Working Formats
The Knowledge Lab provides the cluster with a portfolio of formats that has been developed and expanded in the course of ongoing research and debate. Project members and their research partners use classical academic lectures and seminars but also interactive formats. Performances and other artistic production form part of the portfolio, along with joint writing and reading sessions, method studios, policy relevant formats, and clashing theory seminars.
In addition to the numerous activities organised and carried out within the cluster’s Research Sections, such as guest lectures, workshops, and seminars, the Knowledge Lab offers two core meeting formats: the cluster’s plenary colloquium, which meets weekly during term-time, and a two-day retreat at the end of the summer term. Thematically, the colloquium alternates between the three fora (Theory, Reflexive African Studies, and Methodology), and offers lectures, seminars and readings focussed on the annual theme. The two-day retreat concluding the academic year offers principle investigators and guests a forum to exchange on ongoing research and to reflect upon structural needs.
Accelerated in its development by the Covid pandemic, the Digital Research Environment (DRE) allows for virtual participation in ongoing sessions as well as access to archived lecture and seminars. Lectures are accessible online, selected seminars are recorded and archived, while conference and workshop sessions may be live-streamed. The DRE thus enables all cluster members’ and guests’ continuous access to its activities and working formats, regardless of their respective locations.
Semester Programme
The programme of the summer semester 2022 is dedicated to the annual theme of Medialities. Guest lectures and reading seminars will clarify how Medialities can be a relevant heuristic angle for research in the cluster. Our ACC partners also contribute events to the annual theme. ICDL Lectures and two doctoral colloquia of BIGSAS are further integral parts of the programme. The guest lecture series of the Chair of Epistemologies of the Global South give it a special gloss.