KU KASC Conferences:
Research Workshop on African Environments, 1999

The University of Kansas Geography Department hosted an international,
interdisciplinary research workshop on "African Environments: Technology,
Modeling, and Political Ecology," September 8-11, 1999.

The workshop received funding from the National Science Foundation
Geography and Regional Science Program, as well as various University of Kansas
sources. Twenty-four scientists, scholars, graduate students, and professional
planners from seven countries participated in the workshop. In addition to
the co-PIs on the project, Garth Myers and Johannes Feddema, three other
Kansas faculty members and three Kansas graduate students contributed to
the workshop. Other participants represented the University of Dar es
Salaam in Tanzania, the University of Zambia, Universite Gaston Berger de
Saint-Louis in Senegal, the University of Lund, London School of Economics,
Cambridge University, Texas A&M University, Central Connecticut State
University, Clark University, and the Government of Zanzibar. Dr. William
M. Adams of the University of Cambridge delivered the keynote address,
entitled "Rich Political Ecology: The Definition, Dynamics, and Control of
Nature in Sub-Saharan Africa."

The workshop involved two and one-half days of presentations and
analyses of research at the cutting edge of several vital new directions.
Participants developed the discussions around one crucial question: "how
can geography's recent advances in technological sophistication,
environmental modeling, and regional political ecology theory be integrated
in future research on African environmental change?" The workshop fostered
interdisciplinary discussions between biologists, geologists, GIS
scientists, physical geographers, and human-cultural geographers, resulting
in a diversity of presentations and a lively set of debates on African
environmental research. Scientists and scholars from African institutions
came together with those based in Europe and North America, in an effort to
overcome the barriers and inequalities of access to ideas or technology
between continents. A number of different types of proposals for future
research will result from the workshop and the email/internet discussions
that continue among its participants, who formed a Working Group on
Research on African Environments. For further information, contact: