“Research in the Western Indian Ocean Region” Conference’: Preliminary Report and Recommendations

Extract

The conference was sponsored by the African Research Committee and was held at the Minnowbrook Conference Center of Syracuse University from October 30 to November 2, 1965. The disciplines represented were social and cultural anthropology, musicology, sociology, social psychology, political science, and history. Participants included Philip Allen (Department of State); Frederick Burke (Syracuse University); Remi Clignet (Northwestern University); L. Gray Cowan (Columbia University); Norma McCloud (Tulane University); John Middleton (Northwestern University); Allen Rawick (Library of Congress); Aidan Southall, Chairman (Syracuse University); and Peter Wilson (Yale University).

The conference concentrated its efforts on seeking and sharing a common understanding of the social background of the diverse ocean and island region that includes Madagascar, the Comoros, Mauritius, Réunion, and the Seychelles and on exploring precisely the extent to which linked interdisciplinary and comparative studies would be fruitful. The conference came to a strong and unanimous conclusion that the Western Indian Ocean Region offers the challenging possiblity of a real breakthrough in a number of dissimilar but closely interlocking research interests.

The main recommendations of the conference are as follows:

1. That a rather informal clearinghouse should be established which would institute and maintain contact between social scientists interested in the region and keep them up to date on all relevant plans and work in progress.

2. That a careful and detailed application should be drawn up to obtain funds for carrying out a series of well-balanced and integrated studies, attracting graduate students and training them for further work, securing library resources, and forming appropriate ties with interested scholars and academic institutions overseas.