Leeds University Centre for African Studies (LUCAS) is an interdisciplinary centre at the

University of Leeds The University of Leeds is a public research university in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It was established in 1874 as the Yorkshire College of Science. In 1884, it merged with the Leeds School of Medicine (established 1831) and was renamed Y ...

that was established in 1964, and has members from a variety of faculties who share an interest in African Studies. The English, Geography, History and Politics and International Studies (POLIS) schools at the University of Leeds are all closely linked to LUCAS. The current director is Shane Doyle. LUCAS runs a seminar series and holds an annual lecture, and invites speakers on a variety of topics around the general theme of

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

. In 2009, LUCAS ran a conference on ''Democratization in Africa: Retrospective and Future Prospects'', which attracted academics from around the world. It is part of Yorkshire African Studies Network (YASN) and from 2017 joined

AEGIS (research network) AEGIS is a research network of European centres on African studies in the fields of social science and humanities. AEGIS' main goal is to improve understanding about contemporary African societies. History and organisation AEGIS was founded in 199 ...

. The centre has close links to the Review of African Political Economy (ROAPE), the deputy chair of which is Professor Ray Bush and the position of chair was previously held by the late Professor Lionel Cliffe. Furthermore, ROAPE hosted a series of panels at LUCAS' 2009 ''Democratization in Africa Conference''. LUCAS also publishes an annual Leeds African Studies Bulletin, which has been in print since 1964. Its ISSN is 0024-0249. Besides recording activities and other news relating to African studies at Leeds, it contains scholarly articles and book reviews. It has published pieces by many distinguished African writers and Africanist scholars over the years, including

Wole Soyinka Wole Soyinka , (born 13 July 1934) is a Nigerian author, best known as a playwright and poet. He has written three novels, ten collections of short stories, seven poetry collections, twenty five plays and five memoirs. He also wrote two transla ...

Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o (; born James Ngugi; 5January 193828May 2025) was a Kenyan author and academic, who has been described as East Africa's leading novelist and an important figure in modern African literature. Ngũgĩ wrote primarily in Eng ...

Jack Mapanje Jack Mapanje (born 25 March 1944)James Currey James Currey is an academic publisher specialising in African Studies that since 2008 has been an imprint of Boydell & Brewer. It is named after its founder, who established the company in 1984. It publishes on a full spectrum of topics—incl ...

, Morris Szeftel,

Michael Barratt Brown Michael Barratt Brown (15 March 1918 – 7 May 2015) was a British economist, political activist and adult educator. He was a key figure in the creation of the British New Left in the period after the Soviet invasion of Hungary; he helped to found ...

Abdulrazak Gurnah Abdulrazak Gurnah (born 20 December 1948) is a Tanzanian-born British novelist and academic. He was born in the Sultanate of Zanzibar and moved to the United Kingdom in the 1960s as a refugee during the Zanzibar Revolution. His novels includ ...

, Martin Banham, the late

Lionel Cliffe Lionel R Cliffe (1936 – 24 October 2013) was an English political economist and activist whose work focused on the struggle for land rights and freedom in Africa from the 1960s. He was Professor of Politics at the University of Leeds. Early lif ...

, Ray Bush,

Femi Osofisan Babafemi Adeyemi Osofisan (born June 16, 1946), known as Femi Osofisan or F.O., is a Nigerian writer noted for his critique of societal problems and his use of African traditional performances and surrealism in some of his plays. A frequent theme ...

, James Gibbs, and Jane Plastow.

External links

LUCAS websiteLeeds ''African Studies Bulletin''
{{Authority control University of Leeds