After eight editions held in several Iberian cities, it is now time for the Centre for Social Studies of the University of Coimbra to organize the next edition. The 9th Iberian Congress of African Studies -  Africa Today – places and spaces of transformation, will take place between the 11th and the 13th of September 2014, at the Faculty of Economics at the University of Coimbra.

The African Studies congress of the Iberian World, with a biennial periodicity, is presently an unavoidable place for the meeting of researchers working with the relations between the African continent and the Iberian Peninsula. This congress, whose number of participants has been growing, involves researchers from various academic fields: anthropology, literary studies, history, economy, sociology, and philosophy, amongst others. Given its profile, it has been hugely contributing for the strengthening of networks and research groups.

Having as theme Africa Today – places and spaces of transformation – this congress strives to reflect upon the changes that occurred in Iberian idiomatic African contexts in the last 40 years, that mark the emergence of five new independent nations and stages of the colonial process in Africa. These revolutionary processes, wars and violent episodes, plus the democratic transitions will inexorably brand the Iberian space – Europe, Americas and Africa –, setting the grounds for successive liberation and democratization processes. This interdisciplinary forum will explore trans-national connections, global voices and cartographical power practices that had been developing along these last four decades in those heterogeneous spaces which are the Portuguese speaking African countries and their connections with the rest of the world.

The congress will strive to broaden the discussions over colonialism, nationalism, decolonization, national projects, neo-colonialism, but also capitalism, democratic transitions, etc., in those countries construction. This broad reading of the spaces and places for the transformation of the continent is only possible from an academic excellence debate, and from a contact between various fields of knowledge, which either consonant or dissonant will give birth to new perspectives over the different problems in stake.

The papers presented at the IX Iberian Congress of African Studies selected by the organizers of the panels with will be published in digital format (with ISSN), by CES publications. You can access the publication guidelines here.

A book fair will take place in FEUC during the IX Iberic Congress of African Studies, with the presence of 11 publishing houses, book launches and a meeting with authors from CES.

The congress idioms will be Portuguese, Spanish and English. No simultaneous translation service will be provided.