The conference was cancelled.

Changing Environment, Changing Climate, Changing Societies and Politics in Africa

Against the background that the recent UN conference (COP 27) in Egypt proved that climate change and its impacts are particularly “hot” topics for the African continent this conference seeks to shed light on the nature of relations between people, the changing environment, and its socio-political consequences. The thirteenth VIVA AFRICA conference invites participants to explore human-societal-environmental relations and how they co-constitute and mutually influence each other on the African continent. In particular, we want to explore the changing roles of new technologies and cooperative strategies in Africa and pay attention to how the global South can inform the North. We invite scholars studying the complex entanglements of climate change, environmental change and social, political and economic dynamics which are mutually inseparable. We ask scholars to engage with such questions as: How have local communities historically dealt with environmental hardship and changes in environmental conditions? What are specific environmental challenges faced in African countries and how are they responded to? What is the impact of climate change on different policies, both within Africa and towards Africa? How are environmental challenges reflected in politics, culture and the arts? One of the central aims of this VIVA AFRICA conference is to provide a nuanced debate around these topics and to abandon too simplistic views of interactions between climate, environment and societies in Africa.

This interdisciplinary conference welcomes submissions on current as well as historical topics.

Academic comitee: Hana Horáková (Palacký University Olomouc), Kateřina Mildnerová (Palacký University Olomouc), Jan Prouza (University of Hradec Králové), Stephanie Rudwick (University of Hradec Králové), Vilém Řehák (Association for International Affairs), Martin Schmiedl (Mendel University Brno), Alžběta Šváblová (University of Bayreuth)

Local organizing committee: Jan Prouza (University of Hradec Králové), Stephanie Rudwick (University of Hradec Králové), Samuel Umoh (University of Hradec Králové)