Postdoctoral Fellowship in African Studies @ Princeton

 Application for Postdoctoral Research Associate

The Program in African Studies (PAS) at the Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies (PIIRS) at Princeton University invites applications for Postdoctoral Research Associate or more senior research positions for the 2022-2023 academic year.  Up to two postdoctoral appointments will be made to exceptional recent PhDs in the humanities, social sciences, interdisciplinary environmental science or engineering, with a focus on African thought, art, media, population, activism, conservation, economics, urban and rural communities, post-colonialism, and other research related to the African continent and its diaspora.  Appointments will be for one year with the possibility of renewal for a second year based on performance and availability of funding.  Applicants must have already demonstrated outstanding scholarly achievement and excellence in teaching.  This position is open only to scholars who earned a PhD after September 30, 2016 and who do not currently hold a tenure-track or permanent academic position.

Responsibilities include teaching (one semester-long course each year) and actively participating in research, discussions, and scholarly collaborations within PAS and PIIRS.  In addition, the successful candidate may have the opportunity to advise students in their area of expertise or related areas.  When teaching, the successful candidate will carry a secondary teaching rank.  Any teaching role is contingent on sufficient course enrollment and prior approval from the Dean of the Faculty. 

Appointments will be made through the Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies (PIIRS).  In addition to salary and benefits, the program will provide a research fund in the amount of $3,000 per year and office space.  The start date of the position is anticipated to be for the fall 2022 or spring 2023 semester. 

Applicants must apply online at https://www.princeton.edu/acad-positions/position/24221. The following application items are required and should be uploaded by the applicant: 

* Cover letter

* Curriculum vitae

* Dissertation abstract

* Writing sample: one chapter of the dissertation or one published article related to the dissertation topic

* Research proposal

* Two course syllabi

* Details of prior courses taught and evaluation results if available

* Names and email addresses for three references

For fullest consideration applicants should apply by March 1, 2022. Due to the anticipated volume of applications, only final candidates will be contacted. Further information about The Program in African Studies can be found at: http://piirs.princeton.edu/afs.

Questions about the application process for this position may be directed to Tim Waldron at twaldron@princeton.edu. 

The position is subject to the University's background check policy.

EJIL (European Journal of International Law) Podcast: "Loot"

Recently, I participated in a conversation with Dan Hicks (Oxford University) and Evelien Campfens (Leiden University) on the place of law in the discourse and practices of restitution of objects looted by Europeans in the age of empire. This, I think, is one of the most substantive discussions I have been privileged to take part in. We engaged questions like: How does international law respond to calls for restitution? Does the law even matter; if so which kind? Who resists return, and why? What might restitution mean today? The podcast was moderated by Megan Donaldson (UCL, London) and Surabhi Ranganathan (Cambridge) for the European Journal of International Law Podcast series.

The Podcast is 51 minutes long. If you have the time (you ought to!), click here to LISTEN:

Axios Podcast on the Afterlives of the Black Lives Matter Movement

It’s been 566 days since George Floyd was murdered by a Minneapolis police officer. His death spurred millions of people across the globe to protest in support of Black lives. We examine the impact in three locations: United Kingdom, Mexico and Nigeria.

Guests: Aba Amoah, co-founder of Justice for Black Lives; Alice Krozer, professor at the Center for Sociological Research at the College of Mexico; and Chika Okeke-Agulu, director of the African studies program at Princeton University and professor of art and archeology

Credits: "Axios Today" is brought to you by Axios and Pushkin Industries. This episode was produced by Nuria Marquez Martinez and edited by Alexandra Botti. Alex Sugiura is our sound engineer. Julia Redpath is our executive producer. Special thanks to editor-in-chief Sara Kehaulani Goo.

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST HERE:

CBC News feature on Museums and looted objects

This statue of the goddess Annapurna was stolen in 1913 from a Hindu temple in India by Regina lawyer Norman MacKenzie. 

Last night, Dec. 2, I discussed, with Kelda Yuen of the Canadian news network, CBC News, the matter of stolen artifacts in museum collections. This was in response to news that McKenzie Art Gallery in Regina, Saskatchewan Province, Canada, is reviewing over 2,000 pieces following the return of an Indian statue originally stolen from its owners by a Canadian collector Norman MacKenzie, who later gifted his hoard to the museum that bears his name today.

Here's a clip of the news segment

This "Elu" Mask!

I trained as a wood sculptor with some of the best teachers you could wish for in the academy. And, I think I was quite good with my chisels, gouges, and adzes. If you doubt, go ask El Anatsui, my teacher and former studio master. Yep.

And yet, I am always humbled by the supreme mastery of Ogoni sculptors who fashioned exquisite "Elu" face masks of sassily modern, early-to-mid-20th-century characters such as this guy. Check out his defiantly chamfered high-top fade haircut, with its knife-thin vertical slit! 

What about the flawless lines. There is not a single one that is not supremely rendered: the sweep of the hairline, the brows, the elegantly upturned nose. 

Awesome meeting of inspired craft and imagination.

Virgil Abloh (1981-2021)

He looked Whiteness in the eye

And with a steady hand

Turned it Off.

(For Virgil Abloh)

The Metropolitan's Gambit

Warrior Chief, 16th Century, Benin Kingdom. Now-returned by the Met

This past Monday, according to news reports, The Metropolitan Museum of Art officially handed over two Royal Benin plaques to representatives of the Federal Government of Nigeria, following an announcement last summer that it was planning to return these two artifacts. Fantastic news! Bravo to the Met for keeping to its word. I wasn’t there, but I am sure the Nigerians were thrilled to get back artifacts that should not have left their care in the first place. But there is a problem with how that event seemed to have concluded.

Here’s the thing. The two objects returned this week have a different history from the 160 or so “Benin Bronzes” in the Met’s collection. According to the Museum, of these two, one was part of a collection it received in the early 1990s; the other was offered to the Museum recently. Both, it was discovered, had been in the collection of the Lagos Museum, after they were acquired from Britain by Nigeria decades ago. The Met, in other words, did not want to keep artifacts illegally removed from another museum (in museum-speak, they were never deaccessioned by the Lagos museum, and so had no business turning up in the international market). To be sure, most self-respecting museums would do the same as the Met. However, the news and festivity around the return of these two objects seem to have come at the WRONG time, if you ask me. Why? Well, because, it is being conflated with the restitution of Royal Benin Bronzes looted in 1897 and now scattered mostly in Europe and the US, including the 160 held by the Met.

Junior Court Official, 16th Century, Benin Kingdom. Now-returned by the Met.

Let’s be clear. The return of the two objects illegally removed from the Lagos Museum must not be confused with and is not equivalent to the announcement by the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art that it intends to return the Benin Bronzes in its collection; or with the pledge by the German Government to return more than 1100 Benin Bronzes; or with the return two weeks ago by the French Government of 26 Dahomey Treasures to Benin Republic; or with the returns recently by Jesus College and University of Edinburgh of Royal Benin artifacts they once held. The Met has not said that it has any intention of returning any of the 160 objects in its collection. It appears to be sticking with the position that it acquired the looted objects legally. Reports from the Monday ceremony indicate that that position has not changed, and that is why no one should think otherwise.

Here is the part of the news reports that I am talking about. According to @hyperallergic and @observer, the Met and representatives of the Nigerian National Commission for Museums and Monuments “entered into a shared agreement to collaborate on mutual loans of Benin objects and other “exchanges of expertise and art.” LOANS. Yes, the Met returned two artifacts that disappeared from the Lagos Museum, and while handing them over agreed with the Nigerians on a mutual loan of Benin artifacts! I thought that after nearly half a decade of debate and discourse on restitution, we have moved beyond the silly, dishonest, and arrogant notion of loaning looted objects to their original claimants. If there is going to be any loaning of Royal Benin Art, it will have to be done by their Nigerian owners, not some Western institutions that have so far refused to acknowledge the fact that they are keeping looted objected.

So, here is a big Thank You! to the Met for returning the two objects. To the Nigerian museum officials: keep your damn house in order! But the second part of the ceremony last Monday, the one about “mutual loan agreement” is most regrettable and must be rejected by advocates of restitution of looted Royal Benin artifacts. Others are moving to return and restitute; the Met is talking about loans. Are you kidding me? 

Here is what Barnaby Phillips said back in June when the Met announced its plan to return to the Benin Bronzes. "But in returning these specific plaques, [the Met is] making an unacknowledged distinction between them and the rest of their Benin Bronzes. They are giving these two back because they were stolen from Nigerian Museums after independence, not because they were looted in 1897, This return is about PR and legality, not morality" 

I could not agree more.