Press release
The African Studies Association of the UK (ASAUK) and the British Academy and Kings College, London is organising a writing workshop at National Museum, Banjul from March 25 -26 to assist Gambian early career scholars to prepare material for publication in international journals. ASAUK is committed to enhancing academic links between British and African institutions and to increasing representation in British journals of work by scholars based in Africa. Previous ASAUK workshops in the UK and in other parts of Africa have been extremely well received and there has been a strong demand for places. In 2014, a similar workshop was held in The Gambia and since then many of those who took part have published in academic journals.
The writing workshop will bring editors of H-AFRICA, The Journal of African Economic History, The Journal of West African History, King’s College London’s African Leadership Centre Journal, and Review of African Political Economy to The Gambia. The aim is to support postgraduate students as well as junior staff based in West African universities in preparing articles for submission and eventual publication in Africanist and international journals. The participating journals had asked prospective participants of the workshop to submit articles which address the journal themes. Professor Nwando Achebe, daughter of great African writer Chinua Achebe, will be among the professors from UK, USA, Guinea Bissau and France who will mentor the young scholars at the National Museum.
Others include Dr Toby Green, Kings College, UK; Dr Vincent Hirrabaren, University of London; Dr Carlos Cardosa formerly of CODESRIA from Guinea Bissau, and Professor Reg Cline Cole of University of Birmingham and Professor Joe AD Alie from Fourah Bay College, Sierra Leone.
The workshop will be hosted at the National Museum in Banjul and it will bring together 15 young Gambian scholars who will work with the journal editors to prepare their submissions for possible publication in academic journals. As part of the workshop, a new website dedicated to the first section of the West African Senior School Certificate Exams (WASSCE) will be launched. The website has 12 chapters covering various aspects of the WASSCE history syllabus which students can download free to assist them as supplementary material. The website is funded by Arts and Humanities Research Council, UK.
