Research
The overarching aim of the “Africa Multiple” Cluster is to reconfigure African studies, on both the conceptual and the structural level. The cluster is conceived as a transformative space within which to systematically advance the study of Africa and its diasporas via the pursuit of transdisciplinary research, with a strong emphasis on critical area studies, in addition to the disciplines involved. Building on decades of internationally outstanding research in African studies at University of Bayreuth, the cluster will develop new approaches to the analysis of African and African diasporic lifeworlds through the lens of multiplicity.
The proposed structure of the cluster will set unique standards for collaborative research in this field, connecting a wide range of academic disciplines; building an innovative digital research environment; and integrating scholars and institutions in a global research network, with particularly strong nodes on the African continent. The cluster’s research (infra-)structure is designed to overcome existing power imbalances in the production and transmission of knowledge in African studies, and thus to set unprecedented standards for collaborative research in this field. Together with our African colleagues, we establish four “African Cluster Centres” on the African continent.
The defining concept of our research programme is multiplicity. This both describes our joint field of research, and emphasises that it is in and through multiple relations that the phenomena under study emerge. In order to facilitate an interdisciplinary approach to the study of multiplicity, we will also draw on the concepts of relationality and reflexivity as analytical tools; making up our three key concepts. The key concept of relationality refers to the (reflexive) relational processes in and through which phenomena materialise. To further analyse and conceptualise these processes, we have developed the four heuristic categories, or “angles” of modalities, medialities, temporalities and spatialities. We consider that these angles are particularly well-suited to the cluster, not only in terms of gaining methodological access to relationality and, through it, multiplicity, but also to initiate the cluster’s joint discussions across disciplines and empirical fields, without forcing them into one epistemological frame. The four angles will also be key tools for the research projects organised in and by the Research Sections.
- Please find the current Africa Multiple Cluster Research Digest here.
- Please find an overview of Structures, concepts, and themes of the Africa Multiple Cluster of Excellence here.
Code of conduct
The following Code of Conduct is adopted as the desired norm for communicative praxis and social interaction in the Africa Multiple Cluster of Excellence. ...more
Located at the centre of its research activities, the Knowledge Lab (KL) interlinks the cluster’s three main research structures: the African Cluster Centres, the Academy, and the Research Sections. The KL offers a variety of meeting formats—from the ad hoc to the regular and formal—for cluster members and guests to come together and propel academic debates....more
The research will be organised into thematic fields, to be studied within the cluster’s six research sections that will bring together groups of researchers drawn from different academic disciplines, junior and senior scholars from University of Bayreuth, individual cooperation partners from other universities, the cluster centres and partner institutions in Africa and elsewhere. ...more
Bayreuth Academy of Advanced African Studies
The Bayreuth Academy of Advanced African Studies is an inter- and transdisciplinary research college at the University of Bayreuth. It started its research on the topic of “Future Africa – Visions in Time” on the 1st of October, 2012. The project has been expanded and extended till the end of 2018 under the theme “Future Africa and Beyond – Visions in Time”....more
AABC
African Alphabets of the Bayreuth Cluster (AABC) provides mobiles and desktop PCs (Windows and iOS) with keyboards for all common African languages and scripts. For more information and the download link for the all devices (Windows / Mac / android / iOS) please click here.