The Foragers #1: Film screening, Up on the Mountain (dir. O. Mathon & M. Reis, 2022). Cinema RITCS, Brussels 21 Sept, 7 PM. followed by a discussion with O. Mathon and FORAGENCY members B. Henriet & A. Vittoria. Synopsis of the doc 👇

We are thrilled to officially launch "The Foragers: Engagements Beyond the Human", an arts-sciences crossover which will run from October 25 until late 27 tinyurl.com/3xkbcvmb

FORAGENCY's first publication is out! In "Weaving the Future", Etienne Gontard studies duikers hides trade in French Equatorial Africa from a multispecies vantage point. Available in print and in OA tinyurl.com/3vmsmt6m

The garden of the National Archives of the R. of Congo 🌱 The FORAGENCY historians now plough through the records of the Gouvernement Général of French Equatorial Africa. So far, stories arose on food shortages, intoxication along the railway and tensions in the logging industry, more soon!

Alice Vittoria, FORAGENCY's postdoc anthropologist working on plants/humans relations in care and healing, has just started a 2 1/2 months fieldwork in the North of the Republic of Congo. Looking forward to sharing her insights and findings in the coming months!

Basel on a sunny-ish, early Spring morning - thank you so much to the colleagues of Universität Basel for the invitation to take part to the African History seminar, very grateful for their thought provoking questions and comments!

Welcome to Bsky to our great colleagues of @cattlefrontiers.bsky.social a fascinating #ERCStG on cattle and commodity frontiers in sub-Saharan Africa and Madagascar. Do not hesitate to follow them!

On 20 Feb (10-12 AM CET) Benoît Henriet will present his ongoing research on locust invasions in colonial Burundi in UGent's lecture series in African and global history. Very grateful to @samuelcoghe.bsky.social and to our wonderful colleagues from UGent for the kind invitation!

We are delighted to announce that SHOC colleague Benoît Henriet has been appointed as the new chairholder for the Chair Casterman-Hamers: History and Philosophy of Sciences (2025-2027)! We look forward to communicating about the programme linked to this! shoc.research.vub.be/en/shoc-coll...

The FORAGENCY team is attending the 6th Congo Research Network Conference, hosted by the Africa Institute in Sharjah. You can follow the presentations online here: www.theafricainstitute.org/institute-pr...

We are thrilled to welcome Prof. Tim Ingold on 3 March, for a lecture titled "Manifesto for a New Humanism" + a discussion with our very own Alice Vittoria! Attendance is free, but registration mandatory, feel free to come and spread the word! @shoc-vub.bsky.social tinyurl.com/m2jhdh3h

The final episode of Foraging's first season is out! Tune it to listen to Iva Pesa talking about pollution, belonging in toxic places, and her exciting ERC project, AFREXTRACT open.spotify.com/episode/2sBg...

The 3rd episode of Foraging is out! Tune in to listen to anthropologist Emelien Devos talk about elephant trails, the challenges of multispecies anthropology and the meanings of « healthiness » in Tanzania open.spotify.com/episode/0CoB...

The second episode of 'Foraging' is out! Tune in to listen to Prof. Kwame Edwin Otu talk about (e-)waste, queerness, positionality and the potential for personal emancipation in ethnography ercforagency.eu/index.php/20...

Our research group @shoc-vub.bsky.social (Social History of Capitalism) has just joined BlueSky 🤗. You can follow us for research on capitalism in the longue durée and its manifold impacts on humans, non-humans, social structures, bodies and infrastructures

The first episode of our podcast is out! Tune in to listen to Diogo Cabral on MTH history, leafcutting ants in the Amazon, the activist nature of #envhist and on the edited volume MTH histories of Latin America and the Carribbean ercforagency.eu/index.php/20...

We are thrilled to announce the publication of the first season of "Foraging. A podcast in Environmental Humanities" 🌱: 4 in-depth interviews with historians and anthropologists on their work, methods, inspirations ercforagency.eu/index.php/20...

The call for individual papers for #ECAS2025 is now open! Do not hesitate to submit your proposal for the two panels co-organised by FORAGENCY team members 👇 www.ecasconference.org/2025/

A year into the project, FORAGENCY has welcomed three new team members, you can get to know them better here: ercforagency.eu/index.php/20...

We are now halfway in our second Burundian fieldwork. Here is a quick recap of what we did so far 👇

The FORAGENCY team is back in the field - 4 weeks of data collection in Burundi. Updates coming soon!

We recently welcomed the teams of 4 other #ERCStG in #envhum & #Africanstudies. It was a great opportunity to get to know each other's work better, and to discuss in depth our sources, methods & objectives. Please find below a short intro to those projects ⬇️

We start the new academic year with our 4th research Note, by PhD candidate Etienne Gontard. It is a beautiful reflection on an awkward, yet informative encounter in the field. Enjoy! 🤓 ercforagency.eu/index.php/20...

It was a true honour to present FORAGENCY to economic history students from Gakushuin university in Tokyo, and a great opportunity to discuss research methods and approaches with prof. Shinobu Majima

Two new research notes have been posted on the FORAGENCY website: (1) "Inferring Intent", by our student-intern Paul de Vos, regards his archival enquiries about chieftainship, migration and colonialism in the territory of Isangi in the former Belgian Congo) ercforagency.eu/index.php/20...

Very lucky to have hosted the wonderful Nancy Rose Hunt for a masterclass with PhD students in Central African history. We discussed epistemic challenges, inspirations, archives and fieldwork - such informal discussions are a fantastic source of inspiration!

The FORAGENCY team is currently in Burundi for two weeks of preparatory fieldwork. Here is a quick recap of our early findings 1/4 👇

On 13 June (4-6 PM), FORAGENCY and the Atelier Genre(s) et Sexualité(s) from ULB will host Pr. Kwame E. Otu for a lecture on 'Colonial Inhalations: E-waste work and Wastemen in Necropolitical Ghana'. Info and registration: tinyurl.com/mrxpdujb

On 24 June, the VUB will host an exceptional lecture by Prof. dr. Kwame Appiah. Join us if you happen to be in Brussels, attendance is free but registration is mandatory, more info here: clic.research.vub.be/speaking-of-...

I'm looking for a postdoctoral fellow in environmental humanities to work with me on the PITCH project www.jobbnorge.no/en/available... Deadline May 21

We are looking for a postdoc working on the history of capitalism at large. It's a great opportunity to join a great team and to develop your own research project within a broad topic. Historians of empires/environment/colonialism/Africa are more than welcome to apply! tinyurl.com/4wdch3cp

CFP 6th Congo Research Network Conference "Congolese Horizons: Weaving Temporalities in Congo Studies", 29-31 Jan 2025, The Africa Institute, Sharjah (UAE) Deadline call 15 June 24 Please spread the word, and do not hesitate to apply! tinyurl.com/2s38jej3

Our second reading group was dedicated to @maxliboiron.bsky.social's Pollution is Colonialism. We discussed Liboiron's definition of settler colonialism, their thought-provoking methodological suggestions & what we could infer from them when researching extractive colonies in Central Africa

Today at 2 PM Dublin time, we will be presenting FORAGENCY at the seminar of the Environmental Humanities research group of Trinity College. It will also be an opportunity to present our first preliminary findings on Human/Acridian temporalities in colonial Burundi. You can DM us for the Zoom link!

Throughout the project, we will publish research notes by team members and guest scholars. These short pieces offer reflections on the practice of environmental humanities. Research note #1, by Prof. Rosa Vieira, focuses on palm wine in the Mayombe forest (DR Congo) tinyurl.com/5n7bhk6c

We are very grateful for the large turnout and thought-provoking questions we received during our inaugural event. 🙏 FORAGENCY will soon enter another stage, with new team members, research methods and questions. Stay tuned!

On Feb 26 at 5 pm, the FORAGENCY team will give an inaugural lecture on the VUB campus in Brussels, followed by a Q&A and a drink. Do not hesitate to join us! Registrations here ➡️ tinyurl.com/2spdk88w

Samples of locust wings collected in the mandate territory of Urundi in September 1939. Source: State Archives of Belgium, African Archives, BUR (294)

For the project’s first reading group, we discussed @brdemuth.bsky.social’s wonderful Floating Coast, more specifically how an environmental history of Boreal regions could inspire new perspectives on the pasts of tropical zones

Recorded yesterday the first episode of our upcoming podcast 🤩 more news to come!

As we prepare to take a break in our data collection campaign during the winter holidays, it might be a good moment to briefly present the FORAGENCY research method ⬇️

It was an honour to present the first harvest of FORAGENCY archival findings during the 'Decolonising Knowledge in the Humanities ' Conference at the University of Accra

We were very lucky to welcome Dr. Rosa Vieira today! She screened her film on a palm wine tapper in the Mayombe forest and presented her research on oil palms, trade and kinship. It led to a very enriching interdisciplinary dialogue between anthropological and historical approaches #envhum

Between Jan and May 24, we are organizing a series of methodological workshops in Brussels for PhD candidates interested in colonialism, MTH approaches and African studies, where scholars will discuss their research process in detail. Free attendance, registration required --> tinyurl.com/3zfzfxu8

We are hiring !! 🔔 FORAGENCY is looking for a postdoc in Anthropology on past and present curative uses of the environment in Central Africa euraxess.ec.europa.eu/jobs/172734 2 years, renewable for 2 further years, flex start date 1/04-1/10, do not hesitate to spread the word!

A couple of months ago, we already had the opportunity to publish a short piece on the project as part of the wonderful 'Environmental Histories of Foraging' series of @nichecanada.bsky.social 🙏 You can find it here ⬇️

After two months of hard work, it's time for FORAGENCY to shine!