About CAAS

The Center for African Area Studies at Kyoto University (CAAS) aims to conduct area studies based on a deep understanding of Africa’s nature, society, and culture that will lead to solutions to the various problems in the African region. Through area studies that integrate the humanities and natural sciences, CAAS addresses a variety of issues, including food security and endogenous development in Africa, growing economic disparities and ethnic and religious conflicts, and environmental problems such as the conservation of tropical forests, the prevention of desertification, and the improvement of urban sanitation. In 1996, the former CAAS was reorganized as the Division of African Area Studies, Graduate School of Human and Environmental Studies, then the CAAS was newly established as the current organization in Kyoto University.

Four Core Pillars

As a center for academic research in Africa, the Center’s main activities are (1) promotion of interdisciplinary research, (2) research information accumulation and networking. (3) research exchange and international cooperation based on international academic agreements, and (4) disseminating of research output and contribution to society by organizing open seminars and lectures.

Through these activities, CAAS strives to accumulate and disseminate research and information on Africa as a distinctive African research institution that makes us of the uniqueness of fieldwork emphasized by Kyoto University, and plays a role in promoting nationwide and international research exchange and cooperation.