Call for Abstracts: Rethinking Peace, Security and Development in Contemporary Africa

Apr 22, 2015 | University of Bradford
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Dubbed as the year of Pan-Africanism and African Renaissance, 2013 saw many African countries celebrate their 50th anniversary of independence. Looking at its past, present and future developments, an air of optimism and determination has indeed pervaded the continent. While the Africa emerging narrative cannot be gainsaid, new challenges have also cropped up particularly in the area of peace, security and development. Terrorism and the rise of insurgent groups such as Al Shabab and Boko Haram, continued environmental and climate change, and the Ebola outbreak in West Africa all constitute a threat to continental peace, security and development. The setbacks are far-reaching and overwhelming to existing structures. While acknowledging these challenges, tremendous success stories and opportunities exist but often are not highlighted. Technology transfers and innovation for instance have proved to be a game changer in many sectors in Africa, including peace and security. This conference aims to examine the past and current approaches to peace, security and development in Africa in light of confronting the new challenges and the opportunities offered. Key themes focus on the emerging security challenges, technology and innovative approaches to peace and security and celebrating African successes and development. This conference targets experts from a range of fields and anticipates contributions from researchers and practitioners in the areas of conflict and peace studies, history and politics, business and management, environment and climate change, health studies, media, humanitarianism, engineering and technology. Contributions from other disciplines related to the conference are also welcomed. Deadline for submissions is 30th April, 2015, which should be sent to pgrconference2015@uni.bradford.ac.uk. Abstracts for single papers should be limited to 300 words. Proposals for panels are also welcome, and should be limited to 300 words, with separate abstracts of individual papers for the proposal (following the above word limit). Accepted participants will be required to send a full paper by 1st October, 2015.