Published 02.10.2026
African Agencies: Entangled Pasts, Changing Worlds, Shared Futures
14-15 January 2027
The British Institute in Eastern Africa (BIEA) invites early career researchers, graduate students, and practitioners in the social sciences, arts and humanities to submit their titles and abstracts for the 2027 Graduate Conference. The Graduate Conference provides a platform for interdisciplinary and robust discussions on how different expressions of African agencies have interacted with and shaped our entangled pasts, changing worlds and shared futures. The conference format is hybrid, participants will be able to attend online or in-person at the BIEA Hub in Kileleshwa, Nairobi.
In a world of shifting geopolitical configurations, economic shocks and environmental cataclysms, the efforts by African people to shape the lives of their choosing take on new forms and urgency. Crucially, this entails re-evaluations of our multiple pasts, assessments of our evolving present and re-imaginings of our collective futures. The continued re-assertions of African Agencies have been expressed in numerous, complex ways and continue to chart diverse trajectories for the people of the continent. This conference aims to bring together students, scholars and practitioners in the social sciences, arts and humanities to reflect and deliberate on the multiple modes of African Agencies across different times, spaces and scales, as well as how these contribute to reshaping African lives, societies and conceptualizations of the possible.
We are therefore inviting paper abstracts for the BIEA Graduate Conference in line with the theme, ‘African Agencies: Entangled Pasts, Changing Worlds, Shared Futures’. Submissions should be in line with the BIEA research themes listed below:
Eligibility
How to Apply
Submit your title and abstracts (200-250 words), and a short bio of not more than 200 words (indicating your affiliation, area of research interest, contact details), addressing the Graduate Conference Theme and relevant BIEA research theme to [email protected] with email subject as ‘BIEA Graduate Conference 2027’. Please send the title, abstract and bio as one document.
The deadline for submission of abstract will be 30th November 2026. Successful applicants will be informed by 15th December 2026.
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