The Toyin Falola Masterclass on Studies of Africa
Description
Free online masterclasses by experts geared towards providing the intellectual and practical tools for exploring and analyzing Africa’s past and present. Classes will encompass debates and questions about Africa, as well as practical tips on how to study Africa from multiple perspectives.
This initiative is strategic for learning, as it affirms the enduring value of human-centered, dialogic education at a moment of global uncertainty, especially about the future of the academy, the future of the continent, and the future of the planet. By pioneering this model, the initiative sets a precedent that will guide how serious intellectual communities respond to the challenges of inequality in the global knowledge economy.
Objectives
The aim is to provide master tools for contemporary studies of Africa; assess how each participant’s work fits into the history of research on Africa; practically connect participants’ work with African knowledge transformation goals; and show how they can position themselves in conversations with research tradition.
Mode of learning
Online/virtual, dynamic, interpersonal learning mode, demonstrating the major shift to a multi-modal and engaging communication system that has continued to evolve since the emergence of the Internet, and amplified by the growth of the dialogical culture represented by social media.
Format
Participants will learn from and discuss with informed and enthusiastic scholars, as well as with one another. The focus is on the mutual exploration of ideas, with the goal of cultivating or sharpening the ability to critically produce knowledge.
Levels
- Introductory: Introduction to key facts, concepts, theories, methodologies, histories, and ideas
- Intermediate: Builds on prior knowledge of key concepts and facts for application and analysis
- Advanced: Advanced epistemological, theoretical and methodological tools, analysis and synthesis of metatheoretical ideas for diagnosis, solutions and designing of systems to address global and local problems
Focus areas
- Decolonization of knowledge: Reviewing (histories of) theories and debates around decolonization as a praxis in research, not simply as an idea, but as a way of writing about and thinking through African histories.
- African critiques of knowledge production: This will focus on learning about how Africanists have engaged with broader critiques of hegemonic knowledge production in academic fields.
- African knowledge systems and knowledge making: Focus on learning about indigenous, womanist/feminist, anticolonial, postcolonial, and various Afrocentric knowledge systems in various fields of study.
- Research Processes and Methodologies: This is targeted toward early- and mid-career researchers interested in or already engaged in studies of Africa. Areas of emphasis will include what it means to decolonize research methodologies; the kinds of research questions to ask, various research methods, and how to analyze data to reinforce or challenge dominant ideas about Africa.
Fees
No fees are charged.
Certification (if requested)
A certificate of completion of related modules will be issued, with participating universities and Pan-African University Press endorsing the certificate. Those who have completed the advanced levels will be awarded the title of “Fellow of the Masterclass of Studies of Africa,” FMSA. They can add “FMSA” after their names, including the module they have completed in brackets. For example: Ade Chukwu, FMSA (African Media History).
Proposed Modules in the Humanities
Foundations: What is Decolonization? (Concepts and Histories)
Political Thought and Liberaration Ideologies & Struggles
Decolonizing Knowledge and Epistemology
Decolonizing History and Memory
Language, Literature and Cultural Decolonization
Economics: Decolonizing Development
Gender, Feminism and Decolonization
Philosophy and Epistemology
Decolonizing Religion and Spirituality
Education and Knowledge Institutions
Art, Media and Aesthetics
Law, Justice and Human Rights
Environment and Land
International Relations and Global Order
Urbanism, Space and Infrastructure
The Global South and Comparative Decolonization
Contemporary Decolonial Debates and Movements
The Future of Decolonization