Material Cultures of Eastern Africa: New Historical Perspectives from the Local to the Global

British Academy Conferences bring together scholars from around the world to present, discuss and consolidate new research in the humanities and social sciences.

This multi-disciplinary conference brings together scholars and practitioners to explore how eastern African cultures have related to each other, as well as wider Indian Ocean and global networks, through the production and consumption of objects, architecture, and ideas. Themes include conflict, gender, religion, regional/global mobilities, collecting, museums, and empire. One of the key aims of the conference is to examine the appropriation of eastern African material cultural by collectors and museums, and consider the possibilities and implications of restitution and repatriation of historic cultural property. The conference aims to deconstruct and dismantle the borders between established fields, disciplinary traditions, and geographical locations, to open-up new methodological avenues, and to embrace a non-hierarchical approach towards critical thinking and cultural production.