UTA-Do African Cities Workshop 2024

UTA-Do is a yearly critical urban studies ‘summer school’ that aims to contribute to making African urban scholarship and imagination more inclusive, and primarily through working to democratise access to the resources required to shape and produce information about African cities. UTA-Do brings together emerging scholars, artists, and activists around the shared project of thinking and doing the urban. The core of the program is a one week annual workshop with between 30 and 40 participants. The workshop program includes deep theoretical debates, writing exercises, career mentorship, field trips, and corporeal arts immersions – underpinned by a recognition of the multifaceted nature of the urban theory making project. These closed spaces are supplemented with public events which home in on more specific themes related to contemporary African urban issues. The events reinforce each other, creating a rich ecosystem of debate, care, and visibility.

What is UTA-Do? Loosely translated from Sheng, the creole slang from Nairobi, as ‘what are you going to do about it?’ (rendered with a mischievous smirk), the UTA-Do workshop aims to create a space where young scholars theorise and valorise the various praxes that emerge through and with dynamic African urban spaces. We intentionally encourage scholars to engage with those who are doing – art and activism and (non) academia – in Dar es Salaam and other African cities in innovative ways, while asking the question: UTA-Do? The organisers also intentionally include those who are doing – art and activism and (non) academia – to engage with academic debates and theories. The weeklong programme is structured around theoretical inputs, discussion panels, writing sessions, field trips, and arts immersion activities.

In 2024, the workshop will be hosted in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Partners include Ardhi University and the Just City Platform (FES-Tanzania). The program includes keynote lectures and workshops from, among others, Gautam Bhan, Stefan Ouma, Wangui Kimari, Adam Bledsoe, Huda Tayob, Tatu Limbumba, and Youssuf Al Bulushi.