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For ten days in September, Eldoret became a meeting point for doctoral researchers from three continents. From 14 to 23 September 2026, around 40 PhD candidates from Africa, Latin America and Europe gathered at Moi University in Kenya for the 26th edition of Fábrica de Ideias, an international doctoral school with a history reaching back almost three decades.

Hosted by the African Multiple Research Centre (AMRC) at Moi University, this year’s Fábrica de Ideias focused on Worldmaking at the Digital Threshold: Media, Memory, and Cultural Futures in Times of (De)globalization. The programme invited participants to examine how digital media and technologies are changing the ways societies communicate, remember the past and imagine their futures, while also paying attention to the inequalities and tensions accompanying these transformations.

Topics ranged from media technologies and changing forms of global connection to digital cultures, social tensions, memory and archives. Other sessions considered the role of artists, filmmakers, thinkers and communities in imagining alternative worlds, as well as the new methodological challenges faced by researchers working on rapidly changing digital environments.

The Doctoral School combined keynote lectures with doctoral workshops, paper clinics, methodology laboratories and creative sessions. This variety of formats gave participants the opportunity not only to discuss broader theoretical questions, but also to work on their own research and exchange ideas across disciplinary and regional boundaries.

A long-standing partnership within the Africa Multiple network

The 2026 edition of Fábrica de Ideias was hosted by the AMRC at Moi University and organised within the framework of the Africa Multiple Cluster of Excellence, in collaboration with the Federal University of Bahia, Moi University and the University of Bayreuth. The Cluster also provided substantial financial support for the Doctoral School, helping to make it possible to bring together doctoral researchers from Africa, Latin America and Europe in Eldoret.

Fábrica de Ideias and the Africa Multiple Cluster of Excellence have been closely connected since the Cluster’s first funding phase. Over the years, members of the Cluster and its partner institutions have participated in and contributed to different editions of the Doctoral School. The cooperation is rooted in a shared interest in strengthening academic exchange between Africa, Latin America and Europe and in creating spaces in which research and doctoral training can develop across regional and institutional boundaries.

The 2026 edition in Eldoret marked a further step in this long-standing collaboration. By hosting Fábrica de Ideias at the Moi University AMRC, an established Brazilian Doctoral School became part of the academic life of one of the Cluster’s African research centres. This also reflects a wider development within Africa Multiple: in its second funding phase, the cooperation with Fábrica de Ideias is becoming even more firmly embedded in the Cluster’s transregional structures.

The setting therefore fitted particularly well with the Cluster’s approach to doctoral training and international research cooperation. Through its network of African Multiple Research Centres and partner institutions, the Africa Multiple Cluster of Excellence brings researchers based in different regions into sustained exchange. Fábrica de Ideias has been part of this network of relationships for several years, providing a space where doctoral researchers and established scholars can work together across disciplinary and geographical boundaries.

From Brazil to an international doctoral school

Fábrica de Ideias was founded in Brazil in 1998 and has since developed into an established international doctoral school in Ethnic and African Studies. Closely associated with the Centre for Afro Oriental Studies at the Federal University of Bahia, it was conceived as an intensive space for academic training and intellectual exchange, bringing together doctoral researchers and established scholars.

Over the years, its reach has expanded considerably. What began in Brazil has helped to create connections between postgraduate programmes and researchers across Latin America, Africa, Europe and Asia. Previous editions have also moved beyond Salvador, reflecting the increasingly international character of the school and the networks that have grown around it.

The 26th Fábrica de Ideias in Eldoret continued this history while opening another chapter in it. Bringing together participants from Africa, Latin America and Europe at the Moi University African Multiple Research Centre, the Doctoral School created a space in which questions about digital transformation, memory and cultural futures could be approached from different disciplinary, intellectual and regional perspectives.

The ten days in Eldoret were therefore not only about discussing a digital world in transformation. They also showed what long term academic cooperation can make possible: researchers meeting across regions, sharing approaches and developing ideas together.

See some impressions from Fábrica de Ideias 2026 in Eldoret below.