Vitae, Wim van Binsbergen Vitae, Wim van Binsbergen
 |
GENERAL
|
list
of publications / Shikanda portal index
page /
Topicalities (weblog on Wim van Binsbergen's current and imminent
schoalrly and literry publications and activities
updated 7-7-2013
(for short bio-/bibliographical note, see index page)
| 1964 |
“Gymnasium-B”, Amsterdam |
| 1968 |
“Kandidaatsexamen” in social sciences,
University of Amsterdam: cultural anthropology/
non-western sociology major |
| 1971 |
“Doktoraal examen” in social science,
University of Amsterdam (cum laude): cultural
anthropology/ non-western sociology, with fields in
religious anthropology and general linguistics |
| 1979 |
Doctor of social science, Free University,
Amsterdam (cum laude) |
| 1990 (effective graduation 1991) |
Sangoma (spirit medium/diviner) and
registered traditional practitioner, Botswana |
| Extracurricular training: |
philosophical anthropology (1964-65), Arabic
(1965-66), the computer language Algol-60 (1968),
symbolic logic and finite mathematics (1968-69),
multivariate analysis and computer techniques (SPSS)
(1975-76), Southern African traditional medicine
(1988-91), magic and religion in the Ancient Near East
(1994-95) |
| Languages: |
fluency in Dutch, English, French, German, Nkoya
(Zambia), Creole (Guinea-Bissau), Afrikaans; passive
knowledge of Italian, Portuguese, Latin, other Romance
and Germanic languages, classical Greek; limited command
of Arabic (Maghribean and classical), Tswana, Kalanga,
Ndebele (Botswana, South Africa, Zimbabwe), Ancient
Egyptian, Chinese, Hebrew |
| 1971-72 |
Assistant Lecturer in Sociology, University of
Zambia |
| 1973 |
Lecturer in Sociology, University of Zambia |
| 1973-74, 1977, 1978 |
Research Affiliate, Institute for African
Studies, University of Zambia |
| 1974-75 |
Research Fellow, Netherlands Foundation for the
Advancement of Tropical Research (WOTRO), stationed at
the Anthropological Sociological Centre, University of
Amsterdam |
| 1975-76 |
Chair (acting) of Sociology and Cultural
Anthropology of Africa, Department of Cultural
Anthropology and Non-Western Sociology, University of
Leiden |
| 1977-80 |
Research Officer, African Studies Centre, Leiden |
| 1979-80 |
Simon Professor of Anthropology, University of
Manchester |
| 1980-1990 |
Head, Department of Political Science and
History, and Scientific Co-Director of the African
Studies Centre, Leiden |
| 1984-87 |
Consultant Editor, Africa (London) |
| 1986 |
Visiting Professor of Ethnology, Freie
Universität, Berlin (West) |
| 1988-1995 |
Affiliated Researcher, Applied Research Unit,
Ministry of Local Government and Lands, Republic of
Botswana |
| 1990-1998 |
Professor of Anthropology, Free University,
Amsterdam, chair of ‘Ethnicity and ideology in
development processes in the Third World’ |
| 1990-1993 |
Chairman, Netherlands Association of African
Studies |
| 1990-1993 |
Member, Advisory Board of WOTRO (Netherlands
Foundation for Tropical Research) |
| 1991- |
Member, interuniversity graduate school CERES
(Centre for Resource Studies, Utrecht), section 7
(identity) |
| 1992 |
Visiting Professor of Anthropology, University
of Durban-Westville, South Africa |
| 1993-1999 |
Member of the Executive Committee, WOTRO
(Netherlands Foundation for Tropical Research) Programme
on Globalization and the construction of communal
identities (also see under: Research) |
| 1994- |
Member, interuniversity graduate school CNWS
(Centre for Non-Western Studies, Leiden), section on
Africa |
| 1994-95 |
Fellow, Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study
in the Humanities and Social Sciences (NIAS), Royal
Netherlands Academy of Sciences, Wassenaar; -- theme
group on ‘Magic and Religion in the Ancient Near
East’ |
| 1996-2002 |
Chair, Theme group on globalisation and
socio-cultural transformations, African Studies Centre,
Leiden |
| 1997-2003 |
Member of the Management Team, African Studies
Centre, Leiden |
| 1998- |
Professor, chair of Foundations of Intercultural
Philosophy, Faculty of Philosophy, Erasmus University,
Rotterdam, The Netherlands; emeritus since 2006 |
| 1998-2006 |
Chair, Subprogramma on Intercultural Philosophy,
Philosophical Faculty, Erasmus University Rotterdam |
| 1998- |
Chair, Dutch/Flemish Association of
Intercultural Philosophy |
| 1999-2007 |
Member of the Permanent Appointments Committee,
Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology, Louvain
Catholic University, Louvain, Belgium |
| 1999-2001 |
Member of the Committee on ICT, African Studies
Centre, Leiden |
| 2000- |
co-initiator (with Jan Jansen) and member of the
Advisory Editorial Board, series African Voices for
African History, Brill Publishing House, Leiden, The
Netherlands |
| 2002- |
Editor, Quest — An International African
Journal of Philosophy / Revue Africaine de Philosophie |
| 2002-2007 |
Member, theme group on Agency in Africa, African
Studies Centre, Leiden |
| 2006- | Founding member and member of the Board of Directors, International Association for Comparative Mythology |
| 2007-2012 | Research Unit 'Connections in African knowledge', African Studies Centre, Leiden, the Netherlands |
| 2007 | Founder / Editor, Papers in Intercultural Philosophy / Transcontinental Studies |
| 2010- | Member, editorial board, Caribbean Journal of Philosophy |
| 2010- | Member, editorial board, Culture and Dialogue |
| 2009- | Member, Advisory Board, Faculty of Peace Studies, Université Protestante de l'Afrique Centrale, Yaounde, Cameroon |
| 2012- | post-retirement Associated Senior Researcher, African Studies Centre, Leiden, the Netherlands |
| 1968-71, 1978- |
Shrines and ecstasy in the social structure of
northwestern Tunisia (fieldwork: March-June 1968,
August-September 1970, April 1979, May 2002). |
| 1972-- |
Anthropology and history of the Nkoya of Zambia
(fieldwork: February 1972-April 1974; September-November
1977; August 1978; June/July 1989; May and October, 1992;
January and June/July, 1994, September/October 1995). |
| 1972- |
Religion in Zambia, with particular emphasis on
organised urban religion and social control, the
transformation of autochthonous religious forms, and the
relation between politics and religion (fieldwork:
February 1972-August 1973) |
| 1980-1991 |
Head, Department of Political Science and
History, African Studies Centre, Leiden |
| 1981- |
Religion, migration and ethnopsychiatry in
Guinea Bissau (fieldwork: December 1981, November 1982,
April-August 1983) |
| 1988- |
The growth of urban society in Francistown,
Botswana (fieldwork: November 1988-October 1989; August;
September 1990; June/July 1991; April/May and October,
1992; February 1994, March-April 1999; particular
emphasis on cultural, medical and religious
transformations in the context of urbanisation) |
| 1990- |
The comparative and historical study of
protoglobalisation, as exemplified by systems of
geomantic divination in Southern Africa, throughout the
African continent, and elsewhere in the Old World; 4/5 of
the NIAS appointment, 199495, was devoted to this
research, the rest to general theoretical and
methodological contributions to the NIAS theme group on
‘Religion and Magic in the Ancient Near East’ |
| 1993-1999 |
(with P. Geschiere) initiated and directed
(later shared with H.U.B. Thoden van Velzen and P. van
der Veer) of the research programme ‘Globalization
and the formation of communal identities’, financed
by the Netherlands Foundation for Tropical Research
(WOTRO) (Dfl. 2.5 mill. budget granted 1995) |
| 1994- |
(with R. Badwy) translation with commentary of:
al-Zanati, Sidi al-Shaikh Muhammad, 1995, Treatise on the
principles of sand-science: A provisional English
translation by Rafat Badwy with the assistance of Wim van
Binsbergen, of: Zanati (Muhammad al-), Kitab al-façl
al-kabir fi uçul cIlm al-raml. Wa-yalihi: risala
fi’l-Jafr wa-Qurca li-Sayyidi Jacfar al-Çadiq. |
| 1994 |
(with M.R. Doornbos) Identity and power in
su-bSaharan Africa |
| 1994 |
Traditional medicine in Botswana; M.A.
students’ training project in cooperation with the
Ministry of Health, Republic of Botswana |
| 1995-1997 |
(with B. Bierlich, University of Haifa, Israel;
and K. Arhin, Legon, Ghana), research on interand
intrafamily variation of the nutritional status of
children, rural Ghana; a project funded by the
Netherlands Israel Research Programme (funding obtained
May 1996 |
| 1995-1998 |
initiator and chairperson, monthly staff
colloquium, African Studies Centre, Leiden |
| 1996-2002 | founder and chairperson, theme group on ‘Globalisation and sociocultural transformations in Africa’ at the African Studies Centre, Leiden |
| 1997- |
Sub Saharan Africa, Ancient Egypt, and the
World: Beyond the Black Athena thesis |
| 1998- |
The North Atlantic critique of African
philosophy as an intercultural challenge |
| 1998- |
the development of a philosophy of
interculturality on the basis of a critical inspiration
from cultural anthropology and African Studies |
| 1998-2002 |
Member of the Programme on the Philosophy of
Information and Communication Technology, Philosophical
Faculty, Erasmus University Rotterdam |
| 1998-2001 |
(with P.L. Geschiere) Commodifiction and
globalisation |
| 1999- |
Cupmarks, prehistoric stellar maps, and mankala
board games: Exploring mankind’s oldest attested
forms of conceptual representation |
| 2002- |
Agency in African history: an analysis of non documentary (mythical and iconographical) sources allowing the reconstruction of patterns of agency in precolonial African societies |
| 2000- | Transcontinental patterns of
leopard-skin symbolism |
| 2003- | Global continuities of African
mythology |
| 2004 | (with Fred Woudhuizen) Ethnicity in
Mediterranean protohistory |
| 2007- | Before the Presocratics: Cyclicity,
transformation and element cosmologies in pre- and
proto-history worldwide |
| 2007- | Africa's transcontinental continuities in pre- and protohistory |
| 1971-73 |
University of Zambia, Department of Sociology
(later called: Department of Social Development Studies) |
| 1975-76 |
Department of Cultural Anthropology and
Non-western Sociology, University of Leiden |
| 1975- |
Guest lectures/courses for non-specialist
audiences, at the Royal Tropical Institute (Amsterdam),
Kontakt der Kontinenten (Soesterberg; an institution
offering introductory courses for development workers),
the General Curriculum (Studium Generale) of the
University of Utrecht and the Technical University of
Twenthe, Clingendael (Netherlands Institute for Foreign
Affairs), etc. |
| 1975- |
Guest lectures at various universities in the
Netherlands, United Kingdom, Canada, Federal Republic
of Germany, Zambia, Botswana, Belgium on topics related
to my ongoing research |
| 1977-78, 1978-79 |
W.M.J. van Binsbergen & K. de Jonge,
inter-university postgraduate regional course on Migration
in Africa. |
| 1977- |
Supervision and external examination of various
“doktoraal” (= postgraduate) and doctoral (Ph.
D.) theses on anthropology, non-western sociology,
history and legal studies of Africa, for the University
of Leiden, Municipal University of Amsterdam, Free
University (Amsterdam), Erasmus University (Rotterdam) |
| 1980- |
As head of the Department of Political and
Historical Studies, and Head of Globalisation Studies,
African Studies Centre, Leiden, supervision of numerous
members of the research staff (postdocs and Ph.D.
candidates) |
| 1979-80 |
Simon Professor of Anthropology, University of
Manchester |
| 1984-87 |
Co-operation with Stichting Leerplan
Ontwikkeling (SLO) and Centrum voor Internationale
Vorming (CEVNO), towards the development of a curriculum
on African development problems for Dutch secondary
education |
| 1986 |
Visiting Professor of Ethnology, Freie
Universität, Berlin (West) |
| 1990-1998 |
Professor, Chair of Ethnicity and Ideology in
Development Processes in the Third World, department of
anthropology and development studies, Free University,
Amsterdam |
| 1991-2012 |
Professorial staff, inter-university
social-science research school CERES (Centre for Resource
Studies) |
| 1992 |
Visiting Professor of Anthropology, University
of Durban-Westville, South Africa |
| 1994- |
Traditional medicine in Botswana; M.A.
students’ training project in co-operation with the
Ministry of Health, Republic of Botswana |
| 1994-2012 |
Professorial staff, social-science research
school CNWS (Centre for Non-Western Studies), Leiden
University |
| 1998- |
Professor of Foundations of Intercultural
Philosophy, Philosophical Faculty, Erasmus University
Rotterdam (emeritus with continued PhD supervision, 2006-
) |
| 1998- | visiting lectureships / professorships in Yaounde, Buea, Louvain, etc. |
| 1965-66 |
Founding member and secretary, Association of
Cultural Anthropology and Non-western Sociology Students
at the Municipal University of Amsterdam |
| 1966-68 |
Member of the Committee, subsequently President,
of the Netherlands Association of Cultural Anthropology
and Non-western Sociology Students (KULA) |
| 1967-68 |
Convenor and chairperson of a conference on The
military in Developing countries, organised by KULA,
Nijmegen, 1968. |
| 1971-73 |
Member of the Committee on Curriculum
Development, School of Humanities and Social Sciences,
University of Zambia |
| 1975-82 |
Convenor and chairman of the monthly
inter-university Africa Seminar, later called Africa
Colloquium |
| 1975-76 |
Member of the Advisory Board, Project Women
and Development (VENO), University of Leiden |
| 1976-77 |
Convenor (with K. de Jonge, H. Meilink and J.
van der Klei) of the International Conference on Migration
in Africa, held in Leiden, November 1977 |
| 1978-79 |
Convenor (with M. Schoffeleers), International
Conference on Recent Religious Research in Africa; An
Evaluation, held in Leiden, December 1979. |
| 1979-80 |
Member of the Founding Committee, Netherlands
Association of African Studies (Werkgemeenschap Afrika) |
| 1980-1990 |
Head, Department of Political Science and
History, and Scientific Co-Director, African Studies
Centre, Leiden |
| 1981 |
Convenor (with G. Hesseling) and chairperson,
Dutch/Belgian Conference on State and Society in
Africa, held in Leiden, December 1981. |
| 1984 |
Convenor (with G. Hesseling and F. Reijntjens)
and chairperson, Dutch/ Belgian Conference on Modern
State Penetration in Africa, held in Antwerp,
December 1984. |
| 1985-1990 |
Member of the Board of IMWOO (national policy
institute for social-science research in developing
countries), The Hague |
| 1986-88 |
Member of the organising committee (with P.
Geschiere and P. Konings), International Conference on
the Political Economy of Cameroon, held in Leiden,
May 1988. |
| 1986-1989 |
Member of the Section on Cultural Anthropology
and Non-western Sociology, formerly Academic Council (a
national body co-ordinating academic policy in these
disciplines) |
| 1989 |
Member of the organising committee, conference
on the Kalanga people, organised by the Supa Ngwao
Museum, Francistown, in conjunction with the Botswana
Society, Gaborone |
| 1990-1993 |
President, Netherlands Association of African
Studies |
| 1990-1995 |
Member of the Advisory Board of the series
‘Studies in Human Society’, (a series of
anthropological publications published by the Centre for
Non-Western Studies with Brill, Leiden) |
| 1991 |
Convenor (with Kees Schilder) and chairperson of
a Dutch-Belgian workshop on ethnicity in Africa |
| 1993-1999 |
(with P. Geschiere) initiator and co-director (a
position later shared with H.U.B. Thoden van Velzen en P.
van der Veer) of the national research programme
‘Globalization and the construction of communal
identities’, financed by the Netherlands Foundation
for Tropical Research (WOTRO) |
| 1993 |
Convenor and chairperson, section ‘State
and ethnicity’ (25 papers), International Congress
on ‘The anthropology of ethnicity’, University
of Amsterdam, December 1993 |
| 1996-2002 |
Chair, Theme group on globalisation and
socio-cultural transformations, African Studies Centre,
Leiden |
| 1996 |
Convenor and chairperson (with Rijk van Dijk),
conference ‘Black Athena: Africa’s contribution
to global systems of knowledge’, African Studies
Centre, Leiden, 28 June 1996 |
| 1996 |
Convenor and chairperson, conference
‘Violence in anthropology’, Free University,
Department of Cultural Anthropology and Sociology of
Development, November 1996 |
| 1997- |
Member of the Management Team, African Studies
Centre, Leiden |
| 1997 |
Convenor (with R. Fardon and R. van Dijk),
international conference ‘Globalisation,
consumption, and development’, WOTRO/ EIDOS
(European Interuniversity Development Opportunities
Study-Group)/ Directorate General for International
Co-operation, Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs,
The Hague/ Leiden, March 13-16, 1997 |
| 1998- |
Chair, Dutch/Flemish Association of
Intercultural Philosophy |
| 1998- |
Chair, Subprogramma on Intercultural Philosophy,
Philosophical Faculty, Erasmus University Rotterdam |
| 1999- |
Member of the Committee on Information and
Communication Technology, African Studies Centre, Leiden |
| 1999- |
Member of the Permanent Appointments Committee,
Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology, Louvain
Catholic University, Louvain, Belgium |
| 1999 |
Convenor (with A. Breedveld and J. van
Santen), international conference ‘Islam and
transformation in Africa’, Leiden: African Studies
Centre and Institute for the Study of Islam in the Modern
World |
| 1999 |
Convenor (with P.L. Geschiere) international
conference ‘Globalisation and identity: The Social
Life of Things revisited, Amsterdam: WOTRO/ African
Studies Centre / Erasmus University Rotterdam |
| 2000- |
co-initiator and member of the Advisory
Editorial Board, series African Voices for African
History, Brill Publishing House, Leiden, The Netherlands |
| 2002 |
Convenor (with R.A. van Dijk), international
conference ‘Globalisation and new questions of
ownership’, Leiden: African Studies Centre and
Erasmus University Rotterdam |
| 2002- |
Editor, Quest — An International African
Journal of Philosophy / Revue Africaine de Philosophie |
| 2003 |
Convenor (with R.A. van Dijk and Wouter van
Beek), international conference ‘Agency in Africa: A
new debate, and old issue’, Erasmus University
Rotterdam and Theme group on Agency, African Studies
Centre, Leiden |
| 2007- | Editor, Papers in Intercultural
Philosophy / Transcontinental Studies |
| 2006 | (with Mirjam de Bruijn) Convenor,
Working conference towards the establishment of a theme
group on Connections in Africa, African Studies Centre,
Leiden |
| 2008 | (with Eric Venbrux) Convenor, Second
Annual Meeting of the International Association for
Comparative Mythology, Leiden / Nijmegen / Ravenstein |
| 2012 | convenor, International Conference
'Rethinking Africa's Transcontinental continuities in
pre- and protohistory', Leiden |
Dutch-Belgian Association for Intercultural Philosophy
(chair)
Kwame Legwane Traditional Association of Botswana
(professional association of traditional healers)
Netherlands Association of African Studies
(Werkgemeenschap Afrika): founding member 1979, chairman
1990-1993
International Association for Comparative Mythology (co-Director)