Claude Ake Visiting Chair

The Claude Ake Visiting Chair was set up in 2003 at the Department of Peace and Conflict Research in collaboration with the Nordic Africa Institute and with funding from the Swedish Government and Uppsala University. The Chair honours the memory of Professor Claude Ake, a distinguished scholar, philosopher, teacher and humanist, who died tragically in 1996. The Chair is intended for scholars who, like Claude Ake, combine a profound commitment to scholarship with a strong advocacy for social justice. The Chair is open to social scientists working at African universities with problems related to war, peace, conflict resolution, human rights, democracy and development on the African continent. 

The visiting chair holder is offered a conducive environment to pursue his or her own research, while there is also opportunity for lecturing, holding seminars and contributing to ongoing research activities at the Department of Peace and Conflict Research and the Nordic Africa Institute. 

Read more about Professor Claude Ake in the text "Claude Ake: A Biographical Note" (pdf).

Memorial Lecture and Publications

The holders of the Claude Ake Visiting Chair give, at the end of their stay in Uppsala, a public lecture called the ‘Claude Ake Memorial Lecture.’ The title, theme and content of the lecture should be based on the research project being pursued by the chair holder while in Uppsala. The assumption is that the topic of the lecture shall, in a general sense, relate to the work of Claude Ake, for example in terms of themes or issues covered, or in the theoretical or normative points of departure. The lecture is to be based on a paper prepared and made available to seminar participants and lecture audience in advance of the lecture. The paper is subsequently published jointly by the Department of Peace and Conflict Research and the Nordic Africa Institute.

View a list of papers in the Claude Ake Memorial Paper Series and access the papers in full-text.

Contact and more information

For additional information or enquiries about the Claude Ake Visiting Chair, please visit the Nordic Africa Institute's website or contact Marie Karlsson at marie.karlsson@nai.uu.se.