European Conference Of African Studies (ECAS)

The theme of the 2019 ECAS Conference was “Connections and Disruptions”. Prof Sarojini Nadar, Dr Lee Scharnick-Udemans and Dr Megan Robertson attended the conference which was hosted at the University of Edinburgh. Dr Scharnick-Udemans was awarded an Edinburgh Catalyst Fellowship which aimed to assist emerging scholars from Africa to form collaborations with scholars at the University of Edinburgh. As a result of an ongoing collaboration with the University of Leeds, Dr Scharnick-Udemans and Prof Adriaan Van Klinken, Director of the Centre for Religion and Public Life at the University of Leeds co-convened a panel titled “Religion and Progressive Activism in Africa”. This panel, chaired by Prof Nadar, explored the role of religious thought, practice, language, ritual, and symbol in socio-political activism concerned with ‘progressive’ causes in Africa, especially as it relates to gender and sexuality.