Female West Africa: Ethnographic Encounters

This seminar will explore West Africa through the glasses of female anthropologists; how do they work the terrain, what challenges do they face and which topics do they emphasize while discussing the extremely high variety of natural, societal and cultural forms characterizing West Africa? 'Female West Africa' is thus a seminar that creates encounters with women working during different times, coming from different generations, having various regional backgrounds and discussing, amongst others, also past and present lives and experiences of the very often mis-/underrepresented female population of West Africa.

Besides analyzing and rewarding female ethnographies/anthropologists, this seminar also critically engages in discussing ethnographic writing, feminist anthropology and gender equality/diversity in the social sciences. Finally, participants will further train their scientific reading and writing skills. Students who write a seminar paper may also include qualitative data collected through interviews with key anthropological authors.