Les rencontres du GDR Rift
13-17 mai 2024 : Kenya – Maasaï Mara University
Colloque du GDR RIFT
Du 13 au 17 mai 2024 s’est tenu le 3ème colloque du GDR RIFT à l’Université Maasaï Mara, à Narok (Kenya).
The aim of the conference was to promote interdisciplinary research on the Eastern Africa Rift Valley. Three days has been devoted to scientific papers and five workshops (13-15 May). Fruitful oral and poster sessions permit to interact and exchange between students, researchers from more than 10 different countries
The workshops organized Wednesday allow 5 different groups (between 10 and 25 people) to train on different subjects. Some workshops has even conclude by future actions to be held within the GDR Rift (see section below).
Two days of field visits has then been organized on 16 and 17 May, despite the rainy season. The lava cave in Mount Suswa and geothermal places has been great places to see examples of interdisciplinary common fields. The participants were also able to plant trees with pupils in two different schools in the area. The trees came from the nursery of the MMARAU.
A gala dinner took place in the Olive Hotel Tuesday night. It was a clear moment of sharing and having fun, wherever we came from, whatever nationality and discipline we were.
This conference has only been possible thanks to the collective and voluntary participation of all the members of the scientific and organizing committees, and to the support of the supervisory institutions (CNRS, French Embassy, IFRA, CFEE). We would like to take this opportunity to thank them warmly, as well as all the participants who attended this meeting.
Programme
- Le recueil des résumés est disponible Ici.
- Programme détaillé du colloque
Workshop on interdisciplinarity
Conclusive session
After the Colloquium, a conclusive session was organized, where the participants and organizers had the opportunity to point out actions we would like to emphasize or change or reconduct in the future.
- The different workshops were appreciated
- Time for interaction also
- Interdisciplinarity was really present
- Field trips were appreciated to interact and discover new field applications
Suggestions for the future:
- Workshop on more precise subjects, may be proposed early by the participants
- Need a brainstorming session to gather and select the workshop subjects
- Proposed subject: Paper objectives
- Field trip should be shifted in the middle of the colloquium
- so that people can interact after, in a workshop session for example.
- Be careful to the equilibrium of the disciplines
- Suswa area is a good candidate to start thinking about interdisciplinary projects. Maina Khalai Scolastica proposed to conduct a group on this question (scolakhalai96[at]gmail.com).
- The proposition to create a GDR rift journal based on interdisciplinarity is welcomed
- To improve poster session (more time, more space)
Proposition for the next colloquium:
- Ask for workshop and session subject before the abstract submission to include everyone
- Go on a common field trip in the middle of the colloquium, and organize workshops associated to the field trip just after to favour project initiation and discussions
- Organize a follow-up of the different workshop to keep the dynamic over the next year.
- Poster session should be identified as a single session, without any other parallel sessions.
Le comité scientifique du GDR RIFT
