Aïssatou Mbodj-Pouye
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Presentation

Monday 16 February 2009

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I work as an anthropologist at the Centre d’études des mondes africains (CEMAf) in Paris.

My PhD research has dealt with issues of literacy, writing and subjectivity in contemporary Mali.

My current research project runs along the following lines.

1) In line with my PhD thesis, I wish to develop and anthropology of literacy and writing practices in contemporary Africa, in a comparative perspective. The aim is to revisit old debates on orality and literacy in Africa. For this, I draw on anthropology and sociology of writing and reading practices, as well as on literacy studies. Linguistic anthropology provides some of my tools of analysis. History, especially works on print culture by social and cultural historians, is integral to my comparative approach.

2) I intend to further develop my reflection on writing and subjectivity, by working under the hypothesis that people keep "personal archives" that I approach by combining textual analysis and ethnography. I am presently developing a new fieldwork project with migrants from Mali in Paris, as part of a project hosted at the Zentrum Moderner Orient (ZMO, Berlin), Europa Finden funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research in Germany (BMBF).

This website is intended to sharing texts, readings and questions ... Welcome!

You can contact me here.

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