Southern Urban Orientation through UTA-Do: Defiant Scholarship and a Research Infrastructure

Abstract

In their recent piece, Daley and Murrey (2022) sketch a history of scholars and intellectuals who have been working against the grain, that is, outside and against colonial and racist modes of scholarship on African geographies. A parallel reading of Daley and Murrey’s article with Al-Bulushi’s (2023) on Tanzania’s role in global decolonization allows us to trace some of the infrastructures that supported some of the scholars they discuss to do defiant and decolonial work. These include gatherings such as the 1960s and 1970s Dar es Salaam school of scholars and activist. Such gatherings provide scholars with skills, communities and research commitments that guide their practices and theorizing. Ahmed’s (2006a, 2006b) theorizing of queer phenomenology further reminds us that gatherings are not neutral but directive and guided by Getachew's (2019) book we can read them as world-making spaces. In my research on the annual UTA-Do workshop, I am exploring the orienting, that is, research commitments and praxis this critical workshop has sought to impact young scholars, activists and practitioners with in their work in different African urban geographies. The research entailed participant observation and workshop immersion of the recent UTA-Do 2024 followed by upcoming interviews with the organizers of the workshop to explore their commitments and goals on urban research in Africa. Further interviews with past participants will document the research infrastructures formed at the workshop. These include relationships, collaboration and mentorships which as I explore in my research are important as they form part of research-orienting devices that have an impact on Africa's urban research.