African Studies

The contemporary era shows a proliferation of film production from all over the African continent, and in this course, students become familiar with some of the most significant developments in narrative styles, genres, themes, and aesthetics in contemporary African cinemas. The course also includes discussions of suitable theoretical and critical frameworks in which to analyze and interpret these new films and film movements.

This course focuses on the ways in which Africa has been imagined and represented across the ages. Drawing on key texts from the creative and performing arts, the course explores specific depictions of Africa and Africans in each era and opens up questions about the relationship between arts and society. The course examines African self-representations alongside representations that focus on Africa as a site of difference or ‘othering’. Topics include: What is representation?; Images of Slavery; Travel writing and tourism; Visual Arts; Anti-colonialism/ nationalism in film. Assessment includes tutorial hand-ins (20%), 1st essay (20%), and 2nd essay (30%). Course entry requirements: None

This course focuses on digital frontiers, geopolitical frontiers, and religious-health frontiers in Africa. It develops critical analytical skills for understanding and engaging with the challenges and opportunities related to the selected emerging frontiers in diverse African contexts. The course investigates various approaches to the notion of "frontier" – both theoretical and methodological – for investigating and analyzing a range of emerging empirical frontier forms and their effects. In keeping with an interdisciplinary, critical African Studies approach, it introduces ways of thinking about frontiers in their historical, spatial, political, social, cultural, economic, and technological contexts. The selected areas of focus include growing trends and new dynamics linked to widescale digitalization across the African continent; the effects within and beyond the continent of geopolitical shifts in interests, actors, encounters, and conflicts linked not least to changes from a unipolar to more multipolar world order; and changing relations, practices, and effects arising out of new encounters between religious and health spheres on the continent. Attention is also given to new epistemological/knowledge frontiers being generated on the continent.

This course introduces the field of critical linguistics which addresses the linguistic effects of political and cultural oppression, marginalization, colonialism, and coloniality. It is also a field interested in articulating a new view of language that emphasizes the experience of language as intimate and lived, implied in structures of hegemony of power, as well as its potential for liberation, freedom, and creativity. DP requirements: None. Assessment: Continuous assessment (essays, projects, tests, etc.) counts 100%. Third-year status is required for admission.

The course incudes the patterns of language use in Southern African, and Botswana in particular, the factors which influence language change and maintenance and the various efforts, both formal and informal, which are beings made in order to preserve, promote, and empower languages. 

In this course, students develop a wide and deep understanding of contemporary Africa, drawing on the multi-disciplinary approach of African Studies. Students learn about the historical roots of modern phenomenon on the continent and situate these within a wider global context. They develop expertise about particular countries and regions as well as on particular themes, depending on the focus of the course for the year. The substantive content of the course changes each year depending on topical issues and is taught by experts on the issue itself or on particular approaches/methods from amongst permanent and postdoctoral staff. 

This course examines the history of Africa in the 19th and 20th Centuries: the growth of Islam and Christianity, the impact of European colonialism, the development of nationalism, and the variety of different political and social outcomes after independence

This course develops an understanding of key concepts and theories related to climate issues, sustainability, and environmental governance in Africa. It debates climate adaptation and mitigation, sustainable development, and governing the environment, and discusses specific African cases related to climate-smart interventions, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and governance initiatives related to biodiversity conservation and rural development. The course examines key actors in Africa's development and the roles they play in responding to the climate crisis, in sustainability, and in governing natural resources. It discusses relevant questions concerning the relationship between climate, scarcity, and abundance; internationally-driven, climate-smart initiatives in Africa related to the role of state, market, and civil society; and the impacts and coping strategies related to implementing the SDGs in Africa. The course consists of a combination of lectures and workshop-like activities with active student participation and presentations by a number of external lecturers, including guests from the private sector, NGOs, and researchers. This version of the course is worth 15 ECTS (12 quarter UC units) and assessment consists of a written paper on a topic of the student's own choosing comprising 36,000-43,200 characters.

This course shows that Africa is a productive laboratory for students and researchers in international relations and security studies as the region gathers some of the most enduring interlinked political rivalries within the international system. It challenges and sometimes clarifies powerful concepts developed by the field (hegemonic stability, regional security complex, failed states, small state, sovereignty). It contrasts arguments that international relations focuses on the politics of powerful states and that, as a consequence, there is an African exceptionalism which explains the field’s inability to accurately address African experiences. The course examines how Africa has often been neglected by the different theoretical approaches to international relations and more generally by the discipline, demonstrating that the Horn of Africa is pertinent not only for area specialists but also constitutes a remarkable ground for fieldwork and theory-testing of both old and new approaches. 

This course examines the concept of security and governance of security, and its application in different contexts and at different levels of analyses with a focus on developing societies, particularly Africa. It considers key theories and relates them to particular contexts. The course provides an intellectual and practical context to the notion of the security sector and the governance of security and develops and demonstrates knowledge, understanding, and skills to investigate the various ways through which "security" can be brought under "democratic governance."