AFRILEX Report
From 27 to 29 June 2019, the 24th AFRILEX conference took place in Windhoek (Namibia). The EMJMD-EMLex was represented by a strong group consisting of professors Martina Nied (Rom), María José Domínguez Vázquez (Santiago de Compostela), Carolin Müller-Spitzer (IDS Mannheim), Rufus Gouws (Stellenbosch), Stefan Schierholz (Erlangen), EMJMD manager Wiebke Blanck (Erlangen), and the students Polina Solonets (Braga) and Silke Bomber (Braga). At the AFRILEX conference, exciting lectures were held over the course of three days, among them the aforementioned guests from Europe. The AFRILEX organisers had allocated four time slots in total to the presentation of the EMJMD EMLex, which provided enough room to report in detail on the master course structure (Schierholz), the 2019 summer term in Rome (Nied), the impressions on the 2019 summer term from the students perspective (Polonets, Bomber), the activities and tasks of the Erasmus Mundus (Blanck), the significance of Erasmus Mundus for students (Polonets), and present a retrospect and future-oriented view on sustainability (Domínguez Vázquez, Gouws) and common research activities (Müller-Spitzer). The numerous questions and comments from the audience led to a lively discussion, due to which the event classifies as a full success for EMLex. However, EMLex did leave a deep impression in Africa, but AFRILEX, Namibia and Windhoek certainly did the same with the European guests. The event was perfectly organised, providing an excellent culture of lectures and discussion. In parallel, a major international conference on migration in Southern Africa took place at the venue, which was also attended by the Namibian president. Accommodation was excellent, as advertised, the dry air felt different but good, and the cultural diversity inspired the participants. The 2020 AFRILEX will take place in Stellenbosch (South Africa). We would very much like to deepen our new contacts there.
Stefan Schierholz