YSI-SAHS Pre-Conference: Re-imagining Legacies, Transitions and Meanders in Southern African Economic Histories, University of Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe, 23 June 2026

For several decades, southern Africa and the wider world have grappled with multifaceted social, political and economic legacies and transitions. These have manifested themselves in upheavals, increased armed confrontation, economic tensions, and a rise in localized social disorders. These transitions and meanders have configured and reconfigured structures and institutions of power, and are, undoubtedly, a product of historical processes, both anthropogenic and natural. Key moments in history have attracted varied historiographical responses from historians. The YSI- SAHS Pre-conference and main conference alike seeks to foster discussion about how historical transitions (international and local) have shaped the region’s histories and historiographies. This, we hope, will help shed light on how historical processes have been understood, experienced, and interpreted. The conference invites contributions from young scholars from various disciplines within humanities and social sciences. We welcome papers that employ a range of methodologies, including quantitative approaches to econometric modelling, statistical analyses, and an array of data-driven analyses; as well as qualitative research such as case studies, interviews, narrative analyses and ethnographic studies.

The conference seeks to examine and re-examine the pertinent role of institutions and policies broadly conceived in shaping economic outcomes and social inequalities, as read with the broader thematic focus of this conference. Thus, we invite  individual papers on the given broad theme and a wide range of sub-themes related, but not limited to:
• Legal histories: legacies, meanders, and changes in laws
• Statecraft and transitions: political and military change
• Protest cultures, everyday resistance and subversive politics