The Cluster in a Nutshell
The Cluster in a Nutshell
Established in January 2019 through the Excellence Strategy of the German Federal and State Governments, and building on a long and stellar record in African Studies at the University of Bayreuth, the Africa Multiple Cluster of Excellence pursues an ambitious and innovative agenda, expressed in the subtitle “Reconfiguring African Studies”. Initially comprising the twenty-five Principal Investigators but steadily growing in membership, it now hosts more than one hundred scholars from three continents, who represent a diverse range of academic disciplines and pursue joint research interests together with academic partner institutions in Africa, Germany, Europe, Asia, and the Americas.
More than a Change of Perspective
Our understanding of the reconfiguration of African Studies focuses on stimulating new theoretical approaches and includes the creation of new forms of academic collaboration. The cluster members are not only drawn from the University of Bayreuth, but also from our academic partner institutions in Africa and elsewhere. They develop and pursue research questions and theory-building in collaborative interdisciplinary projects, most notably those conducted together with the African Cluster Centres (ACCs) at Joseph Ki-Zerbo University (Burkina Faso), University of Lagos (Nigeria), Moi University (Kenya), Rhodes University (South Africa) and Centro de Estudos Afro-Orientais (CEAO) at the Federal University of Bahia (Brazil).
Creating a Transformative Space for African Studies
Through the Bayreuth Academy of Advanced African Studies, the Cluster runs a fellowship scheme for Junior and Senior researchers, recruited by invitation as well as through regular international calls for applications. The Academy also offers special formats for the training of postdoctoral researchers and hosts four independent Junior Research Groups working on cluster-related topics. Research-oriented training of doctoral students is offered through the renowned Bayreuth International Graduate School of African Studies (BIGSAS), established in 2007. Further assets BIGSAS brings to the cluster a large network of fellows and alumni of more than 200 outstanding young and established scholars. The internationally renowned Iwalewahaus (founded in 1981), a vibrant center for engagement with African arts, enriches our work through exhibitions, documentation, research, and transdisciplinary working formats with artists. All cluster members, whether in Bayreuth, Africa, or elsewhere on the globe, are connected to our Digital Research Environment (DRE). The DRE integrates highly heterogeneous analogue and digital data, both qualitative and quantitative, into a common digital research platform, allowing us to share data and provide working formats that reflect the heterogeneity, complexity, and dynamism of the cluster’s research, with the ultimate objective of establishing innovative and fluid IT ontologies. The cluster promotes equal opportunity and recognition of diversity through its Gender & Diversity Office (GDO), in its advocation of Intersectionality and Critical Diversity Literacy (ICDL) approaches. Situated at the interface of research and administration, the GDO is invested in the development and implementation of measures to counterbalance structural disadvantages, as well as enhancing research methodologies through intersectionality studies.
New Concepts and Formats for Research
Our key concepts are multiplicity, relationality, and reflexivity. We employ them to capture the dynamic interrelationship of diversity and entanglement that characterize African and African diasporic ways of life and world-making. In the Knowledge Lab – the Cluster’s intellectual core – we connect our theoretical, epistemological, and methodological issues, spark debates and intellectual exchange, and stimulate synergies and new theoretical advances. Six thematic fields, organized into Research Sections, provide a coherent structure to our research projects. Most projects pursue an inter- and/or transdisciplinary agenda and involve close cooperation between researchers from Bayreuth, Africa, and our global network.