Convened by Tiina Kontinen, University of Jyväskylä, Finland, Shukrani Mbirigenda, University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Nyamwaya Munthali, University of Zambia,  Zambia 

The panel contributes to the ongoing debates about the roles and relevance of development studies amid multiple crises and sustainability challenges from the point of view of the continent of Africa. Inspired by the arguments in support of decolonizing and recentering African epistemic agency, the panel invites reflections especially - but not exclusively - from development studies scholars located in the universities in Africa. While development studies in Europe, so far, has mostly preoccupied with societal changes in the global South in interrelationships with global processes, the institutes, departments, and universities of development studies in Africa have often emphasized development processes in their respective postcolonial nations. On the one hand, historically, African development studies has been involved in strengthening post-independent political projects and development visions. On the other hand, international development trends have shaped it by allocations of donor research funding, realized through collaborations with the universities in the global North. In parallel, the decolonial and Afrocentric approaches have called for recentering African knowledge production in many fields of research. In such situation, development studies in African universities searches for new roles and relevance, not least in bridging between the global challenges and local solutions, ranging from local communities to regional bodies such as African Union. This seed panel invites theoretical and empirical reflections on the potential contributions from the African development studies, in their historical, economic, and political contexts. The contributions should articulate the possibilities and shortcomings in research, teaching, or policy engagement in African universities in exploring global challenges and identifying local solutions amid multiple crises and sustainability dilemmas. We encourage new insights of what the ‘African agency’ could bring to the questions regarding what development studies is or should be in the future