Further news
New Directory of Africanists in Britain
The first edition of A Directory of Africanists in Britain appeared in 1986. Further, revised editions were published in 1990 and 1996, in both cases with the financial backing of the Royal African Society. Although none of the volumes managed quite to include all those who were based in the United Kingdom and were carrying out some form of research related to the continent, around 550 individuals nevertheless appeared in the latest volume.
It is high time that a new, and technologically more modern, edition was produced. The ASAUK has agreed to fund a new Directory, to be kept electronically within its website. All active Africanists (“a person who is studying or researching on a topic directly related to the continent of Africa”) should be contacted within the next few months by Anne Merriman, who helped edit the earlier versions, with an on-line questionnaire. The data will be stored in such a way that members, including postgraduate members, will be able not only to look up specific individuals but also search for key words (country, say, or discipline) or a combination of words (Kenya plus economist). This is intended to help scholars working in similar or cognate fields to make contact with each other. It might also help review editors to find reviewers.
One great advantage of this new Directory will be the facility to keep it up-to-date easily and quickly. It will also be possible to add names at any time, as new people join the profession, or existing Africanists are ‘discovered’, or, even, well-known Africanists finally get round to filling the questionnaire in! I hope very much that those who receive the questionnaire by email will return it relatively quickly and inform us of Africanists they know who whom we might not have initially approached. The material from this survey will be used to fulfil part of the agreement recently made between the British Academy and the ASAUK. Some years ago, I prepared a Report for the Economic and Social Research Council on the state of area studies and this will be a partial update of that work, focusing exclusively on Africa.
Richard Hodder-Williams
