Research Themes

Numerous research projects are conducted in Africa by faculty members, post-docs, doctoral students, and students at Sciences Po. These individual and collective works involve various disciplines (history, political science & international relations, law, sociology & anthropology, political economy, urban studies, digital sciences, and epidemiology primarily) and address a variety of topics: colonial and postcolonial issues, citizenship and urbanity, social movements, war, security and law enforcement challenges, public health, digital and biometric revolution, artistic and cultural productions, etc

Colonial and Postcolonial Issues, Slavery and Post-Slavery

The colonial and postcolonial history is extensively studied by faculty and students at the History Center. Florence Bernault focuses on Central Africa's history from the 19th to the 21st century and supervises two theses. One examines the culture of coercion in colonial and postcolonial Nigeria (Ebun Iyamu), and the other explores the intellectual history of the Luo people in Kenya (Esther Ginestet, co-supervised with Northwestern University). 

Research is also conducted on slavery and its contemporary legacies. Since 2019, M’hamed Oualdi has been leading a European Research Council-funded project on the end of slavery in the Maghreb and the Mediterranean from the mid-18th century to the 1930s. Post-slavery is also explored in political science by Gabriel André, who, for his doctoral thesis, examines power struggles and historiographical controversies surrounding slavery in Fouta Djalon, Guinea.

In the same vein, a new research program, "'Competing for the past: academic and vernacular histories of Africa," started in 2023 in collaboration with Columbia University, co-directed by Laurent Fourchard (CERI) and Gregory Mann (Columbia University). It explores vernacular histories and rewrites of history, both scholarly and popular, focusing on how Africa's history becomes a cause and analyzing possible reinterpretations of the continent's past.

Citizenship, Identity(ies), and Civic Movements

Many research projects address citizenship issues from historical, political, legal, and cultural perspectives. They build on earlier work on the State in Africa and "politics from below" initiated by Jean-François Bayart, Achille Mbembe, Comi Toulabor, and Denis-Constant Martin at CERI in the 1980s and 1990s.

A research group (GDR) at CERI focuses on these issues: "Africa: Citizenship, Violence, and Politics." Launched in 2012 and led by Richard Banégas, Laurent Fourchard, Roland Marchal, and Sandrine Perrot, it organizes monthly seminars on citizenship crises and political violence south of the Sahara. The guiding hypothesis is that many of the continent's conflicts revolve around rights (political, social, economic, land, etc.) and their recognition, ultimately about the imaginary and social contours of the city, often redefined by violence.

For several years, a transnational research program "The Arts of Citizenship in Africa" brought together researchers from Sciences Po, Columbia, and partner universities to study new forms of civic mobilization, "street parliaments," and urban recompositions. International conferences on "Street Politics" facilitated dialogue between researchers, artists, and activists.

War, Post-Conflict, Security, and Law Enforcement

Themes of war and violence in Africa are longstanding and fruitful research areas. Roland Marchal has published seminal works on this topic, including a comparative book (War and Society, Karthala, 2003) co-edited with Pierre Hassner. Sandrine Perrot and Richard Banégas have also studied rebel movements and militias, while Laurent Fourchard has traced violence, policing, and vigilantism in Nigeria and South Africa, and Adam Baczko examines the state in Mali during war.

New forms of jihadist violence in Africa are another strong research focus. Roland Marchal's works on the Horn of Africa and Central Africa, and Luis Martinez's research on jihadist insurgencies in the Sahel, are notable examples.

Research is also dedicated to armed interventions and so-called "post-conflict" situations. Chiara Ruffa approaches these issues from the perspective of international relations, multilateralism, and UN peacekeeping operations. Other researches study them from a bottom-up political sociology approach.

Several doctoral theses are dedicated to security, violence, and law enforcement issues, such as Leonard Collomba Petteng's research on EUCAP Sahel in Niger, Ayrton Aubry's work on security africanization in Senegal, and Romane Da Cunha Dupuy's study on the self-defense groups "koglweogo" in Burkina Faso, among others.

Two conflict observatories have been established. The East Africa Observatory (2017-2020), coordinated by CEDEJ Khartoum (MAEDI-CNRS USR 3123) and CERI, continued the work of the Horn of Africa Observatory, focusing on political violence, security threats, and contemporary religious dynamics.

Urban Challenges

Within the Urban School, research on global cities includes the African continent. The "Cities are back in town" research program, launched five years ago and co-organized by Côme Salvaire and Fatoumata Diallo, systematically studies urbanization processes (economic, political, social, and cultural) across cities and urban regions. It brings together sociologists, political scientists, economists, urban planners, and historians from different labs.

Several doctoral students within the Urban School focus on climate change challenges and environmental impacts on African metropolises, such as flooding or coastal erosion affecting many cities. Others study topics at the intersection of urbanity and public policies, like transportation

Health, Epidemics, and Environment in the African Anthropocene

The medialab, a digital social sciences laboratory, conducts research on epidemics in the Anthropocene, at the intersection of epidemiology, environmental history, and social sciences. These studies explore ways to combine socio-historical investigations with biological data, for instance, concerning the history of HIV-AIDS, Ebola virus epidemics in DRC, and monkeypox in the Central African Republic.

Arts, Cultural Productions, and Politics

Since the early works on "politics from below," a research tradition has been established at CERI around artistic and cultural productions, particularly music, viewed through the lens of cultures and political imaginaries, or as OPNIs (Unidentified Political Objects, Denis-Constant Martin). Recent investigations focus on citizen movements and emphasize the analysis of relationships between arts, culture, and politics

Economic and Social Challenges of the African Continent

There is also a longstanding research tradition in the political economy of African societies. Studies have addressed issues from structural adjustment to neoliberal bureaucratization, the political economy of domination, to recent debates on the future of the CFA franc and regionalism.

Today, new research explores the latest developments of digital capitalism on the continent and the forms of economic sovereignty sought by political and economic elites, civil society, or international organizations. A doctoral research project on startups in West Africa as vectors of state and capitalism recomposition is underway.

The "Ethnographies of African Work Worlds" project launched in October 2023 within the TIER Alliance with Columbia University aims to rethink the question of work in Africa. It is co-led by Mamadou Diouf, Brian Larkin, Jinny Prais (Columbia University), and Richard Banégas (CERI).