On Tuesday 18 November we were delighted to bring together around 40 colleagues working on Africa-facing research, with the aim of identifying challenges, harnessing opportunities and finding out how PARC can better support this community of practice.
Oliver Quick (Associate Pro Vice-Chancellor, International Partnerships & Reputation) welcomed attendees and introduced the event, speaking about the importance of international partnerships, especially with the opening of the Mumbai campus.
Leon Tikly gave the history of PARC, noting that it is a relatively young Centre, having only been launched officially in 2021. He looked at the layers of imbalance in global North-Africa research partnerships, and how the odds are stacked against our African partners in so many ways, particularly as we are all beholden to funders.
He also outlined the PARC 2.0 vision for the future, and how this is very much concerned with strengthening Bristol’s own community of Africa-facing research
Bristol’s research with African partners is substantial, with 26 African countries represented.
By faculty:
Generating discussion
The panel discussion was about identifying challenges and opportunities in Africa-facing research, and how PARC could support it.
The distinguished panel was Chaired by Agnes Nairn (Business School) and included:
- Foluke Adebisi (Law School)
- Ruth Bush (co-Director, CBH)
- Rachel James (Geographical Sciences)
- Afua Twum-Danso Imoh (African Researchers Network)
- Tiernan Williams (DREI)
- Sam Williamson (SCEEM)
A summary of challenges, opportunities and priorities was circulated around attendees following the event.
Looking ahead – community-building
Many thanks to all the colleagues and speakers who made this event such a success. To continue to foster a community of Africa-facing researchers in Bristol, PARC will be working with our current partners, with the Reparative Futures team and the Bristol Africa diaspora. We will build on our existing strengths and also work towards mobilising capacity for researchers and other staff, with activities including training, informal events for the research community, and a seminar series.
