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We welcome participants for a panel titled /Islamic Education in Africa:Continuities, Changes and Contestations /as part of the upcoming AfricanStudies Association of the UK (ASAUK) biennial conferenceto be held atthe University of Sussex, Brighton UK, from the 9^th -11^th September,2014.For any queries about the panel please contact Anneke Newman ata.newman(AT)sussex.ac.uk, but please use the ASAUK online system viahttp://www.asauk.net/conferences/asauk14.shtmlto submit your 250 wordabstract. The deadline for abstracts is the 1st April 2014, submissionswill be considered shortly thereafter. Decisions about the exact day onwhich the panel will be held will not be made by conference organisersuntil after abstracts are submitted; we apologise for any inconveniencethis might cause. 15 minute presentations should be supported by a 3000word paper, to be circulated to convenors, discussant and otherparticipants by the 15^th August 2015. The language of the conference isEnglish.Please find the detailed panel description below.We hope to hear from you soon,Anneke Newman (University of Sussex) and Hannah Hoechner (University ofOxford)Panel 3988 - Islamic Education in Africa: Continuities, Changes and  ContestationsContemporary African societies are characterised by plural educationallandscapes, with a variety of actors alongside the state providingschooling services and scholarships. Education has been the site ofcompeting powers where players reflecting different world views haveconfronted each other. In countries with significant Muslim populations,this dynamic is reflected in a diverse landscape of educationalinstitutions, spanning both formal and informal schools, private as wellas public actors, and varying degrees of integration between religiousand secular subjects.For much of the last century this educational context has beencharacterised by mutual antagonism, with Islamic schools often createdin an act of explicit opposition to colonial and postcolonial governmenteducation policy, and enjoying popularity among families who perceiveinadequacies in the secular state school system. In turn, indigenousIslamic reformers have sought to adapt older models of Quranic schoolsby introducing Western pedagogies and subjects into religious education.Furthermore, facing international donor pressure to meet 'Education ForAll' goals, in the last decade some Sahelian countries have begunambitious state policies of educational reform including unprecedentedrapprochement with the Islamic school sector. Similarly, faith-basedorganisations from the Arab world and Western international developmentactors have also begun to engage with the Islamic school sector forvarious ends. Under these circumstances, diverse models of Islamiceducation have emerged, at times in competition with each another aswell as with state schooling.Yet, despite the importance of Islamic education in people's everydaylives, and its influence on the social, political and cultural landscapeof contemporary Africa, it has suffered relative scholarly neglect. Toaddress this deficit, participants are invited to share originalresearch on this topic. Disciplinary approaches could include, but areby no means limited to: political economy; history; literature, film andmedia studies; anthropology and sociology; international development andarea studies; comparative and international education. Presenters areinvited to consider the relevance of their scholarship to wider currentacademic debates such as engagement with faith in internationaldevelopment; the implications of globalising forces including migrationand new media on education; the intersections between axes of socialdifference like gender, with knowledge and authority; links (genuine orperceived) between Islamic education and Islamist radicalisation; thepower struggles which arise when contrasting pedagogies and cosmologiescollide; and the methodological challenges of researching such processes.Convenors:Anneke Newman (University of Sussex)Hannah Hoechner (University of Oxford)