The network “Re-Centering African Subjects and Subjectivities: A New Research Agenda on Regionalism in Africa”, funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG), started with a kick-off workshop at the University of Ghana in Accra. Antonia Witt, who organized the workshop from 16–18 October 2024 together with Densua Mumford from Leiden University and Mariel Reiss from the University of Marburg, was already significantly involved in the conception of the international network.
The network “Re-Centering African Subjects and Subjectivities: A New Research Agenda on Regionalism in Africa”, or RASS for short, started in January 2024. Its aim is to facilitate exchanges between researchers from Germany, South Africa, Tanzania, Ghana, Nigeria, Canada, the USA, the Netherlands, the UK and Qatar.
The network is based at the University of Marburg and brings together 14 internationally renowned academics from various disciplines. Over the next three years, they will jointly develop a new research agenda on African regionalisms. The main aim is to focus on the creative power and experiences of African actors as well as the negotiation and formation of transnational identities in regionalization processes and to make them the basis of theory formation and methodological considerations. The members include scholars from African, European and North American universities who have diverse interdisciplinary experience in the study of African regionalisms. The members come from political science, international relations, sociology and anthropology and will develop an interdisciplinary view of current and historical regionalization dynamics. These include the broad topics of gender, conflict and security, political economy, institutions and governance, post- and decolonial theory as well as civil society and non-state actors.
Within the network, a team coordinates the joint efforts and public relations initiatives. Its members are Lynda Iroulo, Maria Ketzmerick, Miriam Mukalazi, Densua Mumford, Mariel Reiss and Antonia Witt.