Re-centering African Subjects and Subjectivities. Proposition for a New Research Agenda on Regionalism in Africa

• Applicant: Dr. Mariel Reiss
• Subject Area: Political Science
• Term: since 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 533506481

The scientific network brings together primarily early career scholars situated in the fields of political science, international relations, sociology, and anthropology who are working on African regionalism. Based on three points of critique of mainstream/Western and African scholarship on regionalism, and building on the members’ former and current work, the proposed network will generate new empirical knowledge, advance methodological approaches, and develop innovative theories. The network has three distinct but highly interconnected aims. First, the network will re-center African subjects and subjectivities, which have largely been ignored by mainstream debates in all stages of the research process. With African subjects and subjectivities, we mean the beliefs, knowledges, experiences, and practices of those doing or living under the conditions of African regionalisms. The network places these experiences and knowledges centerstage and advances crucial ongoing academic discussions concerning decolonizing the global economy of knowledge production. The network takes seriously that (inter)subjectivities are powerful determinants of knowledge, and argues that this has not been sufficiently accounted for in mainstream/Western scholarship on regionalism. Second, the network will explore the methodological implications of this shift in subjectivity. European subjectivities dominate regionalism studies, even on questions regarding African regionalism. Research epistemologies and methodologies have not sufficiently accounted for the realities of the African context or the knowledges that remain untapped because of inappropriate methods. Third, the network strives to explore underutilized African theories and concepts and develop new ones based on the lived experiences of the plurality of subjects involved in African regionalism. The proposed network is well-placed to foster such groundbreaking research because of a unique combination of expertise, high-quality societal connections with the African continent, and prior publication on key research questions. The membership includes scholars located at European and African Universities with diverse interdisciplinary experience in studying African regionalism; with each member having several months to years of extensive field research or personal lived experience, we are able to leverage diverse expertise on African realities. These include, but are not limited to, the broad themes of gender, conflict, political economy, institutions, and governance. The network will host three workshops throughout its three-year duration in line with the core themes. Each workshop will lead to a specific output: 1) a special issue on subjectivities in African regionalism; 2) an edited volume on methodological approaches and theory building on African regionalisms. Continuous exchange and the consolidation of the network is ensured through joint conference participation and colloquia.

• DFG Programme: Scientific Networks