Invitation - Methodological Seminar "Exploring Hausa Urbanities in Lagos and Cotonou : Autoethnographic Reflections and Methodological Experiments"

Join us on Wednesday, 3 September at 1pm for our first Methodological Seminar of the 2025-2026 academic year. Bérénice Busson, a geography PhD student in georgraphy at the Paris Cité University (CESSMA research lab), will present her work "Exploring Hausa Urbanities in Lagos and Cotonou : Autoethnographic Reflections and Methodological Experiments".

Her PhD research examines the political urbanities of predominantly male Hausa workers involved in the car trade in Cotonou, Benin Republic, and the textile trade in Lagos, Nigeria. Focusing on their everyday negotiations and interactions within the city, she will discuss her use of ethnographic methods alongside a broader set of qualitative approaches.

In this presentation, Bérénice Busson will also reflect on her positionality as a French female researcher — how it may have influenced the interlocutors, the ways she adapted her research practices in response, and how both the local context and the evolving political environment shaped her fieldwork over time. Finally, she will share her experiments with alternative methodologies, including the use of sensory mapping, video, and photography, and the restitution of the research through a community exhibition held in the Zongo neighborhood.

Practical Information:

Date and time: Wednesday, 3 September, 1pm

Location : IFRA-Nigeria Resources Centre, Institute of African Studies, University of Ibadan.

Sign-up here before 01/9: https://forms.gle/idGzDGTqPkYixMQ97

Tags: Nigeria, Urban Governance, Urban, Benin, Urban studies