Rethinking Sudan Studies: a post-2011 manifesto

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Periodical article

Title:	Rethinking Sudan Studies: a post-2011 manifesto
Authors:	Sharkey, Heather J. Vezzadini, Elena Seri-Hersch, Iris
Year:	2015
Periodical:	Canadian Journal of African Studies (ISSN 0008-3968)
Volume:	49
Issue:	1
Pages:	1-18
Language:	English
Geographic terms:	Sudan South Sudan
Subject:	African studies
External link:	https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00083968.2015.1046256
Abstract:	This essay appraises 'Sudan Studies' following the 2011 secession of South Sudan. It asks two questions. First, what has Sudan Studies been as a colonial and postcolonial field of academic inquiry and how should or must it change? Second, should we continue to write about a single arena of Sudan Studies now that Sudan has split apart? The authors advance a 'manifesto' for Sudan Studies by urging scholars to map out more intellectual terrain by attending to non-elite actors and women; grass-roots and local history; the environment and the arts; oral sources; and interdisciplinary studies of culture, politics, and society. They propose that scholars can transcend the changing boundaries of the nation-state, and recognize connections forged through past and present migrations and contacts, by studying the Sudan as a zone rather than a fixed country. Finally, in their introduction to this bilingual special issue, they highlight the increasing relevance of French scholarship to the endeavor of rethinking Sudan Studies. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. in English and French [Journal abstract]