LSA Panels at the African Studies Association Meeting (Atlanta, Georgia. November 20-22, 2025)
The LSA will have nine panels at the ASA in November. See the full list and schedule, below
1) Streets as Living Archives: Bodies, Movement, and Alternative Epistemologies in Urban Africa (Part I)
2) Streets as Living Archives: Bodies, Movement, and Alternative Epistemologies in Urban Africa (Part II)
3) Social, Political, and Economic History of Nigeria (Part I)
4) Social, Political, and Economic History of Nigeria (Part II)
5) New Light on Women, Gender, and Sexuality in Nigeria (Part I)
6) New Light on Women, Gender, and Sexuality in Nigeria (Part II)
7) AI, Digital Culture, Education, and Literacy in Africa
8) New Scholarships in African Cities and Environment
9) Jápa and Beyond: Unsettled Journeys, Continuities, Disruptions, and the Digital Turn in Black Migration
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Thursday 11/20/2025; 8:00 am - 9:45 am
I-F-2 Streets as Living Archives: Bodies, Movement, and Alternative Epistemologies in Urban Africa, Part I
Time: Nov 20, 2025 08:00 AM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Room: M106 (Marquis Level)
Sponsored by: Lagos Studies Association
Chair: Bánkólé Wright, Florida International University
Streets as archives of solidarity and resistance: A reading of toponymic cultures of Cape Coast, Ghana
Dorothy Takyiakwaa, The Pennsylvania State University
Seeing the Street Through Nollywood
Bánkólé Wright, Florida International University
Rewriting Reclamation Road: Streets and History in Old Lagos
Ademide Adelusi-Adeluyi, Howard University
Thursday 11/20/2025; 10:15 am – 12: 00 pm
II-F-3 Streets as Living Archives: Bodies, Movement, and Alternative Epistemologies in Urban Africa, Part II
Time: Nov 20, 2025 10:15 AM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Room: M106 (Marquis Level)
Sponsored by: Lagos Studies Association
Chair: Bankole Wright, Florida International University
Pedagogies of the Street in the African Bildungsroman
Chinelo Eneh, Florida State University
In Search of Kasoa Mamoudou: Reading Urban Market Spaces as Palimpsests of Postcolonial Accra
Fauziyatu Moro, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Where We Draw the Line: Exploring Subjective Neighborhood Boundaries in Urban Kenya
Sarah Daniel, University of California, Berkeley
A “state or people centered” regional integration? An Assessment of the East African Community
Mercy Kaburu, United States International University
Thursday 11/20/2025; 1:30 pm – 3:15 pm
III-I-4 Social, Political, and Economic History of Nigeria, Part I
Time: Nov 20, 2025 01:30 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Room: International 7 (International Level)
Sponsored by: Lagos Studies Association
Chair: Vicki Brennan, University of Vermont
Criminal Lunatics: Narratives and Spaces of Madness on the Streets of Lagos, Nigeria, 1906-1950
Ifeoma Ifunanya Aneke, University of Lagos
Democratic Transition, Party Politics, and Civilian Governance in Nigeria since the Late 1970s
Gloria Chuku, University of Maryland
Òtún We Òsì: Popoola and John Lopez Metal Sculptures
Tolulope Sobowale, Olabisi Onabanjo University
Voices of Survival: Navigating Societal Judgment, Stigma, and Identity Among COVID-19 Survivors in Nigeria
Sochima Peppertus Okafor, Yale University
Religion in the streets: Listening, Encounter, Performance
Vicki Brennan, University of Vermont
Thursday 11/20/2025; 3:45 pm – 5:30 pm
IV-K-13 Social, Political, and Economic History of Nigeria, Part II
Time: Nov 20, 2025 03:45 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Room: International 7 (International Level)
Sponsored by: Lagos Studies Association
Chair: Damilola Adebayo, York University
How not to liberate a people from the (un)known!: Smallpox epidemics, colonial interventions and the rise of rural anti-vax movements in Eastern Nigeria, c.1910-1950s
Damilola Adebayo, York University
Patrick C. Okpalaeke, York University
The British Colonial of Agricultural Policy and Politics in Lagos, 1861-1960
Jamiu K. Audu, Tai Solarin University of Education Ijagun
A Historical Reconstruction of the Financing of the Campaign to End the Slave Trade in Southern Nigeria
Michael Bakare, Geneva Graduate Institute
Colonialism, Disability and Labor: The making of A ‘Productive Disabled Subject in Nigeria, 1900-1960
Rasheed Alao Hassan, Florida International University
Religion and Spirituality as Pillars of African Intellectual Traditions and Knowledge Systems
Oreoluwa Ifelola Oguntomisin, University of Ilesa
Friday 11/21/2025; 8:00 am – 9:45 am V-B
V-B-8-New Light on Women, Gender, and Sexuality in Nigeria, Part II
Room: International 7 (International Level)
Sponsored by: Lagos Studies Association
Chair: Morenikeji Asaaju, Governors State University
The Return of the Repressed: Queer Agency in Hausa Digital Prose Fiction
Zaynab Ango, Ahmadu Bello University
Unveiling the Hidden Narratives: Revisiting the Neglected Contributions of African Women
Khadijat Yusuf Idoko, Kaduna Polytechnic
Queering Fuji: Temmie Ovwasa Subaltern Sonic
Rosemary Popoola, University of Wisconsin-Madison
The lingering silences faced by Igbo women and children in post-civil war southeastern Nigeria, 1970-2022
Joy Ugwu, University of Florida
Thrones and Love: Marriage and Power Dynamics in an African City
Morenikeji Asaaju, Governors State University
Friday 11/21/2025; 10:10 am – 12:00 pm W
Time: Nov 21, 2025 10:15 AM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
VI-B-13-New Light on Women, Gender, and Sexuality in Nigeria, Part II
Room: International 7 (International Level)
Sponsored by: Lagos Studies Association
Chair: Miracle Nduka, University of Mississippi
Navigating Identity and Activism: The Role of African Feminisms in Shaping Gender and Sexuality Discourses in Contemporary Africa
Maureen Ndu, Madonna University Nigeria
The Nigerian Military Family in the 21st Century
Fisayo Ajala, Stellenbosch University
Beyond Cultural Boundaries: Gender and Performance among the Yoruba
Oluwatoyin Olokodana-James, University of Lagos
Fueling Change: Gender and Charcoal Production in Saki Area of Oyo State
Abiola Ayodokun, Institut français de recherche en Afrique-Nigeria
Land for disease Control: leprosy segregation villages and indigenous responses, 1930s - 1946
Miracle Nduka, University of Mississippi
Friday 11/21/2025; 1:30 pm – 3:15 pm
VII-F-7 New Scholarships in African Cities and Environment
Time: Nov 21, 2025 01:30 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Room: L403 (Lobby Level)
Sponsored by: Lagos Studies Association
Chair: Halimat Somotan, Georgetown University
Fishing by Poisoning: Fishing Rights and Conflict in Colonial Lagos, 1920s – 1939
Sikiru Yusuff, Florida International University
Mapping Renting in Lagos: Oral History, Neighborhood Maps, and the Reconstruction of Tenants’ Lived Experiences
Halimat Somotan, Georgetown University
“The Redemption Camp is not as it seemed from outside”: Sacred Urban Space and Religiosity in Lagos.
Busuyi Adeleye, Florida International University
Saturday 11/22/2025; 8:00 am – 9:45 am
IX-N-19 Jápa and Beyond: Unsettled Journeys, Continuities, Disruptions, and the Digital Turn in Black Migration
Time: Nov 22, 2025 08:00 AM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Room: International 4 (International Level)
Sponsored by: Lagos Studies Association
Co-Chairs: Mojúbàolú Olúfúnké Okome, Brooklyn College Gbemisola Abiola, Harvard University
From Isé ajé so omo nù bí òkò (the capriciousness of the quest for fortune) to Jápa (abrupt departure by any means necessary): Continuities and Discontinuities in African Migrations to the West
Mojúbàolú Olúfúnké Okome, Brooklyn College
Networks of Aspiration: How Digital Platforms Fuel Black Transcontinental Mobility in the Era of Jápa and Blaxit
Gbemisola Abiola, Harvard University
Já, Jápa, Jápada: Transnational Linkages and the Non- Homothetic Aspirations of Nigerian Migrants
Omolola Olarinde-Olomola, Elizade University
Discussant: Cyril Obi, Social Science Research Council
Saturday 11/22/2025; 3:45 pm – 5:30 pm
XII-I-12 AI, Digital Culture, Education, and Literacy in Africa
Time: Nov 22, 2025 03:45 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Room: M102 (Marquis Level)
Sponsored by: Lagos Studies Association
Chair: Yetunde Alabede, Michigan State University
Bridging Worlds: Technology, Multilingualism, and Education in Rural Nigeria
Yetunde Alabede, Michigan State University
Digital Education and Learning in Africa
Mujeedah Abdul Aleem Olagunju, Voice of Nigeria
Digital Ubuntu: Leveraging African Ethical Frameworks for AI and Digital Technologies
Richard Oveh, Independent Scholar
Ghosts or Apparitions? A Study of Race and Power in Commercial Space Exploration
Iwalewa Olorunyomi, University of South Carolina