CfP: ‘African Newspaper Cultures’

The Centre of West African Studies at the University of Birmingham invites the submission of abstracts for the 2013 Cadbury Conference, on African newspapers, 17-18 May 2013.

Newspapers and print culture are an important emerging theme in African Studies, shedding light on the constitution of new publics, new genres and new forms of political and social expression and affiliation. Newspapers provide a substantial and unique resource for scholars researching Africa’s cultural and political history. They provide abundant traces of the events, concerns, idioms and debates of bygone times.

“We wish to explore the ways in which readers, writers, and editors in Africa have been able to experiment with different forms of public address and new genres of writing, and the ways in which the press convenes new kinds of public through the medium of print. Research topics may focus on any region of Africa and any period in the history of newspaper culture, up to and including the present day.”

For more info see the full call. Deadline for abstracts: 15 February 2013.