The Institute of African Studies (IAS), in collaboration with the Anthropology of Human Security in Africa (ANTHUSIA), a multi-disciplinary research project in Anthropology of Human Security hosted a Summer School at the J.H.Nketia Conference Hall, Kwame Nkrumah Complex from 5th to 12th January 2020. The School, under the theme“Human Security and Anthropological Analysis”, was put together by a consortium of four European Universities with funding from the European Union. These Universities are Aarhus, Edinburgh, Leuven and Oslo.
The School was organized to equip doctoral students to acquire the necessary research and writing skills needed for their PhD training.
Prof Dzodzi Tsikata, the Director of the Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana, Legon gave the welcome address. She encouraged participants to explore the beautiful country Ghana and enjoy its rich culture. Professor Tsikata equally touched on the uniqueness of the summer school’s focus, ‘what to do with data after returning from fieldwork’. She noted that the summer school was a very important stage of research work and yet little had been done to help early stage researchers to handle the task ahead of them. Professor Tsikata urged the doctoral students from the various Universities to take advantage of this important workshop.
The keynote speaker for the Summer School, Elisio Macamo, a Professor of Sociology and the Director of the Centre for African Studies, University of Basel, Switzerland, spoke on “African Studies, Silence and the Aporia of Decolonization”. In his lecture, he advised the doctoral students to concentrate on the processes that would lead to cutting edge research results. Effectively, Professor Macamo emphasized the essence of research methodology in knowledge production in Africa.
In attendance of the summer school were, Lotte Meinert, the coordinator of ANTHUSIA (Aarhus University), Professor Ann Cassiman, Filip De Boeck , Steven Van Wolputte, organisers of the Summer School (all from KU Leuven). There were also students from the University of Ghana, University of Edinburg, University of Sierra Leone, University of Leuven, University of Aarhus, University of Oslo, University of Florida, West Chester University, Tulane University, University of Sussex and University of Copenhagen.
The program attracted faculty and staff of the Institute of African Studies, the University Community and the media.