Invitation - Seminar "Experiencing Urban Transformations in Lagos Eastern Coastline"

S Experiencing urban transformations Poster

On 16 February 2026, the Department of Geography of the University of Ibadan welcomes IFRA-Nigeria director, Dr Pauline Guinard, to speak at the Staff and Postgraduate Students’ Seminar with a presentation titled "Experiencing Urban Transformations in Lagos Eastern Coastline". All staff, postgraduate students, and interested members of the university community are kindly encouraged to attend.

Practical information

Date: Friday, 16th January, 2026
Time: 11:00 AM
Venue: SLT (Faculty of the Social Sciences, University of Ibadan)

For our virtual participants, please join the seminar using the link below:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86415349834?pwd=ZjM27JQecXQnbT7SC4H51dBPaWEFu9.1
Meeting ID: 864 1534 9834
Passcode: 600662

Invitation - Exhibition "Reimagining Nigerian Alternative Heritage"

You are invited to Reimagining Nigerian Alternative Heritage: An Exhibition on Monuments and Natural History that explores the enduring relationship between Nigeria’s national monuments, natural history and the stories they continue to tell.

This exhibition reflects on how heritage is preserved, reinterpreted and passed on across generations, reminding us that culture is not static but living. Through monuments, landscapes and historical memory, you are invited to see how the past continues to shape identity and collective memory till today. This exhibition celebrates cultural exchange and inclusivity; welcoming everyone to engage with Nigeria’s rich heritage.

Join us as we reflect, learn and reconnect with histories that endure, because culture does not die; it evolves and continues to speak.

Practical information

Location: Old Secretariat Building, Federal Ministry of Justice, Marina, Lagos

Date & Time: 4 February, 10 am.

Call for publications - Sources "Sound Recordings"

Sources Logo

Sources. Materials & Fieldwork in African Studies opened a call for abstracts on the theme "Sound Recordings". Contributions in English, French and Portuguese. This issue of Sources ambitions to bring together multiple disciplinary perspectives on one or more sound sources produced in Africa.

Sources is an interdisciplinary, multilingual, open-access peer-reviewed journal supported by the French Institutes for Research in Sub-Saharan African, including IFRA-Nigeria, and the Laboratoire des Afriques. You can read here the full call in English and the full call in French.

Deadline for abstracts: 10 February 2026

Methodological Seminar "Ethnography of Prayer Commodification: Field Encounters, Methodological Challenges, and Theoretical Reflections from Ibadan"

MS Mudasiru Poster On 11 December 2025, we had the pleasure of hosting Dr. Moruff Mudasiru from the Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Ibadan, who delivered a thought-provoking presentation titled: “Ethnography of Prayer Commodification: Field Encounters, Methodological Challenges, and Theoretical Reflections from Ibadan.”

Drawing on his ethnographic research on Jálàbí, the Islamic petitionary prayer in Ibadan, Dr. Mudasiru took us deep into the realities of fieldwork - highlighting issues of trust-building, ethical dilemmas, unexpected encounters and what it truly means to practice ethnography in complex social settings. His use of a hermeneutic theoretical framework offered rich insights into the symbolic and economic dimensions of prayer practices, making important connections to the anthropology of Islam.

Conference "Nocturnal Lagos: In the searchlight of a police cruiser"

Conf IA OLOUKOI Poster2 For the first session of our “Imagine(d) Africa” Conference Series on 4 December 2025, the Institute of African Studies (IAS) at the University of Ibadan and IFRA-Nigeria welcomed Chrystel Oloukoï, assistant professor of geography at the University of Washington. They presented their upcoming book building on the PhD fieldwork they carried out in 2020 in Lagos during which they witnessed both the Covid curfews and the #endSARS protests. Their focus is on nighttime in the city, and the many ways in which it is policed.

Their work challenges the vision of Africa as a "night continent", "dark", or "benighted" which is prevalent in the West. It also relies on the concept of “condemnation of the night” which they define as a “naturalized set of assumptions, often animated by a racialized and feminized surplus of meaning, which produces specific “geographies of imagination” and “geographies of management”.”

Call For Application: Sensitive Ways of Doing, Writing and Sharing Research

Workshop Sensitive ways 2 IFRA-Nigeria will organize a 4-day training workshop for second year Master students and PhD students based in Ibadan, from 9 - 12 February 2026. This workshop is an opportunity to experiment and learn from the use of sensitive methods as a tool for both ethnographic investigation and research restitution.

International Seminar 2026 - Gender, Law and Political Activism in West Africa

Between 14 and 15 January 2026, IFRA-Nigeria and the Institute of African Studies, University of Ibadan, will welcome the 2026 International Seminar of the "Gender, Law and Political Activism" project (GLOW).

GLOW 2026 International Seminar Program

Roundtable: project presentation and discussion

Open to all

Join us for a public roundtable where we will present our project and discuss its aims and perspectives with the audience. The speakers include: Dr Mutiat Oladejo, Prof. Emerita Takyiwaa Manuh, Prof. Tade Oludayo, Prof. Sharon Omotoso, Dr Mofeyisara Omobowale and Dr Sara Panata.

Date & Time: 14 January, from 9:00 am to 11:00am

Location: Draper's Hall, Institute of African Studies, University of Ibadan

Writing Workshop

Limited availibility, register here

A small-group two-day writing workshop focused on discussing texts.

Date & Time: 14 January, from 2:00 pm to 5:30 pm & 15 January, from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm

Location: Board Room, Institute of African Studies, University of Ibadan

Download the full program of the seminar.

Guest Lecture and Roundtable Discussion "A spotlight on cultural venues and accessibility for people with disability"

FEF NMU Accessibility Poster On Wednesday, November 19, 2025, we proudly hosted our inaugural event of the second year in partnership with the National Museum of Unity in Ibadan. This 3-in-1 event featured a guest lecture, a roundtable discussion, and a hands-on exhibition, all centred around the theme "Accessible and Inclusive Public Spaces." Our goal was to spotlight the significance of cultural venues and the specific needs of individuals with disabilities in participating in cultural experiences.

This event is part of our Nigerian Alternative Archives project, made possible by the French Embassy Fund.

"Vivre le végétal en ville" exhibition opening

EXPO Vivre le vgtal Poster Join the opening of the "Vivre le végétal en ville à Dakar, Ìbàdàn, Porto-Novo, Yaoundé" ("Living with Plants in Dakar, Ìbàdàn, Porto-Novo, and Yaoundé") at the Humathèque (Paris), on 18 December. This research-creation event marks the closing of our INFRAPATRI project, headed by former IFRA-Nigeria Deputy-Director, Dr Emilie Guitard. This exhibition explores the rich relationships between inhabitants and trees in four major African cities by bringing together the writing and art of photographers, film makers, visual artists and social science researchers produced as part of the INFRAPATRI project.

IFRA-Nigeria and ENS "Programme Suds"

Programme Suds Carousel "Programme Suds" is a multidisciplinary programme organized by ENS-PSL school, initiated in 2022 following a symposium at ENS. Its aim is to support, coordinate, and develop training and research on/with the Global South at ENS, but also to strengthen and build multidisciplinary research and training partnerships with institutions and researchers from the Global South. It is a collaboration between ENS, Université Cheikh Anta Diop of Dakar (Senegal), Université de Thiès (Senegal) and IFRA-Nigeria.

You can learn more about the seminars, events and student grants of this programme on their website.

Call for participants - National Museum Lagos Academic Research Grant

The National Museum of Lagos and IFRA-Nigeria are offering academic research grants for researchers to work on the documents and artifacts of the Museum, focusing on questionning the notions of "heritages" and "alternative heritages".

Each of the selected researchers will have to participate to a colloquium that will be organized in May 2026 in Lagos on the theme “Re-Imagining Nigeria Heritage” and will have subsequently to submit awritten article for IFRA-Nigeria working papers .

This grant is part of our Nigerian Alternative Heritages project, made possible by the French Embassy Fund.

Deadline for applications: 7 December 2025

Read the full call below or download it here.

Call for applications “(Re)imagining Heritage, (Re)using the Museum”

The Nigerian Alternative Heritages Project is a FEF-financed initiative of IFRA-Nigeria in collaboration with the National Museum of Unity, Ibadan. The project aims to foster scientific engagement through the exchange of knowledge and insights, research co-creation, and dissemination by facilitating talks and dialogues with academics, practitioners, and the public. The partnership between these two institutions has led to more public-facing events that open up the Museum of Unity Ibadan, allowing it to engage a new audience in learning about and exploring the heritages of the Nigerian people, fostering cultural understanding, awareness, and ultimately, knowledge production. At the core of the questions that have emanated from these engagements is the theme of “(Re)imagining Heritage, (Re)using the Museum”.

This grant was incorporated into the FEF project to facilitate and support a team of researchers and artists in conducting original projects, in the form of science- and art-based pieces, such as drawings, paintings, performances, videos, and sound pieces, on topics related to heritage and museums. Proposals must consider and mobilise the collections of the National Museum of Unity, Ibadan.

Deadline for application: 11:59 PM on December 1, 2025

Notification of successful application: 3rd week of December 2025

Project timeline: January to May 2026

Read the full call here

Call for panelists - Exploring 'non-religion' in Africa

Marie Lureau, Research Project Manager at IFRA-Nigeria, will hold an exploratory panel at the Lagos Studies Association Conference 2026 focusing on 'non-religion' and 'anti-religion' on the African continent. This panel will seek to open secularism studies, largely built on the Western world, to Africa. It questions the various experiences of 'non-religion' on the continent, the forms of 'anti-religion' in activism, their intellectual roots and the best terms to define them.

Read the full call below or download it here.

Deadline for abstracts: 1 January 2026.

Call for panelists - Caring Masculinities in Africa: Beyond Western-Centered Research and Approach

Dr Delphine Manetta, IFRA’s deputy director, will hold a panel at the Lagos Studies Association Conference 2026 focusing on the role of care in the construction of masculinities in Africa, but proposing several shifts in perspective from the literature from a perspective that emerged with Western scholars to one more centered on African perspectives. It will also discuss care as a critical tool for discussing the imaginaries surrounding masculinities in Africa and understanding experiences of masculinity in different social settings.

Deadline for abstracts: 1 January 2026

Read the full call below or download it here.

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

Call research as creation Caroussel 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.