Call for Papers – “Through the generations: youth, ageing and African Studies collections” – (SCOLMA Conference 2025)

CfP: Through the generations: youth, ageing and African Studies collections

30th June 2025

A one-day conference at the University of  Oxford

Keynote speaker: Dr Buhle Mbambo-Thata, University of Lesotho

It is well known that the African continent has the youngest population in the world, and is sometimes described as the ‘continent of the future’. What impact does this have on the role of archives and libraries that document the continent’s past?

This conference will explore the role of library and archive materials in African Studies in understanding generational change and in meeting the opportunities and challenges that it brings. How have generational change and the experiences of different generations been understood and recorded in the past? How do shifts in technological expectations shape how different generations expect to ‘access’ the past? How do digital technologies change the balances between written records and oral tradition and how can collecting practices adjust accordingly? How can archive or library materials be mobilised to be useful in schools and education for different age groups?

We welcome papers from librarians, archivists and researchers in a number of disciplines, including African Studies, Youth and Ageing Studies, History, Geography, Education, Heritage, and Refugee and Migration Studies. Papers may address a range of media including documents and manuscripts, photographs, newspapers, historical printed collections, audio-visual material and born-digital material. Equally they may describe projects that explore new methods or technologies focused on engaging different generations with archival and library collections.

Subjects may include, but are not limited to:

• Activities or projects that have sought to engage younger or older people with archival records and collections in/about the African continent
• Research or collections that have sought to capture particular generational perspectives or experiences
• Research or collections that have sought to document campaigns for rights by particular generations: youth/student movements, children’s organisations, or protests by older generations
• The creation of educational materials from archive and library collections for younger or older people
• Studies or reflections on use-patterns in archives and libraries by younger or older generations

The conference will be in-person.

With agreement from the speakers the papers will be recorded and made available online after the event.

Please submit abstracts of up to 350 words and a one-paragraph biography to Sarah Rhodes: sarah.rhodes@bodleian.ox.ac.uk by Friday 17th January, 2025.