Call for papers

The Czech Association for African Studies is pleased to invite scholars, researchers, practitioners, and students to participate in the Viva Africa 2026 Conference, to be held in Prague on 5–6 November 2026. As global political, social, economic, and epistemic landscapes undergo profound transformations, Africa stands at the center of shifting configurations of power, knowledge, and agency. In the current era of the “changing world order”, Africa plays an increasingly important role in the global arena. This conference seeks to move beyond reductive frameworks and foreground Africa as a dynamic and pluralistic site of agency, creativity, and contestation.

We invite contributions that critically engage with Africa’s place in today’s world and explore the continent’s internal dynamics across disciplines. The conference aims to foster dialogue between political science, anthropology, sociology, history, development studies, cultural studies, and related fields, encouraging both empirically grounded and theoretically innovative approaches.

Key Themes and Topics

We welcome papers addressing (but not limited to) the following themes:

1. Agency

• Africa’s role in emerging global political and economic configurations


• Multipolarity, South–South relations, and new partnerships


• Postcolonial entanglements and asymmetries


• Local actors in socio-economic transformation

2. Knowledge

• Education, culture, and creativity


• Local development paradigms and critiques


• Informality, entrepreneurship, and innovation


• Social transformations, urbanization, and industrialization

3. Power

• State-society relations in the changing world order era


• Media, digital spaces, and politics


• Representation of Africa in global discourse


• Grassroots peace initiatives

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

The Academic Comittee and Local Organizing Committee are constituted by the Presidium of the CAAS Association