Workshop
Pan-Africanisms – Learning from Networks of Solidarity
With Ibou Diop, Cate Lartey, Justin Randolph Thompson
18 November 2025
9:30 - 18:00 (CET)
Venue: Seminarraum 3.03, Global South Studies Center (GSSC), Classen-Kappelmann-Str. 24, 50931 Cologne
This workshop is devoted to historical and contemporary perspectives on Pan-Africanism as a polyphonic project of solidarity, self-determination, and collective future-making – networks that reach far beyond the African continent and materialized in events such as the Conference of African Writers in Rome and Paris in the 1950s or the cultural festival FESTAC (1977 in Lagos, Nigeria). At the same time, the global entanglements of decolonial and resistant practices become visible – stretching from the Black Atlantic to the Black Pacific and around the globe – and living on in the diaspora here in Germany as well.
Together with Ibou Diop, Cate Lartey, and Justin Randolph Thompson, we will explore theoretical impulses, artistic–archival practices, and performative approaches that translate Pan-African thinking into contemporary contexts. In substantive resonance with the Conference of African Writers, the workshop understands itself as a laboratory in which political, literary, and artistic practices are interwoven. In light of the current political right-wing shift and the dismantling of diversity structures throughout university and cultural institutions, it is more urgent than ever to draw on these blueprints of solidarity and resistance to develop new perspectives for transcultural alliances and federationality across cultural differences.
(Contributions in German and English)
The workshop is organized in cooperation with the Thematic Area “South-South Relations: Engaging With New Constellations and Dynamics in the Global Souths” of the Global South Studies Center (GSSC) and the research training group “anschließen – ausschließen” at the University of Cologne.
Participation & Registration:
The workshop is open to all status groups and is designed as a full-day workshop with a shared lunch. The number of participants is limited; therefore, please register by 31 October via a short email to a.stillger[at]uni-koeln.de (in 1–2 sentences, please state your field and/or your interest in the workshop).