In recognition of the work of Professor John Fage, founder of CWAS and a major contributor to the institutionalisation of African Studies in the UK and internationally, the Department of African Studies and Anthropology (incorporating CWAS) launched a new annual lecture series at the conference 'Crossroads in African Studies' (4-6 September 2013), which celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of CWAS. The first Fage Lecture was in fact a double lecture on African economic history from a global perspective and in the longue durée with talks delivered by Professor Anthony G. Hopkins (Emeritus Smuts Professor of Commonwealth History at the University of Cambridge, former Professor of Economic History at CWAS and UoB Honorary Graduate) and Professor Gareth Austin (Professor of Economic History at the Graduate Institute, Geneva, CWAS alumnus and former Lecturer in the Economic History of West Africa at CWAS), and a response by Professor Robin Law (Emeritus Professor at the University of Stirling, CWAS alumnus and former Research Fellow at CWAS). The first Fage Lecture was organised thanks to the support of the African Studies Association of the United Kingdom (ASAUK).
