🚩 Call for Papers 🚩

The uses and abuses of political ideas in Africa:
Pan-Africanism, development and democracy

Thursday 20 March 2025, 2:00PM onwards
University of Birmingham and online

The Midlands African Studies Hub (MASH), Centre for Elections, Democracy, Accountability and Representation (CEDAR), the International Development Department (IDD), and the Department for African Studies and Anthropology (DASA) of the University of Birmingham invite you to a half day workshop on The uses and abuses of political ideas in Africa.

The workshop will feature a keynote talk by Professor Rita Abrahamsen, who is a Professor in the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Ottawa and currently a Leverhulme Visiting Professor at the University of Birmingham. Professor Abrahamsen will also Co-Chair the workshop with Nic Cheeseman, the Professor of Democracy at the University of Birmingham.

We are particularly interested receiving proposals from researchers working on contemporary conceptualizations of Pan-Africanism, development and democracy – and affiliated ideas such as citizenship – and the ways that they are deployed by political leaders, citizens, civil society groups, military leaders and international donors.

This includes more theoretical work in areas such as political theory and political thought, as well as empirical studies of how specific understanding of Pan-Africanism, development and democracy have been used and abused in particular countries and in relation to particular moments of contestation within political science, sociology, international relations, history and anthropology. Proposals on the political impact of ideas in Africa more broadly will also be considered.

Our preference is for presenters to attend in person, but we will consider applications for online presentations from those who live outside of the UK, or who would not otherwise be able to attend. All presenters will receive feedback on their work from the Chairs and discussants.

📬 To submit a proposal, please send a title, abstract (no longer than 300 words), CV, and confirmation of whether you could present in person or would need to appear online to: n.cheeseman@bham.ac.uk. The deadline for submissions is Wednesday 26 February 2025. Successful applicants will be informed by Tuesday 4 March 2025 📬

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Rita Abrahamsen is Professor in the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, Research Fellow at the Centre for Comparative and International Politics at Stellenbosch University in South Africa, and the 2025-2026 Nelson Mandela Professor at Rhodes University in South Africa.  Her main interests are in African and International Politics, often focusing on the intersections of the global and the local. Her most recent book is the co-authored World of the Right: Radical Conservatism and Global Order (Cambridge University Press 2024). Other books include (with M.C. Williams) of Security Beyond the State: Private Security in International Politics (Cambridge University Press 2011) and Disciplining Democracy: Development Discourse and the Good Governance Agenda in Africa (Zed Books 2000). Professor Abrahamsen’s articles have appeared in leading journals including African Affairs, Alternatives, International Political Sociology, Journal of Modern African Studies, Review of International Studies, Third World Quarterly and Review of African Political Economy. She was joint-editor of African Affairs from 2009 to 2014, Chair of the Board of the African Peacebuilding Network of the Social Science Research Council in New York from 2020-2024, and Director of the Centre for International Policy Studies (CIPS) at the University of Ottawa from 2017-2023.

Nic Cheeseman (@fromagehomme) is Professor of Democracy at the University of Birmingham, and the Director of the Centre for Elections, Democracy, Accountability and Representation (CEDAR). He mainly works on democracy, elections and development, including a range of topics such as election rigging, political campaigning, corruption, “fake news” and presidential rule. The articles that Nic has published based on this research have won a number of prizes including the GIGA award for the best article in Comparative Area Studies (2013) and the Frank Cass Award for the best article in Democratization (2015). Professor Cheeseman is also the author or editor of more than ten books, including How to Rig an Election (2018) – selected as one of the books of the year by the Spectator magazine. In recognition of this academic and public contribution, the Political Studies Association of the United Kingdom awarded him the prestigious Joni Lovenduski Prize for outstanding professional achievement in 2019. Professor Cheeseman is a Board Member of the Afrobarometer and the Expert Panel of the Mo Ibrahim Foundation, while also serving as a Fellow of the European Democracy Hub. A frequent commentator on democracy, elections and global events, Professor Cheeseman’s analysis has appeared in the Economist, Le Monde, Financial Times, the Washington Post, New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the BBC, and the Daily Nation.

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