The European Conference on African Studies (ECAS) 2025

Building on the success of the previous ECAS conferences, the theme for ECAS 2025 – African, Afropolitan, and Afropean Belongings and Identities – highlights new challenges in embracing the complexities and ambiguities of our interconnected world, and in conceptualising multiple trajectories, constructions, expressions, and performances of social realities related to Africa and Africans. The topic reflects the tremendous heterogeneity in the approaches of African studies scholars to the study of in-between spaces in historical and contemporary African, Afropolitan and Afropean realities.

ECAS 2025 marks the anniversary of twenty years since the first ECAS conference in London in 2005. The 20th anniversary of ECAS will give us a great opportunity to look retrospectively at African studies in Europe, and more generally over the past two decades, while also providing new insights into the future development in the field. We will do our best to design a challenging programme of keynote speakers, plenary and roundtable sessions, film screenings, book displays focusing on African studies, and cultural and artistic events. We hope that this will be an unforgettable and inspiring experience for all of us, both scientifically and socially.

Being the flagship activity of AEGIS (the European African Studies Association), ECAS is the largest and most prestigious conference in the field of African studies in Europe and Africa. This conference is of equal, if not greater, importance for the Czech Republic, which has a long-standing tradition of African studies and can be proud of a number of world-renowned Africanists. The history of African studies goes back to the 1960s, with Charles University Prague playing an important role. Today, several Czech universities are engaged in multi-disciplinary research on Africa, especially the University of Hradec Kralove, the seat of the CAAS.