About LUCRA

New platform

LUCRA is the new University Centre for Research on Africa in Leiden. Functioning as a platform, LUCRA brings together a diversity of activities in the field of African Studies, carried out both by the independent Africa Studies Centre in Leiden (ASC) and numerous faculties within Leiden University.

LUCRA links all teaching and research focusing on Africa within the university, therewith contributing to interdisciplinary exchange and strengthening the field of area studies on Africa in Leiden. LUCRA’s most important aim is to contribute to the visibility and accessibility of teaching-activities on Africa in Leiden and to bring together PhD students and researchers working on Africa. LUCRA also functions as a platform for collaboration in the application for new research projects on Africa.

Expertise

Leiden University has a long history of research on Africa in the different disciplines. The history of African Linguistics in the Netherlands began officially in 1950 with the appointment of Prof. H. P. Blok. The African Studies Centre has been bringing together research on Africa since 1947. Academics from the Leiden faculties of Humanities, Social Sciences, Archeology, Law, Medicine and the independent African Studies Centre contribute to the interdisciplinary character of LUCRA. Linguists, historians, literature specialists, cultural and medical anthropologists, musiologists, political scientists, jurists and economists are connected through the centre to interact and to contribute to BA, MA and PhD education and training.

Research

Research in the field of African Studies in Leiden covers a large diversity of topics. Researchers involved in LUCRA for example currently study communication technology in Africa, the social organization of goldmines, the history of black photography in Southern Africa, endangered languages in Ethiopia and the challenges of video documentation of oral literatures. There is a bi-weekly meeting at the African Studies Centre (ASC) which is open to all PhD students (including those of other universities) working on Africa. Periodically conferences are organized.

Education

LUCRA aims to refer all those interested in Africa to courses within Leiden University at different departments. Undergraduate as well as graduate-courses can be found on this website. This includes information on the BA African Languages and Cultures, the MA African Languages and Cultures, the MA in African Linguistics and the Research MA in African Studies. Besides these complete BA and MA programs, all other courses concerned with Africa at Leiden University can be found on the LUCRA website.