Eliud Biegon at IMAF (Campus Condorcet, Paris)
Stay: 15 December 2024 – 15 January 2025
Role: Member of the Advisory Board, WomatWork Project
Profile
Eliud Biegon is a Lecturer in History in the Department of History, Archaeology and Political Studies at Kenyatta University, Nairobi. For more information on him click here.
Research Stay Overview
During his one-month writing residency at the Institut des mondes africains (IMAF), Campus Condorcet, Eliud Biegon pursued two main objectives.
First, as a newly appointed member of the Advisory Board, he engaged with the project’s PI and research team to discuss his role and potential contributions. Second, he used the residency to develop and refine his own research agenda within the framework of the project.
Engagement with the Project
During his stay, Biegon participated in both formal and informal meetings with the PI, project leaders, and fellow researchers. He also interacted with PhD students involved in the project and attended seminar presentations of ongoing work.
He took part in the project board meeting held on 7 January 2025, which reviewed activities carried out in 2024 and outlined future directions. A key point of discussion concerned strategies for strengthening engagement with the academic community in Kenya, particularly with regard to improving the pool of PhD applicants to the project.
Research Development
A central outcome of the residency was the development of a new research direction that Biegon intends to pursue as part of his contribution to the project.
He began conceptualizing a study provisionally titled:
Living in Chumba: Work, Property, and Matrilineage among Nandi Women in Colonial Nairobi.
This project explores the intersections of labour, property, and kinship, with a particular focus on women’s experiences and social organization in colonial urban contexts.
Contribution
Biegon’s stay contributed to consolidating the project’s advisory structure and to shaping future research directions, particularly through his involvement in strategic discussions and his emerging research agenda within the project.