Gareth Austin: "A.G. Hopkins and Markets in West African History"

Graduate students relate a few lessons learned under Professor Hopkins' tutelage, Joseph Inikori and Robin Law share memorable Hopkins moments, Dr. Austin speaks about "A.G. Hopkins and Markets in West African History", and Prof. Hopkins responds with gratitude and wit.

http://vimeo.com/utafrica/2011aghopkinskeynote

Poverty and Empowerment in Africa

Africa is among the most resourceful continents in the world and yet the least developed compared to other continents.  This has not always been the case historically as many pre-colonial formations had successful agrarian and market economies that delivered food and services. When and how did things begin to go wrong? Today, the scourge of poverty remains an entrenched reality, as the majority of inhabitants in some places struggle to make a living. The model of empowering Africa to dig out of this quagmire remains elusive. Against this background the thrust of this interdisciplinary conference is to engage scholars to reflect on the historical and contemporary issues of poverty, poverty alleviation, and empowerment.
It is also to generate a dialogue and incite meaningful debates on the conceptualization of poverty and empowerment. Was Africa and poverty conceived in the same ‘womb’? Or is it the case that Africa ‘betrothed’ poverty.  In what ways and with what level of success has a resourceful Africa over time empowered its citizenry?  What has been the bane and ramifications of poverty reduction/eradication and empowerment? Can scholars come up with meaningful new policies?


The conference will be held at:
Location: The University of Texas at Austin
March 30 - April 1, 2012




http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/2012/12Home.html

The Bibliography of Slavery

The Bibliography of Slavery is a searchable database containing verified references (except as noted) to approximately 25,000 scholarly works in all academic disciplines and in all western European languages on slavery and slaving, worldwide and throughout human history, including modern times. It includes all known print materials published since 1900 in scholarly formats, as well as digital scholarly journals, recent unpublished presentations at academic conferences, professional historical sites, and major museum exhibitions and catalogs.

The bibliography includes only works sufficiently focused on these subjects to feature references to them in their titles; users of the database interested in further studies treating slavery or slaving in contexts of other subjects — Christianity, agriculture, ancient cities, general ethnographic descriptions, and so on — may expect to find ample leads to this further range of references in the footnotes and bibliographies of the works included here. It does not attempt to cover journalistic treatments, policy-oriented papers, juvenile materials, fiction, or the digital resources proliferating on the Internet, except for major academic sites. Even with the all-but limitless capacity of digital technology to hand, attempting to extend coverage of the arresting and pervasive human tendency to enslave to these exhaustive levels would render the database all but unmanageable.