The Materiality of Everyday Life in Africa: A Multi-Disciplinary Perspective

A full-day panel at the 6th Annual Lagos Studies Association Conference
Format: Hybrid (In-person, University of Lagos and Virtual) June 21-25, 2022

Panel Organizers: Abidemi Babatunde Babalola (The British Museum) and Vera-Simone Schulz (Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz – Max-Planck-Institut)

The humanities and social sciences have long tried to overcome the dominance of elite discourses with regard to art, architecture, and the development of complex societies to pay more scholarly attention to everyday life across time and space. This panel will contribute to these discussions by centering the materiality of everyday life, the so-called mundane things, in Africa through the perspectives of archaeology, art history and related disciplines. It will shed new light on the intersection of material culture and the everyday life in various contexts across the continent. It will interrogate the complex relationship between material and visual culture, and architecture and artifacts not as binaries but as a continuum. Furthermore, the panel will consider the dynamics between tangible and intangible cultural heritage, discuss narratives connected to material culture, examine collective practices, and address the question of displaying the materiality of everyday life in museums, both on the African continent and beyond.

Please send your abstract (max 250 words) and contact info to the panel organizers by January 1, 2022: vera-simone.schulzkhi.fi.it and tundebabalolagooglemail.com