Call for series of workshops "Research as creation, creation as research"

IFAS-Recherche and IFRA-Nigeria are opening a call for expressions of interest for researchers and artists for a series of workshops on "Creation as Research, Research as Creation".

These workshops aim to further reflect on the methods, possibilities, and challenges raised by the use of creative practices in academic research, and conversely, by the integration of research methodologies into creative practice. They will take place between November 2025 and May 2026.

Learn more below or download the full call here.

 Deadline: 31 October, 2025.

Call for expressions of interest 

Workshop series: Research as Creation, Creation as Research

Building on the seminar organised on this topic in February 2025 in Johannesburg, the French Research Institute in South Africa and the one in Nigeria will convene a series of four online workshops. These workshops aim to further reflect on the methods, possibilities, and challenges raised by the use of creative practices in academic research, and conversely, by the integration of research methodologies into creative practice.

The discussions will be structured around four key themes:

• November: Sound in creative research-creation as a means to broaden the scope of knowledge production and dissemination.

• January: Movement and (im)mobility as both objects of inquiry and methodological concerns in research-creation projects.

• March: Teaching and pedagogical approaches to research-creation, or how to teach and evaluate research-creation projects inside and outside academia, and the roles of artists and creative researchers in shaping and perturbing frameworks.

• May: Writing and publishing research-creation beyond, sometimes against the standardised academic writing.

If we are able to secure sufficient funding, the final workshop could be organised in Ibadan at IFRA-Nigeria.

Each workshop will take the form of a 2.5-hour session, combining 2-3 project presentations with more hands-on, closed-group discussions in a group of a dozen people. We envisage these sessions as opportunities to share and exchange theories, practices, and questions encountered in research-creation processes and projects.

Our intention is for these workshops to function as flexible, open and dynamic conversations, creating spaces for critical engagement with the methodologies and practices of research-creation. The ultimate objective of this series is to collaboratively develop a proposal for a special issue of the journal Sources. Materials & Fieldwork in African Studies (https://journals.openedition.org/sources/), bringing together contributions that reflect on and advance debates around research-creation.

If you are a researcher using creative practices and/or an artist engaged in academic research based in Nigeria, and you are interested in these issues, please send the following before October 31st:

• A CV mentioning the research-creation projects you have undertaken
• A cover letter explaining why you would like to participate in these workshops

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