Here you can stay up to date with the most recent news about our network.
In June 2025, James and Proven published a report titled Holding It Together: What Climate Technicians in Ghana Us About the Global Infrastructure Of
Climate Data (pg 30-32), in the Swiss Society for African Studies newsletter.
In February 2025, Hanna and Davide published a piece in the book Exploring Ethnography of Outer Space. The piece is called Imaginaries of Outer Space from Africa: Astronomy infrastructure in South Africa and Madagascar.
In October 2024, Hanna published an open access article on universality as horizon, based on her fieldwork with astrophysicists in Madagascar and at an online meeting that assembles astronomers from across Africa.
In October 2024, as part of a series of essays engaging with “Living in the mode of despite,” Hanna published “An Audacious Vision.” It deals with the possibilities that the word “audacious” opens up despite structural challenges.
In September 2024, Susi, Hanna, and James presented at the VAD conference: “Where does Friendship take us? Navigating an interdisciplinary north-south research collaboration.”
In April 2024, James and Siri published an article Electromagnetic economies of worth: Repurposing a radio dish and debating technoscientific modernity at the equator in Society and Space.
In January 2023, Siri and Davide presented a video poster at the virtual conference Space Science in Context (you can play it here), mapping the AOEN network research sites and institutions on Google Earth.
In December 2022, our network was featured in the interview: Exploring Space from an African Perspective: the Giant Telescope “Square Kilometre Array” in South Africa with Irina. The interview covers African perspectives of space, and specifically explores the multifaceted effects of the Square Kilometre Array telescopes in South Africa.
In December 2022, James Merron, Siri Lamoureaux, and Irina Turner published this article in Filosofia Theoretica, reflecting on productive offshoots of indisciplinary thinking and collaboration in space sciences.
In November 2022, Davide and Hanna presented the draft article ‘Heads in the stars, feet on the ground: Astrophysics in Africa’, at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Halle, Germany.
In October 2022, Tadej attended the MIASA International Conference on “African Cities: Climate Change and the Search for Resilience“ at the Eduardo Mondlane University in Maputo, Mozambique. His presentation, Hybrid Landscapes and the Future of African Cities was directly inspired by his Landscapes essay, a contribution to the Scapes essay series.
In September 2022, Davide and Hanna attended the conference ‘Ethnographies of Outer Space. Methodological Opportunities and Experiments’, at the University of Trento, Italy, presenting a joint paper on their research in Madagascar and South Africa titled ‘Where African studies and Outer space meet. Astronomy infrastructure in South Africa and Madagascar’.
In July 2022, we published a series of essays written by members under the topic Scapes:
— In Part 1: Introduction to Scapes, James Zimmerman Merron introduces the concept with insights into the interplay of terrestrial formations and extraterrestrial space.
— In Part 2: Escapes, Hanna Nieber ruminates on space, distance, and Earth’s situatedness in the context of outer space research and narratives of escape.
— In Part 3: Timescapes, Davide Chinigò conceptualises the Square Kilometer Array as a timescape, bridging distant and near futures and showcasing the intertwining of scientific imagination, human temporalities, and technological progress.
— In Part 4: Landscapes, Tadej Pirc reflects on landscapes as a fusion of physical characteristics and human interventions, highlighting the impossibility of finding a place untouched by human influence and emphasising the inseparability of humans and nature.
— In Part 5: Scapus, Irina Turner shows how linguistic landscapes of the Square Kilometre Array and off-earth exploration prompt reflection on describing the unknown, alternative perspectives, and non-discovery in our relationship to space.
— In Part 6: Scapegoat, Susann Ludwig demonstrates how comparison shapes knowledge, and explores how the meaning of scape metamorphoses through its use in various words.
In June 2022, at the conference of the African Studies Association Germany, Siri and Hanna are convened a panel “Re-Wiring Africa: How Do Quests for Scientific Progress and for Decoloniality Resonate With Each Other?”
In June 2022, Hanna and Davide attended the VAD 2022 conference ‘Africa-Europe: Reciprocal Perspectives’ at the University of Freiburg, presenting a joint paper on their research in Madagascar and South Africa titled ‘Where African studies and Outer space meet. Astronomy infrastructure in South Africa and Madagascar’.
In April 2022, Siri and Davide presented a poster titled ‘Interrogating Equity and Inclusion in Space Science in Africa’, at the Virtual Conference ‘Advancing IDEA in Planetary Science’, hosted by IDEA, the Institute for Lunar and Planetary Science, Universities Space Research Association (USRA), Columbia.
In May 2021, in an effort to demystify magnetic fields in galaxy clusters, James Chibueze, published this paper in the Nature journal, exploring the jets in a particular galaxy in a cluster, and how the structure of these jets can give us clues about the magnetic fields.
In April 2021, James Chibueze’s application for strategic funding to build an array of 4 small (~6m) telescopes for his university was approved. He is in contact with the Chinese company that will build the SKA dishes to assist with this project.
In November 2020, several AEON members featured in the ROUNDTABLE – AFRICAN STUDIES AND 4IR: IN SEARCH OF AN APPROPRIATE ANALYTICAL APPROACH organised by the Research Group on Africa, Philosophy and Digital Technologies (APDiT). We are currently working on a publication. You can see the line up here.
In November 2020, Davide published the article (co-authored with Cherryl Walker) ‘Science, astronomy and sacrifice zones: Development trade-offs and the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) radio telescope project in South Africa’, in the journal Social Dynamics. The article builds on the literature around sacrifice zones to critically scrutinize the socio-economic impact of the astronomy advantage areas declared to prioritise astronomy around the Square Kilometre Array telescope in the central Karoo of South Africa.
In October 2020, James Merron, published this article in Roadsides, exploring how the AVN telescope in the Ghana Radio Astronomy Observatory shapes the way space is produced, organised, and experienced.
In March 2020, Davide published the short article ‘Critical reflections on astronomy and development. The case of the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) radio telescope project in South Africa’, in the Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union Conference, which was held in Vienna in August 2018.
In February 2020, we met for a workshop in Germany. On page 65, the Newsletter of African Studies Bayreuth reported on the activities around the SKA workshop in Bayreuth.
Irina Turner and Hanna Nieber also summarise the activities of this workshop, “SKAnning Space from Africa”, around the theme of “Becoming” (page 77).
In October 2019, Davide co-edited (with Cherryl Walker and Saul Dubow) a special issue for the Journal of Southern African Studies entitled ‘Karoo Futures: Astronomy in Place and Space’. The issue collects seven research articles on astronomy in South Africa, including a piece by Davide ‘From the ‘Merino Revolution’ to the ‘Astronomy Revolution’: Land Alienation and Identity in Carnarvon, South Africa’.
In August 2019, we met for a workshop in Ghana. Our first workshop, Translating the SKA, attempted to bridge disciplinary gaps by bringing together natural and social scientists from Africa and Europe. Here are the lessons, insights, and translations we managed at the margins of our disciplines.
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