European Conference on African Studies

When: 25–28 June 2025
Where: Prague
Organizers: Czech Association for African Studies & European African Studies Association

AEGIS organises the European Conference on African Studies (ECAS) every second year, in a different European city, convened by one or more AEGIS members. It has become the largest global African Studies gathering, growing exponentially every year and attracting scholars from across Europe, Africa and the world. 

CEFRES is a proud partner of this international conference which is is for the first time in its history located in one of the post-communist Visegrad countries – in the Czech Republic, known as the heart of Europe.

The 20th anniversary of ECAS will give us a great opportunity to look retrospectively at African studies in Europe, and more generally over the past two decades, while also providing new insights into the future development in the field. We will do our best to design a challenging programme of keynote speakers, plenary and roundtable sessions, film screenings, book displays focusing on African studies, and cultural and artistic events.

See the full program of the conference here.

Conference | Transnationalism, Activism and Solidarity

Romani Racialization Beyond Majority-Minority Narratives

When: 21–23 May 2025
Where: Vila Lanna, Institute of Czech Literature, CEFRES

CEFRES is hosting the closing round table on the 23rd of June.

Convenors: Tina MAGAZZINI and Martin FOTTA (Institute of Ethnology, Czech Academy of Sciences)

The conference is open to the public, but registration is required due to limited capacity.

📝 Register here: https://forms.office.com/e/HGQ7SNK2Rq
📄 The full programme is available for download as a PDF here. Continue reading Conference | Transnationalism, Activism and Solidarity

Conference | Central Europe and Francophone Africa in the aftermath of the Second World War: Crossroads

To mark the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War, the Centre universitaire francophone of the University of Szeged, in partnership with the Regional Centre of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and the Department of Modern History and Mediterranean Studies of the University of Szeged, is organising a conference entitled ‘Central Europe and Francophone Africa in the aftermath of the Second World War: crossroads’.

This event has been created in partnership with the French Research Center in Humanities and Social Sciences – Prague (CEFRES) and the French Institute in Hungary.

When: May 19 and 20, 2025
Where: Regional Centre of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Szeged

READ THE FULL PROGRAM HERE

Argumentary

This conference aims to interrogate post-history in two distinct regions that, at first glance, appear to share little in common, maintaining only distant relationships. However, when the fighting ended, both regions—considered peripherical—and their respective nations and populations experienced, simultaneously, an ambiguous and debatable liberation. With this paradox in mind, the conference seeks to highlight the inherent issues present in both regions within the broader perspective of the post–World War recomposition of the world, from which neither the European nor the African continent was exempt. The year 1945 marked the end of the dominance of traditional European powers and laid the foundations of the bipolar world order. These transformations had numerous repercussions for these regions, situated at the center of the superpowers’ geopolitical chessboard.

Taking a comparative approach, this conference positions itself as an open window into exploring the inherent or shared dynamics between Central Europe and Francophone Africa from the very end of hostilities onward. It also aims to describe the profound transformations, without losing sight of the fact that, although the year 1946 marked a rupture and a new beginning, it also belonged to the continuity of the old world.

Hence, the conference seeks to offer a space for reflection and dialogue between specialists of both regions—PhD students, early-career researchers, lecturers, and established scholars alike—to better understand the impact of the end of the Second World War on the contemporary history of Francophone Africa and Central Europe. The key perspectives proposed for discussion include:

  • Central Europe at the end of the Second World War
  • France and Central Europe from 1940 to 1950
  • Francophone Africa in 1945
  • The decolonization movements
  • Gaullism and Africa

Translation of Humanities and Social Sciences | Conference

When: May 15th and 16th, 2025
Where: Institute of World Literature, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Bratislava, Slovakia
Language: French, English
Organizers: Katarína Bednárová, Silvia Rybárová, Ján Živčák (Institute of World Literature, Slovak Academy of Sciences)

See the whole CFA
Download the program here.
See the official poster here.

This international conference is organised by The Institute of World Literature of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, Faculty of Arts of Comenius University Bratislava and CEFRES.

Photo: Mgr. Lucia Drotárová, PhD. Created with the help of AI.

Program

Continue reading Translation of Humanities and Social Sciences | Conference

École(s) de Paris: Crossroads of Arts and Transnational Encounters

École(s) de Paris: Crossroads of Arts and Transnational Encounters

A conference organized in partnership with the National Gallery in Prague and the French Institute in Prague, within the joint series Rezonance/Résonnance.

Date: 20 February, 2025, 9 a.m. – 7 p.m.
Location: Embassy of the Republic of Poland, Valdštejnská 8, Prague 1 ; French Institute in Prague, Štěpánská 35, Prague 1
Languages: French & English

Program
I. INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE

Embassy of the Republic of Poland, Valdštejnská 8, Prague 1

9:30 Registration, coffee

10:00 Introduction

Jacek Gajewski, Ambassador of Poland in Czech Republic
Stéphane Crouzat, Ambassador of France to the Czech Republic
Alicja Knast, General Director, National Gallery in Prague

10:15 – 11:30  Visual Arts

L´École de Paris entre les deux guerres et les artistes tchécoslovaques / École de Paris Between the Wars and Artists from Czechoslovakia
Anna Pravdová, Curator NGP and Curator of the Exhibition École de Paris: Artists from Bohemia and Interwar Paris

Les artistes juifs de l’École de Paris / Jewish Artists of the École de Paris
Pascale Samuel, Curator, Musée d’art et d’histoire du Judaïsme, Paris

École de Paris and Its Polish Connection
Artur Tanikowski, National Institute of Architecture and Urban Planning, Warszawa

11:30-11:50 COFFEE BREAK

11:50 – 13:00 Visual Art and Music

The Ukrainian Branch of the School of Paris. From Ukraine to Paris via Prague
Vita Susak, member of the Swiss Academic Society for East European Studies, Bern

Le groupe artistique polonais “Comité de Paris” (Kapistes) dans la Ville des Lumières / Polish artistic group “Paris Committee” (Kapists) in the “City of Lights”
Anna Baranowa, Association of Art Historians, Krakow Branch

 A Musical School of Paris? Between Ghost and Opportunity
Federico Lazzaro, University of Fribourg

13:10 – 14:10 LUNCH BREAK

II. LECTURE–CONCERT

Embassy of the Republic of Poland, Valdštejnská 8, Prague 1

14:30 – 16:00
Paris, capitale musicale polonaise dans l’entre-deux-guerres / Paris, the Polish Musical Capital in the Interwar Period 
Performers: Renata Suchowiejko (lecture in French), Joanna Maklakiewicz (piano), Marek Bugajski (viola).