EWA Reading Room
HANDBOOK
The East African Women's Archives (EWA) is a research and public knowledge collection dedicated to documenting, preserving and making accessible the histories, cultural production and intellectual lives of East African women and their diasporas.
EWA functions simultaneously as an archive, library, research resource and platform. Through its Reading Room, the collection creates a space in which materials can be encountered, researched, interpreted and reactivated by artists, scholars, students, communities and the wider public. Its long-term ambition is to build an enduring intellectual resource for the study of East African women, while contributing to broader conversations around African diasporas, archival justice, cultural memory and the histories of knowledge production.
EWA is shaped through matronage corridors connecting East Africa, the Gulf of Aden, and the Western Indian Ocean, and their diasporas — spanning Ethiopia, Eritrea, Sudan, and South Sudan; the Swahili coasts of Kenya, Tanzania, and Zanzibar; Uganda, Rwanda, and Burundi; Djibouti, Somalia, and Somaliland; and the islands of Madagascar, Comoros, Mauritius, and Seychelles. Together, these corridors reflect interconnected traditions and matrilineal heritage networks.
Presented in Milan at Spazio Fonte between 8-13 October 2026, its inaugural iteration responds to SITAAD’s participation in the University of Oxford’s Reassessing (Hi)stories of Early Italian Colonialism: The Afterlives of Luigi Robecchi Bricchetti's African Collections in Italy and Beyond project, hosted in collaboration with the University of Pavia. Through reproduced archival materials, working tables, and a public programme, SITAAD approaches the reading room as a site of public mediation, reflection and artistic response.
Acknowledgments
Curated by SITAAD (Leyla Degan and Naima Hassan) with support from EWA Reading Room Assistants (Yasmin Rosciglione and Noa Ceretta).
The EWA Reading Room is presented with funding support from University of Oxford Humanities Division’s Research Support Fund, and the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), part of UK Research and Innovation. SITAAD is a project contributor to the AHRC-funded project Reassessing (Hi)stories of Early Italian Colonialism: Afterlives of Luigi Robecchi Bricchetti's Photographic Archive, led by the University of Oxford in cooperation with the University of PaviaSchedule
8 - 13 October 2026
Spazio Fonte
Via dei Fontanili 13, 20141 Milano
Across the week
EWA Reading Room
Thursday 8 October to Tuesday 13 October 10:00 to 17:30
Exceptions: the reading room is closed during events
How to Visit
The EWA Reading Room is open to all. No appointment is required. Please sign our guest book with your name upon arrival to help us record daily attendance. Your feedback is welcome as you depart.
Public Events
All public-facing events are free of charge, but you will need a ticket to attend. Please find our Eventbrite here to register for events.
About the EWA Archive
The East African Women's Archives (EWA) collects photographic, artistic, and cultural documentation of East African women — from books and exhibition ephemera to oral-poetry transcripts and photographic reproductions.
Learn more about the EWA Archive and its donation process here.