Important Dates

Afr(io)futurism: Debates, Contestations, Interventions

When: February 18-19, 2022
Where: University of Bayreuth, S 58 or virtually on Zoom
Convenors: Xin Li, Britta Frede, Mario Faust-Scalisi (PWG Afr(io)futurism)
Programme: To access the full programme of the event, please click here.

What might be Africa ’s futures? This question is part and parcel of both Afrofuturist and Africanfuturist movements. They focus on intersections of culture, philosophy, aesthetics, and history in the imagination of possible futures. While Afrofuturism is mainly concerned with afrocultural expressions in the African diaspora, Africanfuturism is an affirmation of the inadequacy of Afrofuturism in accounting for the different historical realities that shape continental Africa’s contribution to the futurist imaginary.

Although distinct in emp hases, Africanfuturism and Afro futurism are
interconnected strains of th ought with a strong commitment to interdisciplinary interventions in the making and theorizing of futures.
We adopt the term Afr(io)futurism as a conceptual bridge to investigate the interventions, debates, contestations taking place between these two perspectives. Further we conceptualize futures as nonlinear, plural, and inevitably entangled with power structures, silences, (ab)negation, and aesthetics.

Kindly register and indicate your willingness of participating
physically or virtually by sending an email to:
mariofaustscalisi@gmail.com