MA by Research (MRes) African Studies at the University of Portsmouth (UK)

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We are now recruiting for September 2015 entry (full or part time) on the MA by Research (MRes) African Studies programme at the University of Portsmouth.

Internationally-recognised staff teaching on the course include Tony Chafer, a leading specialist on France’s colonial and post-colonial relations with sub-Saharan Francophone Africa, and Natalya Vince, a leading specialist on Algerian history and Franco-Algerian relations. The teaching team has developed excellent links with the universities of
Algiers and Dakar and also with the Ecole Normale (teacher-training college) in Algiers.

All students on the course will take a 30-credit module entitled France and Africa: Decolonisation and Post-Colonial Relations. They will also do a 60-credit Research Methods programme and a 90-credit dissertation. Students on the course will be encouraged to undertake a placement in Senegal as part of the programme.
The course is likely to appeal to students from a wide variety of disciplines, including languages and area studies, history, politics and development studies. French language is NOT a course requirement. For more information, please

Study half day reminder: “Crossing boundaries in the study of France and Africa”

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Wednesday 18 February 2015, 1.45-6.00pm

Milldam LE1.03, University of Portsmouth

This study half day will bring together scholars and students from inside and outside of the University of Portsmouth to explore new ways of studying France and Africa. Our particular focus will be on crossing boundaries – physical, temporal and methodological – and the new perspectives on Franco-African relations that can be gained from such an approach.

Some themes we will explore at this workshop include, but are not confined to:

  • crossing geographical borders, to explore France’s relationships with different Francophone African territories, as well as with regions beyond the traditional French sphere on the African continent;
  • breaking down chronological divides, notably between the pre-colonial, colonial and post-colonial periods;
  • combining different historical outlooks, including political, economic, cultural and social perspectives on the past;
  • transcending methodological boundaries, such as between different archives and diverse disciplines.

In so doing, this study half day will highlight the ways in which crossing commonly accepted boundaries sheds new light on the multi-faceted relationship between France and Africa, in both the past and the present.

Programme

1.45-1.55: Welcome

1.55 – 3.15: Panel 1 – Labour and detention

Chair: Fabienne Chamelot (Portsmouth)

  • Romain Tiquet (Humboldt): From the civilization by work to the law of work: political economy and coercive methods of recruitment in (post)colonial Sénégal, 1920s – 1960s
  • Ed Naylor (Portsmouth) “La salle des Africains”: Immigrant detention in Marseille during the 1960s and 1970s

3.15-3.45: Tea

3.45-5.45 – Panel 2 – Challenging geographical and chronological divides

Chair: Kelsey Suggitt (Portsmouth)

  • Stephen Tyre (St. Andrews): Discovering Africa: tourism in late-colonial and post-colonial French-speaking Africa
  • Roel van der Velde (Portsmouth) – Crossing borders: French arms trade and South African military strategy, 1955-1970
  • Vincent Duchaussoy (Rouen/ Glasgow) The Franc zone: a successful monetary decolonisation?

5.45-6.00: Closing remarks and thanks

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Please contact francophone@port.ac.uk for more information or to register for this event.