The BantuFirst project is in search of a postdoctoral researcher in African Linguistics. Applications are invited here. Deadline for applications: October 11, 2020, 23:59 CET.
Blog
Interview with Wannes Hubau in Knack (July 15, 2020)
The Flemish weekly Knack interviews Wannes Hubau about his research on asynchronous carbon sink saturation in African and Amazonian tropical forests
and its relevance for global warming.
Sifra Van Acker obtains a fieldwork grant from Leopold III foundation
Sifra Van Acker has obtained a grant from the Leopold III-foundation for nature research and conservation to do fieldwork on names of useful plants in West-Coastal Bantu languages spoken in the vicinity of Idiofa (Kwilu Province, DRC). This fieldwork will contribute to her historical-linguistic research on subsistence in pre-colonial West-Coastal Bantu speech communities.
Sara Pacchiarotti obtains a three-year FWO senior post-doc grant
Sara Pacchiarotti obtained a three-year FWO senior post-doc grant for a research project titled “Directionality in morphosyntactic change: West-Coastal Bantu as a historical test case for linguistic theory“.
Koen Bostoen on Radio 1 about pre-colonial Congo
On the occasion of 60 years of Congolese independence, Belgian Radio 1 interviewed Koen Bostoen about the history of Congo/Kongo before the Belgians arrived.
First published aDNA data from the DRC thanks to BantUGent excavations
A new interdisciplinary study published in the journal Science Advances reports on 20 newly sequenced ancient genomes from sub-Saharan Africa, including the first genomes from Botswana, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. These last data are foremost the result of archaeological research on the ancient kingdom of the Kongo during the ERC-funded KongoKing project. The new study contributes to a better comprehension of how diverse African societies with a diverse linguistic and cultural background interacted with each other during the Neolithicon and Iron Age. English, French and Dutch press releases are available.
Sara Pacchiarotti has a new book out
Sara Pacchiarotti, postdoctoral research within the BantuFirst project, has a new book out in the prestigious “Stanford Monographs in African Languages” series published by The University of Chicago Press. Its title is Bantu Applicative Constructions .
Wannes Hubau publishes in Nature
Nature published on March 5, 2020 groundbreaking research from Wannes Hubau, postdoctoral researcher within the BantuFirst project, and his colleagues from a former project on the rates at which forests in Africa and Amazonia have taken up carbon between 1983 and 2015.
Dr. Louise Iles: “Forests of iron: resources used in early African iron production“
On March 19th Dr. Louise Iles (University of Sheffield) will give a lecture titled “Forests of iron: resources used in early African iron production“.
Her presentation will be followed by a BantuFirst Research Pitch by Bernard Clist on “Coastal Muanda Pottery and Social Diversification in the Early Iron Age of the Kongo Central Province (DRC)“.
Please join us at Room 2.1 (2nd floor, entrance via Faculty Library, Magnel Wing), Rozier 44, 9000 Gent at 10 am.
FOLLOWING THE UGENT CORONA MEASURES THIS EVENT IS CANCELED AND POSTPONED TO A DATE TO BE SPECIFIED.
Job offer for a postdoctoral researcher in African Archaeology
The BantuFirst project is in search of a postdoctoral researcher in African Archaeology. Applications are invited here.