ONLINE: Africa at Noon

media release: Every Wednesday at noon — since 1973! — African Studies Program faculty, students, and community members have gathered for AFRICA AT NOON, a one-hour weekly lecture series bringing diverse African research from scholars around the world to a campus and community audience.

March 9: “The Aural City: Sensory Politics in the Making of Gulu, Uganda”

Joella Bitter earned a Ph.D. in anthropology and a certificate in gender, sexuality, and feminist studies from Duke University in 2020. Currently, she is an American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) Fellow. Bitter works in Uganda across anthropologies of sound, cities, embodiment, affect, and environmental politics to query the forces of racial capitalist urban development in relation to urban African cultural expression and technological innovation. Her book manuscript, The Aural City: Sensory Politics in the Making of Gulu, Uganda, examines everyday practices of sonic city-making through listening to the ways Gulu’s music producers, car mechanics, city planners, and long-term residents listen to their emerging city. Thinking musical forms alongside noises and voices, the book details ethnographically how Gulu’s city-dwellers sensorially create sites of endurance, sociability, and repose by attuning to forces registered aurally. 

The Africa at Noon series will take place virtually this semester until further notice. All are welcome. This event will take place on Zoom. Spring semester info:

https://uwmadison.zoom.us/j/91993903821?pwd=NElOU2Zza1QrZUFwUjhvNkxlazhNZz09

Webinar ID: 919 9390 3821; Passcode: 965483

Or One tap mobile : US: +13126266799,,91993903821#,,,,*965483# or +19292056099,,91993903821#,,,,*965483#

Or Telephone: Dial(for higher quality, dial a number based on your current location):

US: +1 312 626 6799 or +1 929 205 6099 or +1 301 715 8592 or +1 253 215 8782 or +1 346 248 7799 or +1 669 900 6833

International numbers available: https://uwmadison.zoom.us/u/acmMd7jtpf

You can view available recordings of past Africa at Noon webinars using the link(s) on the event page.