Studying Africa in the Australian Capital Territory: Bureaucratisation, Disciplinisation and Projectisation

This article analyses the experiences of scholars of Africa in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT), advancing upon critical research on African Studies and contemporary academia. Drawing upon interviews with researchers, this article makes three arguments about the study of Africa in the ACT and Australia. Firstly, that universities have undergone bureaucratisation, altering the way researchers organise their working lives. Secondly, that the study of Africa in the ACT’s universities demonstrates disciplinisation such that researchers’ methodologies are more important to their identities and career trajectories than their regions of research. Finally, that research practices have undergone projectisation, with scholars increasingly employed on precarious contracts and periodically shifting their focus to or from Africa. It is argued that the African Studies paradigm and Africanist identity are inoperative in the ACT.