Boundaries and Belonging in Central Africa and Beyond
Frontières et appartenance en Afrique centrale et au-delà
Published on Tuesday, April 14, 2026
Abstract
At this conference, we seek to highlight questions around the nature of boundaries in Central Africa and beyond - whether that means physical, political, and communal boundaries or disciplinary boundaries. How do boundaries function in the past and present within the region and in its relationships with the rest of the continent? What might it look like to build more effective bridges across boundaries to address the pressing political, economic, and social issues in Central Africa and its diasporas?
Announcement
Description
The conference will explore the theme of building ties across boundaries in Central Africa and beyond. Boundaries - whether between places, peoples, or disciplines - have always been contentious. They have been created to bind people, ideas, and lands together, helping to fashion identities and build solidarities (Anderson 1983). But they have also been used to exclude, separate, or contain, as they stake claims about resources, identity, and other forms of belonging and unbelonging (Ignatieff 1993). Boundaries are also often notoriously porous. At this conference, we seek to highlight questions around the nature of boundaries in Central Africa and beyond - whether that means physical, political, and communal boundaries or disciplinary boundaries. How do boundaries function in the past and present within the region and in its relationships with the rest of the continent ? What might it look like to build more effective bridges across boundaries to address the pressing political, economic, and social issues in Central Africa and its diasporas ?
Conference Themes
This interdisciplinary call for papers is open (and not limited) to scholars, including but not limited to Africanist researchers, and specialists in the humanities and other scientific disciplines (including anthropology, economics, history, political science, religion, and sociology, etc.), who are interested in these issues. Below are some suggested subthemes to consider when preparing your proposals. They are not meant to be exhaustive and other subthemes are welcome :
Theme 1 : Boundaries, and the (Re)Making of Identities and Solidarities
- Ethnicity and belonging
- Religious nationalism
- Local, national, and colonial languages
- Space and Identity
Theme 2 : Nation-state, spatial, and urban/rural boundaries
- Borders, Conflict, and Violence
- Mobility, Migration, Flight, and Diasporas
- Spatial (non)Integrations (rural/urban, East/West, North/South, etc)
- Regional Connections and Disruptions
Theme 3 : Interdisciplinarity, Decoloniality, and Epistemic Frontiers
- North/South Boundaries and Collaborations
- Working Across Disciplinary Lines
- Decolonial Methods and Epistemologies
Submission Guidelines
Proposals should not exceed 250 words (Times New Roman, size 12, single spaced). They must clearly indicate the title of the paper, name(s) and surname(s) of the author(s), their institutional affiliation, contact details, research question, methodology, main themes of the paper, and five keywords.
Abstracts should be sent to Kinshasaconference2026@gmail.com and copied to the following 3 email addresses :
- roger.alfani@shu.edu
- eggersna@utk.edu
- aleinweber@missouristate.edu
Important Dates and Additional Information
- Call for Papers Release Date : Monday, March 16, 2026
- Deadline for Abstract Submission – EXTENDED – : Monday, April 13, 2026 FRIDAY, APRIL 17, 2026
- Notification to Authors : Monday, April 27, 2026
- Conference Dates : Friday, July 10, and Saturday, July 11, 2026
Conference Venue : Centre d’Études Pour l’Action Sociale (CEPAS), Kinshasa, DRCongo
Format : The conference will be bilingual (French and English). Presentations will be in person but efforts will be made to allow a virtual audience.
Scientific Committee
- Alfani, Roger (Seton Hall University, USA)
- Eggers, Nicole (University of Tennessee/Knoxville, USA)
- Leinweber, Ashley (Missouri State University, USA)
- Organizing Committee
- Alfani, Roger
- Biantendo Nkula, Emmanuella
- Eggers, Nicole
- Katambayi, Gedeon
- Leinweber, Ashley
Selected Bibliography
Anderson, Benedict. 2006. Imagined Communities : Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. Revised edition. Verso.
Brubaker, Rogers. 2004. Identity without Groups. Harvard University Press.
Ignatieff. Michael. 1993. Blood and Belonging : Journeys into the New Nationalism. BBC Books.
Lefebvre, Henri. 2009. State, Space, World : Selected Essays. Edited by Neil Brenner and Stuart Elden. University of Minnesota Press.
_____________. 1991. The Production of Space. Blackwell Publishing.
_____________. 1970. Du Rural à l’urbain. Paris : Éditions Anthropos.
Mathys, Gillian. 2025. Fractured Pasts in Lake Kivu’s Borderlands : Conflicts, Connections and Mobility in Central Africa. Cambridge University Press.
Mbembe, Achille. 2000. “At the edge of the World : Boundaries, Territoriality, and Sovereignty in Africa.” Public Culture 12. pp. 259-84.
Mignolo, Walter, and Catherine E. Walsh. 2018. On Decoloniality : Concepts, Analytics, Praxis. Duke University Press.
Mutanga, Oliver. (2025). Navigating Epistemic Borders : Lived Experiences of Global South Researchers in Knowledge Production. In : Mutanga, O., Mkwananzi, F. (eds) Navigating Complex Research Terrains. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.
Ndlovu-Gatsheni, S. J. 2018. Epistemic freedom in Africa : Deprovincialization and decolonization. Routledge.
Ngũgĩ wa Thiongʼo. 2025. Decolonizing Language and Other Revolutionary Ideas. The New Press.
Tilly, Charles. 2016. Identities, Boundaries, and Social Ties. 2nd ed. Routledge.
Subjects
- Africa (Main category)
- Society > Sociology > Sociology of work
- Society > Ethnology, anthropology > Social anthropology
- Society > Science studies > History of science
- Society > Sociology > Gender studies
- Society > Ethnology, anthropology > Cultural anthropology
- Society > Ethnology, anthropology > Political anthropology
- Society > Sociology > Urban sociology
Places
- Centre d'Études Pour l'Action Sociale (CEPAS), Kinshasa, DRCongo
Kinshasa, Congo
Event attendance modalities
Hybrid event (on site and online)
Date(s)
- Friday, April 17, 2026
Attached files
Contact(s)
- Roger Alfani
courriel : roger [dot] alfani [at] shu [dot] edu - Nicole Eggers
courriel : eggersna [at] utk [dot] edu - Ashley Leinweber
courriel : aleinweber [at] missouristate [dot] edu
Reference Urls
Information source
- Roger Alfani
courriel : roger [dot] alfani [at] shu [dot] edu
License
This announcement is licensed under the terms of Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal.
To cite this announcement
« Boundaries and Belonging in Central Africa and Beyond », Call for papers, Calenda, Published on Tuesday, April 14, 2026, https://doi.org/10.58079/16285
