About AEGIS

Image: Mural of Amílcar Cabral in Bissau by Cazé, Ana Lúcia Sá 2022 

AEGIS (originally an acronym for ‘Africa-Europe Group for Interdisciplinary Studies’) is a network organisation made up of Europe-based member institutions connected to research and education on and in Africa and African Studies. Set up in 1991, it has expanded substantially since then. The original intention was to make visible and build upon the resources and research potential available among Africanist institutions in Europe. A key focus then – as now – was to facilitate meaningful institutional and individual connections and synergies within Europe, as well as to strengthen relationships with similar scholars and institutions in Africa, and elsewhere. 

Formally guided by its Internal Regulations (PDF), its substantive key aims are as follows: 

• to stimulate the expansion and sharing of intellectual resources for Africanist research especially within Europe
• to promote critical interdisciplinary, intersectional and decolonial approaches to the research and study of Africa
• to support the development of relevant new research themes in an openly collaborative manner
• to actively recognise and promote scholarship generated from within Africa and build meaningful collaborations between Europe- and Africa-based institutions and scholars
• to foster intellectual and institutional exchanges among students, researchers and teaching staff focused on Africa/African Studies within and beyond Europe
• to improve dissemination of research-based knowledge about and from Africa
• to showcase the extensive resource-base of Africa-related scholarship within Europe and promote its value and relevance for a range of social, cultural, policy-related and practical arenas

AEGIS’s mandate is fulfilled through both recurring and/or continuous major AEGIS activities, which include: 

• The large biennial European Conference on African Studies (ECAS)
• The biennial AEGIS Summer School
• Approximately ten thematic Collaborative Research Groups (CRGs)
• The AEGIS-Brill Africa book series
• Annual meetings of the network European Librarians in African Studies (ELIAS)
• A range of ad hoc thematic conferences and other collaborative activities

Contact details of the AEGIS Secretariat and President can be found on this page.