BIEA / IFRA / NMK Seminars - Notices

"Monumentality and Pastoralism: Recent archaeological investigations in the Lower Omo Valley" - A seminar to be held at the British Institute in Eastern Africa, Nairobi

Thursday, 9th February 2012, 11.30am – 12.30pm

Presenters:Dr Timothy Clack – African Studies Centre University of Oxford, UK AND
Dr Marcus Brittain - Cambridge Archaeological Unit, University of Cambridge, UK

The Lower Omo Valley is well known as a rich resource for anthropological and ecological studies, and of course for its fossilised record of the evolution of hominin species. However, the archaeological potential for exploring the later prehistory of the region has gone unrecognised.

Click here to download the flyer for more details.

This seminar is FREE and open to all those interested in the topic. Kindly register by sending a mail to office@biea.ac.uk .

"Crossing Boundaries: Women In Informal Sector and The Quest For Space Justice" - A Presentation to be held at the British Institute in Eastern Africa, Nairobi

Thursday, 12th January 2012, 3.00pm – 4.30pm

Presenter:Dr Mary Kinyanjui - Senior Research Fellow Institute for Development Studies, University of Nairobi
Chair: Prof. Patrick Adero Alila - Research Professor, IDS University of Nairobi

Nairobi city harbours formal; informal; indigenous; modern; rich; poor; local and global spaces where goods and services are largely supplied by informal economy actors. In 2006, 1.7 million people worked in the informal economy and in 2010 the number had grown to 2.2 million people. Of the over two million people engaged in Nairobi’s informal economy, about 68% of them are women. Women in the informal economy cross boundaries defined first, by their gender and second by the modernist framing of urban forms.

Click here to download the flyer for more details.

This seminar is FREE and open to all those interested in the topic. Kindly register by sending a mail to kerry.kyaa@biea.ac.uk .

"Understanding the Shallowness and Fragility of the Banking Sector in Kenya" - A Seminar to be held at the British Institute in Eastern Africa, Nairobi

Wednesday, 7th December 2011, 11.00am – 12.30pm

Presenter: Dr Radha Upadhyaya - Dept. of Finance and Management Studies - SOAS
Chair: Dr Ambreena Manji – British Institute in Eastern Africa

The banking system in Kenya has been characterized as shallow and fragile. This is reflected in low lending levels, high interest rate spreads, high levels of non-performing loans and several bank failures. The paper argues that the majority of studies that have attempted to explain these features use mainstream methodologies and are deficient in their explanation..

Click here to download the flyer for more details.

This seminar is FREE and open to all those interested in the topic. Kindly register by sending a mail to kerry.kyaa@biea.ac.uk .

"Diversity in Society - Theories and Practice" - A conference organised by IFRA (Kenya) and GRER-ICT (Université Paris Diderot, France)

Thursday 1st December - 2nd December 2011

It will be held at IFRA-Nairobi (Kenya). Please register by sending an email to publications@ifra-nairobi.net.

Click here to download the programme.

Past Seminars

"Language, Cultural Symbolism, and Values: The Case for an AfroScript" - A Seminar to be held at the British Institute in Eastern Africa, Nairobi

Friday, 28 October 2011, 2.00pm – 3.30pm

Presenter: Phillip Keane - International Educator and Linguist, Australia
Chair: Prof. Humphrey Ojwang’ – Institute of African Studies, University of Nairobi

The BIEA invites you to a seminar this October on the development of a pan-African writing system. The presentation titled; Language, Cultural Symbolism, and Values: The Case for an AfroScript, will be given by Phillip Keane, an international educator and linguist whose research interests into ancient African script led to the development of a proto-type African writing system called the AfroScript – a writing system which can be used to write almost any African language..

Click here to download the flyer for more details.

Please register your participation to the BIEA research fellow: kerry.kyaa@biea.ac.uk

ARCHAEOLOGY AND INTENSIVE AGRICULTURE IN POKOT

Thursday, 8 September 2011 from 11.00am -12.00pm       

Where: The National Museums of Kenya (NMK) Museum Hill Road, Nairobi (Palaeontology Section Room A4)

          Speaker: Dr. Matt Davies, Fellow at the BIEA & McDonald Institute, University of Cambridge

Synopsis: Dr Matthew Davies, will talk about his archaeological and ethnohistorical research into intensive farming in the Pokot region of North West Kenya. To date his work has established a changing pattern of landuse and settlement spanning the last 500 years and involving a shift from lithic using rockshelter inhabitants with only domestic sheep goat to more specialised forms of food production including the establishment of specialised cattle pastoralism and intensive irrigation agriculture. Particular attention will be paid to the development of an extensive network of pre-colonial irrigation channels and the implications of this research to Kalenjin history.

If you wish to attend, please register with marymuungu@gmail.com

"DIFFERENT SEAS, DIFFERENT HISTORIES? " - A Seminar to be held at the British Institute in Eastern Africa, Nairobi

Tuesday 6th September 2011 from 11.00am to 12.30pm

Speaker: Prof. John Mack, President of the British Institute in Eastern Africa (BIEA)
Chair: Dr. Hassan Wario Arero, Director of Museums, Sites, & Monuments - National Museums of Kenya (NMK)

The seminar discusses some of the arguments in the speaker's recent book The Sea, A Cultural History.