The 19th International Conference of Ethiopian Studies "Ethiopia – diversity and interconnections through space and time" will be held in Warsaw on August 24th–28th 2015. It is co-organized by the Polish Africanist Society, the Department of African Languages and Cultures, Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Warsaw, and the National Museum in Warsaw, with the cooperation of the Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archeology, University of Warsaw.
The conferences on Ethiopian studies date back to the 1950s and they still provide the most important forum for scientific exchange for the international scholarly community. The Conference will be attended by over 350 participants representing universities from 29 countries. Their contributions have been organized in over 60 sessions, workshops and debates, which will cover the whole scope of the current sociological and humanistic research on the history and culture of Ethiopia.
One of the sessions will be devoted to Polish archeological research in the Nile Valley and on the African shore of the Red Sea. The papers will not only accentuate Polish participation in the archaeological investigations of Africa’s past, but will also highlight common topics in the research on cultures in the Nile Valley and south of the river’s sources. Ethiopia is potentially of interest to researchers working currently in PCMA missions investigating, for example, the cultures of Medieval Nubia or maritime trade with India via the Red Sea port of Berenike.
In recent years the PCMA has been broadening its scope of operation and tightening ties with the scholarly communities from new regions, which are within the scientific interest of researchers cooperating with the PCMA. Thus, PCMA missions have recently initiated projects in the Arabian Peninsula and the Caucasus, in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Armenia and Georgia.
Although PCMA archeological expeditions have not worked in Ethiopia so far, the Cairo-based Station in the first few dozen years of its existence had good relations with members of the Polish Africanist Society and offered hospitality to University of Warsaw scholars in various fields of African studies. Archaeologists from the Polish Centre have also presented the results of their own research in journals such as the Africana Bulletin, as well as cooperating in providing assistance to researchers specializing in the beginnings of Christianity of Ethiopia.
The conference will be accompanied by numerous events, including art exhibitions, film screenings and concerts.
19th International Conference of Ethiopian Studies “Ethiopia — Diversity and Interconnections through Space and Time”, Warsaw, 24–28 August 2015
Venues:
University of Warsaw, Krakowskie Przedmieście 24/26
Old Library Building
Faculty of Oriental Studies
Faculty of History
National Museum in Warsaw
Al. Jerozolimskie 3
SESSION XVIII: Polish archaeological research in the Nile Valley, 25th August, 9:00-12:30, Old Library Building, room 107
Prof. Włodzimierz Godlewski: The Makurian Church and its sacral architecture
Prof. Kamil O. Kuraszkiewicz: Pharaohs, Ethiopia and the Polish cause?
Dr. Magdalena Łaptaś: Between Egypt and Ethiopia. The Nubian Apostolic Tradition
Joanna K. Rądkowska, Marek Woźniak: Berenike ad Aegyptum: a Harbor between the Mediterranean and East Africa
For more information, see the conference website: http://ices19.uw.edu.pl/