Bern
Suisse
Founded in 1947, the Swiss Association of University Teachers of English (SAUTE) holds a biennial conference; next year, it is the University of Bern's turn to host the conference.
In June 2025, we are inviting SAUTE colleagues and any others to join us in reflecting on the way our work engages, or might engage, with English languages and literatures in/from Africa. With 27 of its 54 countries using English as an official or secondary language, Africa is home to an estimated 240 million English speakers and has produced four Nobel laureates writing in English. These sorts of figures are obviously complex and fraught, but English continues to have a considerable presence in the continent.
One does not have to be an “Africanist” to turn one’s attention to Africa, to reflect momentarily on its particular relationship with English languages and literatures. While the conference organizers will be glad to receive submissions addressing African scholarship, African writers, and/or African settings, the conference is open other perspectives from the Global South. As always, SAUTE colleagues are invited to submit other examples of their current work too. Regardless, the conference will be a special chance to consider how English studies in Switzerland responds to current work on decoloniality and Southern theory. The organizers plan to create a dedicated space for a discussion about these issues too.
Keynote speakers:
Moradewun Adejunmobi is a Professor in the African American and African Studies Department at the University of California, Davis.
Nicky Falkof is Professor of Media Studies at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Atiqa Hachimi is an Associate Professor of Sociolinguistics and Women’s and Gender Studies at the University of Toronto.
Please see our website (below) for the call for papers (ConfTool abstract submission), registration information, and venue details.