Call For Paper - Africa International University

International Conference: October 24th – 26th, 2023 – Nairobi, Kenya

Announcement and Call for Abstracts and Papers

Theme: Contextualising Peacebuilding: Seizing Opportunities for African Realities

The abstracts should focus on reimaging contentions from the colonial narratives which continue to dominate the African geopolitics, like those presenting Africa as a ‘dark continent riddled with conflicts, devastation and poverty’, to the nominal quests for ‘African solutions to African problems. Contributions from diverse knowledge backgrounds, geopolitical regions, and diverse cultures are highly welcome based on the following proposed conference sub-themes and topics:

Decolonizing Methodologies and Knowledges in Peacebuilding

Epistemic Justice in Knowledge production and recognition in peace research

African approaches for decolonising peacebuilding research and practice

Opportunities for African Indigenous methodologies for researching peace and conflict

Research ownership, data protection, positionality, and knowledge sovereignty

Space for African vs Western researchers in peacebuilding

Peacebuilding through the Lens of Power and Interests

Who determines how to do peace?

Shifting the power by rethinking financing for peacebuilding

The geopolitics of power and peacebuilding in Africa

Local Institutional strengthening for peacebuilding

The role of international organizations in sustainable peace building.

Technology for Peace and Conflict Resolution

Technology, AI, and democracy: How is technology shaping African politics and elections, and post-election framings?

Social media space, disinformation, and misinformation

New threats by emerging technologies to peace building (hacking, algorithmic control to peace and political narratives in digital sites, facial/digital surveillance, and ethnic polarization)

Technology and indigenous methods for peace

Governance, Religion, and Contemporary Issues

Justice and political power – navigating the thin line between strong institutions and strong men for posterity and implications for peace

Space for religion in local peacebuilding – the role of the church or Islam in troubled spaces.

Inclusivity and special interest groups in building peace: gender considerations including LGBTQ, voice of children, space for people living with special needs and dynamics for the elderly

Climate change – indigenous practices for resolving resource conflicts, link between global campaigns and the local initiatives.

Peacebuilding and Conflict Management

The role of mediation and diplomacy in peace building

The role of Art in peace building

Conflict transformation and the role of Non-Governmental Organizations

Conflict prevention and early warning systems.

Culture and Ethnicity: cultural practices or positive aspects of ethnicity worth exploring in peacebuilding

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Criteria for abstract acceptance will be.

Relevance to the conference general topic and focus on selected thematic areas.
Research rigour and quality in terms of critical thought, methodology and theoretical aptness.

Submission of papers

Interested authors should submit an abstract (350 words maximum) by September 1st, 2023.
All abstracts should be strongly aligned to the conference thematic areas.
New Abstract Acceptance Notification date: September 10th, 2023.
Authors whose abstracts are accepted should be ready to submit full papers by October 1st, 2023. Authors who need any support with development of full papers can reach out to the secretariat using the details below
Each paper/article should not be more than 8,000 words (including title, authors, and references).
All submissions must be in English (preferably, UK (United Kingdom) English).

Deadline for submission of Abstract

New Abstract Submission date September 1^st, 2023. Submit your abstracts of not more than 350 words. The abstracts should include title, author(s), institution of affiliation and email contact(s) of all contributors, and key words. The abstracts should clearly articulate the problem statement, purpose or main argument/contribution, methodological and theoretical approach, and (expected) results and recommendations.