FIFTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF THE ZIMBABWE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION 2019
Dates: 31 July – 2 August 2019
Venue: Midlands State University, Zvishavane Campus
THEME
TRIUMPHS, TRAGEDIES, AND NEW TRAJECTORIES: RETHINKING ZIMBABWEAN
HISTORY(IES)
Call for abstracts
The Zimbabwe Historical Association (ZHA) Fifth Annual Conference comes at a time when Zimbabwe has experienced a lot of social, economic and political turns, especially in urban spaces. Undeniably, urban life since colonial times has been characterised by a series of tragedies and triumphs. But, what new trajectories and narratives have emerged over time? Politicians, clergymen, news reporters, blog writers, musicians have all expressed their view in various ways, capturing what has happened in urban Zimbabwe for decades. The non-urban spaces, too, have also been sites of shifts and turns on various frontiers including the political and economic. Most of these have escaped the scrutiny of mainstream media and even scholarship. ZHA’s next conference seeks to provide a platform on which academics can explore the dynamics of Zimbabwe’s complex histories. Questions arise regarding the extent to which historical events and processes have led to new trajectories, (im)possibilities and prospects. It is around this very broad framing that the Fifth Annual Conference of the Zimbabwe Historical Association seeks to, once again, bring together stakeholders in historical studies to deliberate on various issues that feed into the conference’s broad theme.
Proposed Themes
- New histories? On research methods and theories in Zimbabwean histories.
- Governance and service delivery (education, health, transport etc).
- Poverty and inequality in cities.
- Climate change and environmental history.
- Music, cinema and urban life.
- Social media and the (un)making of history.
- Military transitions, and democracy in Zimbabwe.
- Race, Ethnicity and politics in Zimbabwe.
- Gender in Zimbabwean history: challenges, and new (im)possibilities.
- Liberation war histories, ‘urban’ and ‘rural’ problems, and futures.
- Urban-spaces, and the politics of space (re)production.
- Belonging, identity and everyday life.
- Waiting, protests and futures.
- Violence, Inquires and Reconciliation(s).
- Student activism, and the University(ies).
- Rethinking the University: What needs to be done? (Structures, Teaching and Approaches).
Submission of Abstracts
Abstracts, of not more than 250 words, and a short bio (less than 100 words) should be sent to the Conference Planning Committee to the emails below:
zimhist@gmail.com; godfreyh72@gmail.com; mazvitadawn@gmail.com
Please remember to include contact information. Papers will be delivered in English. It is envisaged that good papers will be published as part of a peer-reviewed book project.
Zimbabwe Historical Association 