Back to selection
77990-01 - Practical course: Planetarity from Africa: Developing a Research Agenda (3 CP)
| Semester | spring semester 2026 |
| Course frequency | Once only |
| Lecturers |
Kenny R. Cupers (kenny.cupers@unibas.ch)
Julia Tischler (julia.tischler@unibas.ch, Assessor) |
| Content | This course examines African concepts and approaches to planetary health and habitability, emphasizing their relevance to global challenges. It serves as a platform for collaboratively conceptualizing new research agendas as well as a new MSG that will focus on themes of planetary health, cities, and environment from African perspectives. Planetary health, an increasingly prominent framework, highlights the interdependence of human well-being with ecological systems. By adopting a relational and multifactorial perspective, this course expands the notion of health from a biomedical condition to include socio-ecological relations, equity, and justice on a planetary scale. The course explores how African perspectives contribute to global debates on reparations, climate justice, decolonization, and decarbonization. African Studies’ interdisciplinary breadth—encompassing history, anthropology, sociology, urban studies, architecture, political science, and theology—provides a pertinent lens to address global inequities and envision inclusive, cosmopolitan futures. Integrating transdisciplinary social science, environmental humanities, and critically engaged pedagogy with health science, the course analyzes the socio-economic drivers and consequences of planetary transformation. Students will examine how the uneven impacts of environmental degradation and climate change underscore global inequalities and necessitate interdisciplinary approaches to planetary health. The course examines Africa’s rapid urbanization and its central role in climate adaptation and decarbonization policies. By challenging dominant frameworks of development, students will explore the relationships between urban processes, planetary politics, and global asymmetries. Using African cities as case studies, the course connects these discussions to broader issues of planetary futures. Finally, the course situates Africa-related research as a platform for methodological innovation and critical engagement with knowledge production. Students will interrogate what constitutes legitimate knowledge and how African epistemologies can be harnessed to guide social sciences and humanities towards research that respects the rights of both human and non-human systems. |
| Learning objectives | Critical understanding of notions of planetary health, well-being and cosmopolitanism from Africa perspectives Collaborative research design skills at the intersection of critical humanities, engaged social and site-based research, and environmental and medical science |
| Bibliography | Macamo, Elísio. “Before We Start: Science and Power in the Constitution of Africa.” In The Politics of Nature and Science in Southern Africa, edited by Maano Ramutsindela, Giorgio Miescher, and Melanie Boehi, 323–34. Basel: Basler Afrika Bibliographien, 2016. Ndlovu-Gatsheni, Sabelo J. “Introduction: Seek Ye Epistemic Freedom First.” In Epistemic Freedom in Africa. Routledge, 2018. Nyamnjoh, Francis B. Decolonising the Academy: A Case for Convivial Scholarship. Basel, Switzerland: Basler Afrika Bibliographien, 2020 Mbembe, Achille. “Planetary Entanglement.” In Out of the Dark Night: Essays on Decolonization, 7–41. Columbia University Press, 2021. https://doi.org/10.7312/mbem16028-003. Chakrabarty, Dipesh. “The Planet: An Emergent Humanist Category” Critical Inquiry 46, no. 1 (September 2019): 1–31. Gabrielle Hecht, “Interscalar Vehicles for an African Anthropocene: On Waste, Temporality, and Violence” Cultural Anthropology 33, 1 (2018) |
| Comments | Open to MA students from other programs with the priority for CU and CS as well as History, Anthropology, and African Studies Master students. |
| Admission requirements | Studierende der Geschichte aller Studienstufen sowie Studierende anderer Studienfächer, in deren Module die Übung verknüpft ist. Bei Überbelegung werden Studierende der Geschichte bevorzugt zugelassen. |
| Language of instruction | English |
| Use of digital media | No specific media used |
| Interval | Weekday | Time | Room |
|---|---|---|---|
| Block | See individual dates | ||
Dates
| Date | Time | Room |
|---|---|---|
| Monday 01.06.2026 | 09.15-16.00 | Departement Geschichte, Seminarraum 3 |
| Tuesday 02.06.2026 | 09.15-16.00 | Departement Geschichte, Seminarraum 3 |
| Wednesday 03.06.2026 | 09.15-16.00 | Departement Geschichte, Seminarraum 3 |
| Thursday 04.06.2026 | 09.15-16.00 | Departement Geschichte, Seminarraum 3 |
| Friday 05.06.2026 | 09.15-16.00 | Departement Geschichte, Seminarraum 3 |
| Modules |
Modul: Archive / Medien / Theorien (Bachelor's degree subject: History) Modul: Praxis (Master's degree subject: History) Modul: Reflexion, Methodik, Praxis (Master's degree program: European History in Global Perspective) Module: Europeanization and Globalization (Master's Studies: European Global Studies) Module: Fields: Environment and Development (Master's degree program: African Studies) Module: Fields: Knowledge Production and Transfer (Master's degree program: African Studies) Module: Interdisciplinary and Applied African Studies (Master's degree program: African Studies) Module: The Urban across Disciplines (Master's degree program: Critical Urbanisms) |
| Assessment format | continuous assessment |
| Assessment details | In the course of the Übung, students will develop research agendas together to examine selected topics to be developed further in the context of seminar papers, MA theses, or even broader research initiatives. |
| Assessment registration/deregistration | Reg.: course registration; dereg.: not required |
| Repeat examination | no repeat examination |
| Scale | Pass / Fail |
| Repeated registration | no repetition |
| Responsible faculty | Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, studadmin-philhist@unibas.ch |
| Offered by | Departement Geschichte |