AEGIS President’s welcome

The European Conference on African Studies (ECAS) is the proud flagship event of AEGIS, the European African Studies Association.  With the exception of a break at the height of the COVID pandemic in 2021, ECAS has been running consistently every two years for the past twenty years, each time hosted by one of the member institutions of AEGIS.  We are delighted that in 2025, ECAS is being hosted in the magnificent city of Prague by the dynamic Czech Association for African Studies (CAAS).

AEGIS is equally excited by the theme of ECAS 2025, African, Afropolitan, and Afropean Belongings and Identities. This brings to the fore an important set of contemporary questions and perspectives concerning the place/s and relationship/s of – and struggles between – different versions and voices of Africa, Africans and Africanness in the world, multiply experienced and expressed across time and space.

As an institutional member association, besides ECAS, AEGIS supports a range of other initiatives among its members that enhance African Studies-related research networks, exchanges, collaborations, publications, debates and dissemination, both within Europe and well beyond.  Among some of the most exciting activities are those generated among the ten thematic Collaborative Research Groups (CRGs), individual membership of which is open to all researchers globally. CRG panels are a key feature of every ECAS.  These and other AEGIS-related formations and events can be found via the AEGIS website (https://www.aegis-eu.org/).

AEGIS is always extremely honoured to welcome to each ECAS the impressive array of Africanist and African Studies scholars from across Europe, Africa and the globe.  We look forward to doing so again in Prague in June 2025.

Amanda Hammar
AEGIS President