The major themes of the conference are:

· The whole and intertwined world: causes and prospects of internal differentiation.

· Africa in a contemporary system of world order. Challenges of globalisation: are there alternative ways?

· Problems of African economy. Internal and external factors of development. Positive and negative results of structural adjustment.

· Currency and financial problems. "African debt" .

· Sustainable development, social progress and ecological problems.

· The Information Society and Africa. Internet in Africa.

· Problems of African integration. African Union.

· Interstate and intrastate conflicts. Ethnic and religious factors. Problems of security.

· Problems of political modernisation in Africa. Attempts of democratisation and its results. Role of ideologies. Neo-archaism and African renaissance.

· Africa: overcoming asocial phenomena and destructive processes. Shadow economy, criminal world, narco-business, their relations with the
outside world.

· Africa and Africans in context of world history.

· "Cold War" in Africa.

· European Union and Africa. North Africa and Southern Europe.

· Africa and problems of Indian Ocean.

· North (Arab) Africa: models of development in global, regional and local dimensions.

· Southern Africa: unequal development of regions. Is levelling off possible?

· Russian-African relations. Politics, economy, culture, education, military ties.

· Russians in Africa and Africans in Russia.

· Federalism and regional development in multi-ethnical and multi-confessional societies.

· Gender problems of transitional societies.

· AIDS pandemy in Africa as regional and global threat.

· Methodology of African studies: from formation approach to multitude of methods. Civilisational approach in African studies.

· Contemporary state and development of African languages and literatures under conditions of globalisation.

The conference working languages are Russian and English. Its work will be conducted in plenary sections, panels and round tables. Within a framework of the conference major themes the Organising Committee would be glad to receive proposals on setting up panels, with several reports and round-tables, where free discussion is envisaged. Abstracts of papers (up
to one page) accompanied by authors' short CVs as well as proposals on setting up panels and round-tables are expected by E-mail or on a disc by
15 November, 2001, and full papers by January 15, 2002. A collection of abstracts is to be published before the conference and a collection of selected papers afterwards.

The preparation for the conference will also be used for the resumption of the activities of the Russian Association of African Studies, and a general meeting of this association is envisaged during the conference.

Apart from travel and accommodation expenses the participants are expected to pay a USD 150 registration fee. This includes copies of abstracts and a report of proceedings in English as well as translation of a participant's
abstracts into Russian.

The Organising Committee will appreciate if you inform your colleagues in African studies about this letter.

Please address all proposals and inquires to Conference Organising Committee, Institute for African Studies. 103001, 30/1, Spiridonovka
street, Moscow, Russia, tel. 290 27 52, 290 63 85, fax 202 07 86,
e-mail
[email protected], copy to [email protected] Prof Alexei Vassiliev
Chair, Conference Organising Committee Chair, Academic Council on Problems
of Africa, Director, Institute for African Studies, RAS Dr Lyubov Prokopenko
Executive Secretary, Organising Committee Academic Secretary, Academic
Council on Problems of Africa