From September 15 till October 5, 2008 Anastasia A. Banshchikova, Dmitri M. Bondarenko, Ekaterina B. Demintseva, Tatiana V. Evgenyeva, Oleg I. Kavykin, and Secretary of the Academic Council for African Problems Anatoly Savateev conducted field research in the Republic of Benin.

All the Center researchers gave papers at the 11th International Conference of Africanists held in the Institute for African Studies.