From June 17 to 21, 2025, the University of Lagos (UNILAG) came alive with an unmistakable energy as scholars, students, artists, and cultural thinkers from around the world gathered for the 9th Annual Lagos Studies Association (LSA) Conference. The conference, now firmly established as the largest academic gathering in Nigeria and one of the most expansive platforms in global African studies, brought together an extraordinary mix of voices and visions to engage with the ever-shifting political, cultural, and intellectual landscape of Africa and its diasporas.
The conference, which is convened by Saheed Aderinto, a Professor of History and African and African Diaspora Studies at Florida International University and winner of the prestigious 2023 Dan David Prize, marked a bold leap in scale and ambition. Hosting 255 panels, up from 200 in 2024, the LSA Conference did more than break records; it reaffirmed its position as a space where ideas are tested, traditions are challenged, and futures are imagined.
The expansion of the conference was not ornamental. Rather, it reflected the intensely creative ways in which scholars, particularly early and mid-career researchers, are responding to Africa’s urgent questions with intellectual rigor and bold innovation. For five days, the campus of the University of Lagos was transformed into a site of rigorous conversation and cultural exchange. Classrooms, lecture halls, performance spaces, and online rooms became venues for dialogue on history, literature, gender, media, urbanism, climate, religion, migration, and more.
The conference programme extended far beyond paper presentations. Attendees had the opportunity to participate in several professional development workshops that addressed practical aspects of academic life: book and journal publishing, academic job hunting, fellowship and grant applications, pedagogy, and strategies for navigating graduate school. Special sessions were dedicated to women in academia, providing mentorship and creating space for reflection on gender and institutional power.
A major highlight of the 2025 edition was the Author Meets Readers series, which featured 22 roundtables on groundbreaking new books that are reshaping the humanities and social sciences. Among the works discussed were How to Become a Big Man in Africa by Wale Adebanwi, The Making of Museums in Nigeria by Amanda H. Hellman, Terrorism, Politics, and Human Rights Advocacy by Temitope Oriola, African Media in an Age of Extraction by Noah Tsika, Representations of Child Soldiers in Contemporary African Narratives by Ademola Adesola, and Protest Arts, Gender, and Social Change by Ousseina D. Alidou. These roundtables brought authors into direct dialogue with their readers, making room for critical, collaborative, and generative conversation.
Participants also engaged with film screenings, a dance performance, and critical-celebratory panels devoted to senior scholars and foundational texts in African studies.
The keynote address at the opening ceremony was delivered by Segun Adefila, founder of Crown Troupe of Africa, whose presentation – “Feetless Dancers: Baton Exchange in the Roles of Art and Artists in Social Rejuvenation” – explored the crucial role of artists in social rejuvenation. He challenged his audience to step into the moral and civic voids within their communities. According to him, the role of the artist was undergoing a concerning shift, with the socially engaging aspects of art losing ground and many artistic voices being reduced to mere entertainment.
Keynote Speaker, Segun Adefila
Drawing on Yoruba masquerade traditions and invoking the legacies of Hubert Ogunde and Fela Anikulapo Kuti, Adefila reminded participants that African art has never been a passive presence in society. He described it as a witness, a judge, and a healer. The masquerade, he explained, is not simply a form of entertainment but a complex cultural expression that chants, dances, and sings to drive away evil and usher in good tidings.
Delivered in poetic cadences and rich symbolism, his keynote address became a rallying cry. He noted that every society requires the attention of the elders for proper direction, continuity and vision. He warned that the cultural marketplace could no longer afford to ignore the absence of elders and urged his audience to rise to the occasion by re-examining their roles in light of current sociopolitical realities.
Institutional support for the conference came from the University of Lagos, as well as a wide network of international partners and funders including Florida International University’s Steven J. Green School of International and Public Affairs, Yale University Council on African Studies, University of Michigan African Studies Center, the Canada Research Chair in Youth and African Urban Futures at Queen’s University, the Tamar Golan Africa Center at Ben Gurion University, the Kansas African Studies Center, Boston University African Studies Center, the International African Institute, The British Academy, and The French Institute for Research in Africa (IFRA-Nigeria).
For many participants, the conference was not just a professional gathering; it was a reminder of the power of collective thinking and the importance of building intellectual homes rooted in care, courage, and imagination.
According to a participant, LSA is not just a conference. It is a movement. And in a world fractured by inequality, misinformation, and shrinking civic spaces, such movements are not just important. They are essential.
This is a well detailed narrative. No embellishment or hyperbolic words. It manages to truly cave the obvious in words. if you are at the conference as I am, there are no better words to copiously capture the deep rooted experience, discovery and exposure. God bless the conveyer, sponsors, volunteers and attendees. The conference is unmistakable the best by all stands by being humble. Thank you.