Call for papers: Joint panel with Postgraduate Network (PGN)

The Postgraduate Representative unit of the BISA Africa Working Group is jointly organising a panel(s) with the Postgraduate Network (PGN) on emerging trends in African international relations in the time of crisis. The rationale is to provide space for postgraduate researchers working on Africa to share their research. Our intention is to provide a platform to accommodate PGRs and ECRs to share their work, in addition to the main BISA conference in 2021.

We are calling for the submission of proposals/abstract of already formed panels or individual papers from postgraduate and early-career researchers on any sub-fields of International Relations that mirror the seismic challenges confronting contemporary Africa. We welcome submissions that offer critical and constructive engagements between Africa and broader themes in global affairs. While we are aware of seismic challenges that confront the continent, its states, its regions and the people, we are also interested in proposals that draw attention to the seen, the unseen or the hidden agency of Africa in this time of global crises.

The advent of COVID-19 comes with a new understanding of threat and the threatened, while ever-evolving global change has brought about progress and accompanied challenges that do not only constitute threats to the African states and people. Challenges such as cyber criminality, transnational organised crime, human and drugs trafficking, modern slavery, fake news and continued activities of terrorism highlight the need to rethink international security and challenges confronting Africa. With a myriad of issues spanning from Boko Haram terrorism in Nigeria and its affiliates in the Sahel, civil unrest in Somalia, and the economic situation alongside the humanitarian disaster it has created, we call for papers addressing the challenges affecting Africa's stability and political economy, the limitations associated with Africa’s response to insecurity, and possible ways to improve the African condition.  The panel will take place online, on 15 April 2021, as part of the BISA PGN Conference Series 2021.

Send your submission as a fully formed panel or a paper proposal to: aisg.group@bisa.ac.uk and copy ike.tarelajuliet@yahoo.com, bamidelekogbe@gmail.com, and p.brett@qmul.ac.uk on or before 15 January 2021.