian Ocean, and thus the first point for "the African connection", which also goes beyond it to other continents. This seminar series will look at various aspects of such a shift in perceptions, from the viewpoint of the Middle East and from Africa, and with a particular eye to the concept of "border zone" or the creation of frontiers and peripheries. How do such "liminal" or "marginal" areas come about, from what perspective, and what are the effect of their defintion as such?"
Program, spring 2008
- 5 March: Anne Bang: "Global Cities"
- 15 April: Henriette Hafsaas, "The Kingdom of Kush - A Centre on the Periphery of the Bronze Age World System in Afro-Eurasia"
- (20 May: meeting cancelled)
All seminars take place in Seminar Room 2, Øysteinsgt. 3, at 12:15-14.
The group also co-operates with other centres that have activities within the same topic:
Guest lectures at SMI / Unifob Global:
- 8 April: Annette Haaber Ihle: "Islam, Madrassa and Citizenship in Ghana".
- 21 April: Terence Walz: "Habasha, Sudaniyin, Barabra and Takarna: African Slaves and Freedmen/Women in Cairo as Reflected in the 1848 Census"
- 22 April: Terence Walz: "Egyptian and Sudanese Merchants and Traders in Cairo and Asyut in the mid 19th century"
Department seminars
- 6 March: Randi Håland: "Lokale funn i global kontekst; fra Nildalen og Afrika til Levanten og India"
- 10 April: Inger Marie Okkenhaug and Karina Hestad Skeie: "Misjon som transnasjonal mobilisering, 1860-1960"
Both in Seminar Room 1, AHKR.
Guest lectures in African archaeology
- 14. March: Bertram Baltasar Mapunda, University of Dar es Salaam: "The Ethnic history of the Fipa of Tanzania".
- 11 April: Azhari Mustafa Sadig Ali, Universiy og Khartoum: "The Rise and fall of the Neolithic in Central Sudan. 2000 Years Gap between Neolithic and Meroe: A Reassessment of Archaeological Theories".
Seminar Room 1, AHKR, at 12.15-14.
