Events
TALK
Wed 29 Apr
The Letter of the Law in J.E. Casely Hayford’s West Africa
This event brings together Jeanne-Marie Jackson (Johns Hopkins University), Gus Casely-Hayford (V&A East), and Doyle D. Calhoun (University of Cambridge) for a discussion of Jackson’s recent book.
The conversation reconsiders the life and work of J. E. Casely Hayford, a key figure in early twentieth-century West African political and intellectual history. The book offers a revisionist perspective on anticolonial thought, situating Hayford’s writing within broader debates about law, liberalism, and empire.
A drinks reception will follow the discussion.
Date: Wednesday, 29 April 2026
Time: 6:00–7:30 pm
Location: Peterhouse Library and Theatre
Link: https://luma.com/hgoj4xvt
in 9 days
TALK
Thu 30 Apr
Multiracial Identities in Africa: Race, Childhood, and Citizenship
Prof Rachel Jean-Baptiste, Stanford University
Despite increasingly hardened visions of racial difference in colonial governance in French Africa after World War I, interracial sexual relationships persisted, resulting in the births of thousands of children. These children, mostly born to African women and European men, sparked significant debate in African and French societies about race and how ideas about racial identity shaped childhood, parenting and parental rights, and citizenship. Tracing the life histories of multiracial children in several locations - St. Louis and Dakar, Senegal; Abidjan, Ivory Coast and Brazzaville, Congo; and Paris, France - this talk traces the fluctuating identities of multiracial individuals. Crucially, it centres claims by métis themselves to access social and citizenship rights amidst the refusal by fathers to recognize their lineage, and in the context of changing African racial thought and practice. In this history of race-making and rights, Jean-Baptiste demonstrates the diverse ways in which métis individuals and collectives carved out visions of belonging as children and citizens in Africa and Europe, thereby shaping global history
Join us for a book talk by Prof Rachel Jean-Baptiste at 4pm on Thursday 30th April. The venue is room S1 of the Alison Richard Building, and all are welcome to attend.
in 10 days
TALK
Thu 7 May
Celebrating African World Heritage
Annual Lecture: Mapping Africa's Endangered Archaeological Sites and Monuments Projects
in 17 days
TALK
Mon 15 Jun
Molecular and Genomic Approaches: Bacterial Meningitis Diagnosis and Survelliance in Africa
Wellcome, GB and other funders
This week-long training course, led by a team from Centre Suisse de Recherches Scientifiques (CSRS) en Côte d’Ivoire in collaboration with the Meningitis Research Foundation (MRF) and the Global Meningitis Genomic Partnership (GMGP) is funded by Wellcome, with support from the Wellcome Sanger Institute. The course will examine the impact of molecular and genomic approaches using regionally relevant clinical scenarios.
Participants will be guided through an intensive programme delivered by field experts providing a clear and comprehensive overview of the meningitis genomic workflow, with hands-on sequencing and data and bioinformatic analysis. They will also be introduced to different bioinformatic tools for sequence analysis including a new PUBMLST platform (AMERT) designed for African reference laboratories to store and analyse meningitis sequence data.
What will this course cover?
This course seeks to strengthen capacity by emphasising how techniques may be applied in different resourced settings and encouraging knowledge exchange through networking opportunities.
The programme will be delivered as a combination of lectures, interactive tutorials, and hands-on laboratory and computer practical sessions which cover approaches which are:
- currently applicable in clinical and diagnostic microbiology labs
- likely to be applicable in the foreseeable future, including whole genome sequencing (WGS) using portable devices
- of value to participants in interpreting the literature and assessing the likely utility of new technologies as they are developed
in 56 days