Annals: Departmental reports and staff listings
University of Birmingham
University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 2TT
Tel: 0121 414 3344
www.bham.ac.uk
Departmental report
Anthropology teaching is mainly concentrated in the interdisciplinary Centre of West African Studies, which offers a half-degree in Anthropology (as one component of a range of Joint Honours programmes) as well as a full degree programme in African Studies with Anthropology (minimum 33% of courses in anthropology, 66% in other fields of African Studies or social science courses from outside the department). Individual courses in anthropology are offered as options in undergraduate degrees in African Studies, African Studies with Development Studies, and Joint Honours programmes where African Studies is one component.
Research supervision (MA with dissertation, MPhil and PhD) is also available on a range of fields within Africanist anthropology. Topics currently under supervision include: churches’ use of vodun music in Benin; online news reporting in Nigeria; media representations of the osu practice in Eastern Nigeria; hiplife and highlife in Ghana; hiphop in Tanzania.
The Centre of West African Studies continues to run an African Studies with Anthropology undergraduate degree programme as well as a half-degree in Anthropology. We also continue to recruit research students in a wide range of areas within Africanist anthropology.
Karin Barber is now working on a project on early Yoruba print culture (see her contribution to Recasting the Past, ed. Derek Peterson and Giacomo Macola, Ohio University Press, 2009). Lynne Brydon is continuing research on identity and globalisation in Avatime (Ghana). Her monograph An Intimate History of Amedzofe: Lives and Livings Through the Twentieth Century has been submitted for publication in the International African Library. Insa Nolte’s monograph Obafemi Awolowo and the Making of Remo: the local politics of a Nigerian nationalist was launched at a well-attended event in October 2009 graced by the presence of the Governor of Ogun State, Otunba Gbenga Daniel, and Mrs Awolowo-Dosunmu. Dr Katrien Pype joined us in February 2009 on a Newton International Fellowship. Her research has focused on the urban popular culture and politics of the Democratic Republic of Congo, and currently specifically on media representation of/by politicians and political issues in contemporary Kinshasa.
Teaching and research staff within the Centre of West African Studies who specialise in Anthropology
Professor K Barber (PhD 1979, Ife; Professor of African Cultural Anthropology) Yoruba language and culture; anthropology of texts, popular culture, religion; West Africa; Nigeria
L Brydon (PhD 1976, Cambridge; Senior Lecturer) Contemporary African society, gender and development; West Africa, Ghana
Insa Nolte (PhD 1999, Birmingham; Lecturer) Chiefship and urban politics; West Africa, Nigeria.
Katrien Pype (PhD 2008, Leuven; Newton International Fellow) Religion, media, popular culture, politics and youth in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Anthropologists in other departments
Dr Martin Stringer (Theology)
Professor Jonathan Webber (Theology)
Special resources: Yoruba language training – classes and language lab facilities; video and audio materials on African popular music and drama.
Departmental publications series: Sierra Leone Studies at Birmingham; Birmingham University African Studies Series; Occasional Papers series