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Africa Conference

College of Liberal Arts

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Theme: "Rethinking Global Africa: Diaspora, Knowledge, Transformations, and Futures"
April 7–11, 2027

  • Call for Papers

    The 26th Annual UT Austin Africa Conference at the University of Texas at Austin calls for submissions of papers to "Rethink Global Africa." Global Africa presents Africa as central to histories of the world, global thought, and world-making. Africans and the African diaspora have been actors in globalization from the beginning, including the movement of people, migration and forced displacement, trade, religion, colonization and decolonization, culture, knowledge production, and digital transformation. Global Africa troubles Eurocentric ways of writing history by putting Africa at the center of networks, interactions, and flows of information, materials, and power. Africa has always been global, from the trans-Saharan trade and Indian Ocean exchanges to the Atlantic world and now digitization. 

    In effect, the 2027 Annual UT Austin Africa Conference will:
    • Reassess Africa’s historical global engagements.
    • Highlight African epistemologies and intellectual traditions
    • Examine diaspora formations and transnational identities
    • Explore Africa’s role in shaping future global orders
    • To examine Africa’s historical and contemporary global connections
    • To foreground African epistemologies and intellectual traditions
    • To interrogate the structures of power in global knowledge production
    • To explore Africa’s role in shaping future global orders
    • To foster interdisciplinary dialogue across humanities, social sciences, and related fields
    • To foster dialogue across disciplines in the humanities, social sciences, and interdisciplinary fields.

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  • Conference Overview

    In calling for papers for a conference on Global Africa, we aim to center Africa as a critical way of reconceptualizing Africa’s relationship to the world—one that does not relegate Africa to the margins or dependency. Africa has long been central to processes of global exchange, circulation, movement, and intellectual production. Think of the long durée of Africa’s integration into the worlds of trans-Saharan and Indian Ocean trade and movement; of enslaved and migrant Africans’ role in building the Atlantic world and modernity; and of Africa’s growing centrality in today’s digital and financial economies.

    This conference aims to position Africa at the center of discussions on globalization by emphasizing African agency, interconnectedness, and knowledge production. We seek to expand upon and contribute to work in African historiography, African diaspora studies, and decolonial scholarship more broadly.

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  • Conference Sub-Themes

    We welcome Papers, Roundtable Discussions, Panels, Poster Presentations and Creative Works/Performances that pose critical questions on Global Africa.

    Mobility, Environment, and Space
    • Waterways, mobility, and ecological histories
    • Climate change and African futures
    • Urbanization and global cities
    Histories of Science and Technology
    • Energy, power systems and technologies of extraction 
    • New perspectives on food, nutrition and society
    • Science and Statecraft in colonial and postcolonial Africa
    Global Africa and Political Economy
    • Africa in global capitalism
    • China–Africa, US–Africa relations
    • Resource extraction and global inequality
    Digital Africa and Knowledge Futures
    • Digital humanities and African archives
    • AI, language, and epistemic justice
    • Africa’s role in shaping future knowledge systems
    Histories of Global Interconnection
    • Trans-Saharan, Indian Ocean, and Atlantic networks
    • Africa in global capitalism and empire
    • Migration, slavery, and diaspora formation
    Global Africa and the African Diaspora
    • Transatlantic Slave Trade and its legacies
    • Black internationalism and Pan-Africanism
    • Cultural flows: religion, music, language
    Medicine and Healing in Africa and the African Diaspora
    • Histories of Medicine, Empire and Governance
    • Contemporary Health System, Policy and Inequality
    • Knowledge, Technology and the Future of Healing
    Material Culture and Afro-Futurism 
    • Heritage, Memory and Museums
    • Materiality, identity, and the Social Life of Things
    • Speculative Art and Techno-culture
    Epistemologies and Decolonization
    • African knowledge systems and indigenous epistemologies
    • Decolonizing African Studies and global knowledge production
    • Contributions of scholars such as Toyin Falola
    Religion, Cosmology, and Global Circulations
    • Islam and Christianity in global Africa
    • Yoruba religion and diaspora transformations
    • Indigenous spirituality and global reinterpretations

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  • Submission Deadline

    Proposal Submission Deadline: December 1st, 2026, by midnight.

    Proposals/Abstracts will ONLY be accepted via channels of the official conference email up until the MIDNIGHT DEADLINE of December 1st, 2026. Participants who require a visa to enter the United States must submit abstracts and register early, as it may take six months or even MORE to be able to book visa appointments.

    Submission Guidelines
    All abstract submissions and correspondence must be submitted via:
    utaustinafricaconf2027@gmail.com

    Individual proposals should consist of:
    •    Participant’s name, email address, and affiliated institution
    •    Abstract (250 words maximum)
    •    Short biography (150 words maximum)

    Panel proposals
    •    Rationale and presentation of the panel (300 words maximum)
    •    Indicate the name, email address, and affiliated institution above each person’s abstract
    •    Abstract of each paper (250 words maximum)
    •    Short biography for each contributor and the panel chair (150 words maximum)

    NOTE: Notification of acceptance issued on a rolling basis.

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  • Non-Refundable Fees

    A mandatory non-refundable registration fee for participants must be paid immediately upon acceptance of the abstract. Amendment of conference registration fees from hence would be as follows:

    • In-person/face-to-face participation
      • Participants from the United States/Europe/Asia: $150
      • Participants from Africa: $100
      • Graduate students regardless of location = fee waived. Upon acceptance of the abstract, graduate students requesting registration waiver will be required to submit:
        • A letter of recommendation from their current supervisor, graduate advisor, or department chair;
        • Evidence of current enrollment in a graduate degree program;
        • A brief statement of financial need or purpose for requesting assistance; and
        • Any other documentation deemed appropriate by the committee.
        • Request for Graduate students’ application fee waiver due by December 15, 2026.
           
    • Virtual attendees regardless of origin/location: $50
  • Disclaimer on Conference Travel Support & Funds

    Participants and Scholars sending in abstracts of their works MUST TAKE NOTE of the fees stated above!

    All participants must have funds to attend the conference, including the registration fee, transportation, and accommodation. Except for graduate students who have their registration fee waived, the conference and the University of Texas at Austin do not provide any form of sponsorship or financial support. Participants are responsible for footing their own bills regarding visa acquisition, registration fees, hotel booking and airflight tickets. Events are subject to change following CDC guidelines and global health, travel and safety concerns.

    If you have questions, please contact the conference coordinators via the official email. All correspondence, including submission of abstracts, panel proposals, completed papers, and all kinds of inquiries, must go through the official conference email.

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  • About the Speakers

    2027 conference information forthcoming.

  • Speakers

    Keynote: “’Feeling of Death at All Times and Thinking That This World is Not the Place for Me’: Psychiatry, The Humanities, And My Mid-Career Crisis”
    Speaker: Matthew M. Heaton, Virginia Tech

    Date: March 28, 2025  |  Time: TBA  |  Venue: TBA

    Matthew M. Heaton is a Professor in the Department of History at Virginia Tech. His research interests are in the history of health and illness, migration, and globalization in Africa with particular emphasis on Nigeria. He is the author of Black Skin, White Coats: Nigerian Psychiatrists, Decolonization, and the Globalization of Psychiatry (Ohio University Press, 2013) and Decolonising the Hajj: The Pilgrimage from Nigeria to Mecca under Empire and Independence (Manchester University Press, 2023), as well as the co-editor (with Toyin Falola) of The Oxford Handbook of Nigerian History (OUP, 2022).

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    Banquet Address: “State of Human Rights and Constitutionalism in 2025: Is the Abuja Health Declaration Dead?”


    Speaker: Irũngũ Houghton, Amnesty International Kenya

    Date: March 29, 2025  |  Time: TBA  |  Venue: Holiday Inn, 6000 Middle Fiskville Road, Austin, Texas

    Strictly by invitation only.

    Irũngũ Houghton has advised and held national governments, and international and continental multi-lateral processes publicly accountable for the last thirty years. He currently serves as Amnesty International Kenya Executive Director. As Amnesty’s spokesperson and chief strategist in Kenya, he leads a team of committed investigative researchers and campaigners working to end human rights abuses and realize the Constitution of Kenya. His work with Amnesty International Kenya led him to be cited among Kenya's top 100 leaders in 2024. Irũngũ has previously worked with most of the biggest NGOs in the world including Actionaid, Oxfam, Care, GreenPeace, London School of Economics, and WWF among others. He was also the founding Chairperson of the Kilimani Project Foundation, a community foundation committed to creating livability and workability in the local community in which he lives (2012-2020). His public interest campaigns with others have received awards and citations from the African Union, New Partnership for Africa’s Development, Nation Media Group, New African, Architectural Association of Kenya, and Sabre Africa Awards over the last decade. Widely known as an inspirational speaker, change facilitator, and skillful moderator, Irũngũ has published a weekly newspaper column for the last seven years and is an analyst of choice on Kenya for the national and international media. He is also the author of the recently published “Dialogue and Dissent: A Constitution in Search of a Country” available on either Amazon. Irũngũ holds two degrees from the University of Dar es Salaam (MA) and the School of Oriental and African Studies, London (BA). Learn more about his work at www.irunguhoughton.org and follow him on X at @irunguhoughton.

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  • Presenter FAQ
    1. When are the completed papers for the conference due?
      You can submit at any time, but the due date is two months before the Conference, to allow for the exchange of ideas and to start the editorial and selection process. If a full paper is not available, a short summary will be accepted, although this may affect the decision to publish.
    2. To whom do we submit them?
      Submit as an email attachment to the conference email address. Please attach/submit your article in MS Word format. PS: Remember to follow the style sheet: Do it now, since you will do it anyway!

    3. Is it likely that the chairs will provide feedback?
      Yes, and they will be involved in the selection process.
    4. What is the estimated waiting period from the end of the conference to the decision to publish?
      Two Months. You will be informed by May if your paper will be published. The decision will be based on the quality of your paper and the opinions of the two readers. We already have publishers committed to publishing the best papers.
    5. Chair Instructions
      If you have volunteered or been drafted to chair a panel, thank you. We have prepared the
following guidelines to help ensure that your panel runs smoothly. Because of the strong interest and the high number of paper proposals we received,
the conference program is very tight, with not much free time between panels. Part of your
contributions as a chair will be to ensure that your panel stays on track. We recommend the following schedule, assuming that there are four papers on your panel: 5 minutes for introduction by the chair, 15 minutes for each paper presentation, 10 minutes for the chair to speak as a discussant, 15 minutes for audience questions and responses,
and 15 minutes for the transition to the next panel. You are free to modify this schedule as you see fit, but we ask that you stick to 15 minutes for each paper presentation, and allow
enough time for the transition to the next panel. If you have any questions or comments about the format of the panels or your contribution as a chair, please contact us. Many thanks!
    6. Directions to Campus
      - You may have to take a taxi at your expense. If you take a cab, simply ask the driver to take you to the Holiday Inn, 6000 Middle Fiskville Road in Austin, Texas, please call 512-451-5757 or 888-300-6273. The hotel address is simply IH35 & Town Lake Rd. Their phone number is (512) 472-8211. 
      - The main conference venue, Robert L. Patton Building (RLP) is on the UT campus located at 305 E 23rd St, Austin, TX 78712. We will be in the Glickman Conference Center on the 1st floor.
      - The University of Texas at Austin is a city--the student population is one of the largest in the country. If you do not print and keep this in your travel bag, it will take three days to find anyone who knows that there is a conference going on!
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  • Preparation/Submission of Papers

    This guide is to help you prepare your paper. Following the instructions will help us to attain consistency, and reduce the volume of correspondence.

Please submit your paper via email to utaustinafricaconf2027@gmail.com. All notes, citations, etc., must be complete and in proper form. Incomplete notes and citations will delay editorial decisions and may disqualify submissions for publication.

    Use The Chicago Manual of Style, latest edition (referred to hereafter as CMS) and Merriam Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, the latest edition for matters of style, capitalization, spelling, and hyphenation.

    The CMS manual can be found at http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org.

    Please name your files so that the contents can be determined easily. If tables, etc., are in separate files, please merge them into the paper, if possible.

    Style Sheet

    (1) Spelling – Please use U.S. spellings, rather than British. (See CMS 6.5–6.)



    (2) Punctuation – Please use U.S. style punctuation. The main differences between British and U.S. punctuation that you will need to know are the following:



    a. Commas in Series – In a series of three or more elements, commas are placed after each element (except the last), including before the conjunction joining the last element. Example: a, b, and c— not a, b and c.

    b. Quotation Marks, Single and Double – American usage calls for double quotation marks, with single quotation marks for quotes within quotes (CMS 10.26–27). Certain other instances also call for single quotation marks (CMS 6.67, 6.74). CMS 10.28 gives examples of the difference in usage of quotation marks in a quote within the body of the text and a quote set off from the text (indented quote). 

    c. Punctuation with Quotation Marks – Punctuation that is part of the material quoted is placed inside the quotation marks (inside both single and double, if they are used together). If the punctuation is not part of the quote, periods and commas are generally placed inside the quotation marks; question marks, exclamation points, colons, and semi-colons outside (CMS 5.11–13, 5.20, 5.28, 5.86–87). d. Periods with Abbreviations – Abbreviations are treated in CMS, chapter 14. Special note should be made of the following: 

    * Titles such as Mr., Mrs., Paper., Dr., Prof., etc., are followed by a period.

    * For abbreviations of Saint and Saints, see CMS 14.17. 6

    * For abbreviations of U.S. states, see CMS 10.48–63. (CMS requests [as do we] the old abbreviations, with periods, not the new postal two-letter abbreviations with no periods.) e. Ellipses and Ellipsis Points – There are two methods of inserting ellipsis points. The first is explained in CMS 10.50; the second (more complicated, and preferred by CMS and by us) is explained in CMS 10.51–59. For other fine points, see CMS 10.48–63.



    (3) Notes and Bibliography – Please refer to CMS, chapter 15. Consistency is very
important, especially in subsequent references to a work and in dealing with page numbers.



    a. For notes, the following items are generally necessary in a full reference, in this
order:



    Book – Author's full name, first name first; Complete title of the book (italics); Editor, translator, or compiler, if any; Series name, if any, and volume number in the series; Edition, if not the original; Number of volumes; Facts of publication—city (and sometimes U.S. state) where published, publisher (sometimes omitted, especially in very old books), date of publication; Volume no. of citation, if any (in Arabic numerals); Page number(s) of the particular citation.



    Article in a Periodical – Author's full name; Title of the article (in double quotation marks); Name of the periodical (italics); Volume (and number, if there is one) of the periodical (Arabic numerals); Date of the volume or of the issue (in parentheses); Page number(s) of the particular citation.



    Unpublished Material – Author's name, if there is one; Title of the document, if any, and date; Folio or other identifying number; Name of collection; Depository, and city where it is located.



    b. Subsequent references to a work may be given in shortened form: Author, shortened title, and page number; Please avoid Idem, Op. cit., and Loc. cit.; For Ibid., use roman type, not underlining (or italics). c. For listing inclusive numbers, please see CMS 8.68–73. The Press prefers the system outlined in CMS 8.69. It is given here for quick reference: 7 First Number, Second Number Examples 

    *Less than 100 All digits 3–10, 71–72;
    *100 or multiple All digits 100–104, 600–613, 1100–1123; 
    *101 through 109, Changed part only, 107–8, 1002–6; 201 through 209 omitting unneeded zeros; 
    *110 through 199, Two digits unless second 321–25, 415–532 210 through 299 number is in another hundred; 
    *Use complete Roman numerals to avoid confusion

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