I moved to Europe full of hope and dreams more than four years ago. I was a young Pakistani girl going to live alone for the first time in pursuit of a prestigious Master’s Degree. Since then, I have managed to snag another reputable doctoral fellowship, but the questions I had on Day 1 remain.

Do I belong here?
Or perhaps,
Where do I belong?
Do I fit in here?
Or perhaps,
Where do I fit in?

If you catch my train of thought, you might get an inkling of the ocean of questions swimming in my head. It has been difficult, to say the least, to live in different countries in Europe at this point, constantly striving to navigate my place. I have lived in three European countries, and it has been nothing less than a roller coaster ride to find my community, build relationships, and find a semblance of home away from home.

 

THE EUROPEAN CONFERENCE OF AFRICAN STUDIES 2025

However, for the first time in the last five years, I felt seen, heard, and like I belonged at the European Conference of African Studies 2025, arranged by the African Studies in Europe Network (AEGIS), in the beautiful city of Prague from 25th June to 28th June. The conference was attended by African Studies scholars, practitioners, researchers, academics, and students from across Europe and the African continent. And, by people like me who find themselves at the strange intersection of Europe (institutional affiliation), Africa (work and research setting), and Asia (home).

I knew this was my space when the opening ceremony of the conference had the performance titled Confluence, by a Czech-Nigerian performance artist, Angela Nwagbo. Her performance intertwined spoken-word storytelling with intricate Czech and Nigerian dance and used elements of anthropological theatre to describe her journey of self-discovery as an Afropean woman. I would be lying if I said I didn’t shed a tear during her spoken word about finding home in different spaces that are supposed to feel like home, but fall short somehow because of our conflicting identities that do not belong to one place anymore.

I also attended the Masterpieces of African Art exhibition at the Náprstek Museum, Prague, with a collection of everyday artefacts from the continent. I watched the screening of the film Amok from 1982, which weaved together the personal drama of a single family with the broader societal realities of apartheid-era South Africa, highlighting workers’ strikes, poverty, and the government’s brutal crackdowns on protesters. The film was preceded by a discussion with the representative of the Republic of South Africa, who shared a brief, chilling retelling of her experiences advocating for the end of genocide and apartheid in the country. Finally, I also attended an exhibition titled Akhir Faysal – Faysal Last Stop, which visualised the stories, emotions, and aspirations of a group of Sudanese women who arrived in Egypt following the outbreak of the war in Sudan on April 15, 2023. Through collective mapping, the exhibition offered a glimpse into the everyday lives of Sudanese women in Cairo.

Fast forward, I spent almost four intensive days hopping from one panel to another, going to book readings, roundtables, attending social and cultural events, and so on. On top of that, I found myself often engaging in conversations and hearing my thoughts and feelings mirrored and echoed by those like me who moved out of our home countries for the prospect of a better future.

 

MY MAIN TAKEAWAYS

I attended the two-part panel on Ethics vs Real Life: Navigating in Complex Research Fields. There were around six presentations in total in both parts of the panel, and everyone, apart from the presenters, spent considerable time reflecting on their struggles in the field. The key highlight was how institutional ethics requirements enforced by Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) are often divorced from what it means to be in the field and the ground realities that researchers have to face, especially when working with minorities and vulnerable populations. This is something we have constantly talked about as PARTICIPATE doctoral candidates, so it hit home. I also contributed my understanding of the changing positionality of an outsider-insider researcher working in the Greek context, and how often terms like these (outsider-insider) fit into a nice academic box but do not capture the confusing and fluid reality of navigating your person in the field.

The same day, I also attended the roundtable on Research Ethics and Security for Researchers, which also explored the various ways through which researchers, especially doctoral students and junior scholars, find themselves in an impasse during fieldwork. This impasse is between the real-life problems that they face in risky areas versus the inadequate support from most academic institutions. Finally, I also attended a book launch session by An Ansoms titled Space for Stories: Passion and Vulnerability in Research, which is a promising personal memoir discussing the length and breadth of ethics in real life.

While I want to go on and on about the enriching conversations, panels, and symposiums I attended, I want to wrap this up by bringing to the fore the significant contribution of the roundtable, Breaking the Mould: Seeking Equity Through Reforging Mechanisms for ‘North-South’ Research Collaborations. With researchers from both the African continent and Europe working in the dual context, this roundtable amplified how most Global North partnerships are inequitable and only do lip service to the cause of diversity, equity, and inclusion. Dr. Chika C. Mba from the University of Ghana boldly declared how these academic conventions and discussions around Africa are “political discussions and not academic,” and need to be treated as such. I echo his sentiments, especially when he said that most Western partnerships forget the struggles those from the Global Majority face in applying for visas, spending considerable labour in fulfilling the mobility requirements without getting any help from their institutions. Finally, Akosua Darkwah also raised an instrumental point on how Western institutions are built around tokenistic structures, especially when working with universities in the African continent, and believes that Eurocentric methodologies are the only right way of doing research. A sentiment that I deeply echo and talked about in my presentation.

 

RESEARCH(ER) FROM THE MARGINS: EXPLORING RACIAL CYBER(BULLYING) VIA CREATIVITIES

Coming to my presentation, it was part of one of the two sessions organised under the Crafting New Knowledge: Autoethnography and Creative Expression in African Studies panel. My presentation focused on how Afrocentricity and creative methodologies offer pathways to challenge Western and traditional academic hierarchies and reimagine knowledge production. It reflected on the tension between personal and scholarly storytelling while researching racial (cyber)bullying with AfroGreek youth.

I argued by showcasing the efficacy of arts-based methods, including postcards, zines, posters, and poetry; the data amplifies youth voices and integrates the researcher’s reflexive narratives. By involving youth as co-creators, this approach fosters participatory, decolonial scholarship. It illuminates counter-narratives that disrupt hegemonic understandings of Afropean identities and highlights the potential of shared creative processes. Alongside, it underscores the challenges faced by minority (in the Western majority) researchers operating within racist bureaucratic systems, where personal experiences and systemic oppression intersect. This dual engagement with the youth’s stories and the researcher’s lived realities creates both opportunities and dilemmas. While the use of creativities fosters empathy, connection, and collective belonging, it also risks emotional burnout for researchers who occupy marginalised positions themselves.
By presenting the creative outputs of the research alongside my artistic expressions in the form of spoken word, I explored freedom by bridging the boundaries between researcher and researched. The creation of an anti-bullying “living archive” with AfroGreek youth emerged as a dissident act against racist societal norms, offering a space for collaborative storytelling that is deeply personal yet profoundly social. My work ultimately repositions African identities and belonging at the centre of scholarship, moving beyond the margins to create a more inclusive, decolonial, reflexive, and transformative understanding of Afropean lifeworlds.

 

FINDING SPACES OF HOPE

I won’t lie that engaging in meaningful conversations throughout this conference is the most liberated I have felt in a while. It made me realise how essential it is to design, create, and sustain spaces that allow everyone to be their authentic selves and to voice their truths. I found myself in a community that understood the things I talked about. They understood the toll it takes on your mental health to be a minority and to research minorities.

But above all, it reminded me that we still have spaces of hope. And if we don’t, then we can always take that initiative to be around and to find our tribe. No matter how hard the task or the journey is, it always becomes easier when you have people who have gone through the same or understand what you are going through. Surrounding yourself with those who will help find outlets to continue the work that you are doing, but without burning yourself out, is hard but not impossible. This is the reason, once I came back from the conference, I decided to make a group of scholars from the Global Majority working in the West. This will be the space we cultivate together to advocate for forging equitable partnership mechanisms that not only serve the work we do but also serve us as well. If you are or know someone from the Global Majority and can benefit from this, please do not hesitate to reach out at kmaqbool@media.uoa.gr or at my LinkedIn account.