MSU Tuesday Bulletin, 04/18/06
Issue No. 14 Spring 2006
April 18, 2006
Weekly News from the AFRICAN STUDIES CENTER
MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY 100 INTERNATIONAL CENTER
EAST LANSING MI 48824-1035
For back issues, see archive <http://africa.msu.edu>
BULLETIN CONTENTS
EVENTS
MSU ANNOUNCEMENTS
OTHER ANNOUNCEMENTS
CONFERENCES
EVENTS
April 18, Tuesday
"Squeeze for Peace" Lemonade Stand at Wells Hall, All Day.
April 18, Tuesday
"Invisible Children" film showing, 7:00 p.m., in Brody Hall. For information, visit: http://www.invisiblechildren.com.
April 20, Thursday
"When Deities Marry: Indigenous 'Slave' Systems Expanding and Metamorphosing in the
Igbo Hinterland," African Studies Center Brown Bag with Nwando Achebe, Faculty, History,
MSU), 12:00 noon, Room 201 International Center.
April 20, Thursday
"Invisible Children" film showing, 7:00 p.m, in Hubbard Hall. For information, visit: http://www.invisiblechildren.com.
April 20, Thursday
Where Land Meets Water seminar, featuring Dr. Antoinette WinklerPrins, MSU Dept. of
Geography; and Dr. Judy Carney, UCLA Dept. of Geography, speaking on "African and
Amerindian Wetland Cultivation Legacies in the Eastern Amazon, Brazil," 7:30 p.m., Room
303 International Center.
April 25, Tuesday
"Invisible Children" film showing, 7:00 p.m., West Circle. For information, visit: http://www.invisiblechildren.com.
April 28-30, Friday-Sunday
Workshop: "'Recapricorning' the Atlantic: Luso-Brazilian and Luso-African Perspectives on the Atlantic World." Michigan State University in collaboration with the University of Michigan. Please direct inquiries to: atlantic@msu.edu.
April 29, Saturday
Global Night Commute meet at Beaumont Tower at 6:30 p.m. For information visit: http://www.lansingglobalnightcommute.com.
Ongoing thru June
"Siyazama: Traditional Arts, Education, and AIDS in South Africa" and "Weavings of War: Fabrics of Memory" two exhibitions currently featured a the MSU Museum. The exhibits will run through June. Visit http://www.msu.edu/msumps or call Professor Marsha MacDowell at (517) 355-6511 for more information.
MSU ANNOUNCEMENTS
Summer FLAS Fellowships Still Available for the
Study of African Languages
The African Studies Center is still accepting
applications for the U.S. Department of Education's
Title VI Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS)
fellowship to study an African language through the
Summer Cooperative African Languages Institute
(SCALI) at Indiana University-Bloomington. The
fellowship pays for tuition, stipend, and occasionally for
transportation. The SCALI program begins on June 18th
and ends August 4th. For more details, please visit
http://africa.msu.edu/scali.php. The online application
and related guideline for FLAS fellowships can also be
accessed through the above URL. Fellowship funds will
be awarded to qualified applicants on a first come first
serve basis. Please direct any questions to Dr. Yacob
Fisseha, (517) 353-1700.
African Sport Collection at MSU Library
A new collection on African Sport is being developed at
MSU Libraries. If you have unwanted ephemera dealing
with any aspects of sport in any African countries
sports magazines, programs, posters, etc., please feel
free to send them to: Peter Limb, Africana
Bibliographer, 100 Library (Room E224B), Michigan
State University, East Lansing, MI 48824-1048; E-mail:
limb@msu.edu; Tel: (517) 432-6123 ext. 239.
FALL 2006 COURSE ANNOUNCEMENTS
MC482 - Gender and Violent Conflict
This class will meet on Tu./Thur., 10:20 - 11:40 a.m..
For more information, contact Linda Racioppi at
racioppi@msu.edu.
From the heroic masculinization of combat, to policing
of sexual relations, to systematic rape campaigns,
violent conflicts throughout the world are deeply
gendered. This course examines the gender
consequences of violent conflicts and their resolution in
places like Bosnia, Rwanda, and Sri Lanka. It addresses
both the theoretical contours and policy implications of
gendered conflict within and between states by
exploring relevant contemporary case studies. Included
are such topics as masculinity, femininity, and war; the
essentialist constructivist debate on men, women, and
war; gays and lesbians in the armed services and
paramilitary forces; men's and women's participation in
conflict outside the armed forces; men's and women's
participation in peace-building and conflict resolution.
MC324b - Africa in International Affairs
This course will be offered by Professor Rita Kiki
Edozie, Tu/Thur., 12:40-2:00p.m. The course will focus
on US-Africa relations as well as normative
international relations theory by examining the theories
of realism, liberalism and the new globalisms against
Africa's contemporary 'place' in international relations.
In presenting case studies on the African Union and
NEPAD, the course content will also cover 'Africa' as
a dynamic region consisting of fifty-three diverse and
sovereign independent nations with distinctive foreign
policies that present challenges to a single continental
policy.
As well, following the 'Africa' public affairs desks of
international organizations, the course will address the
Continent's political diversity by examining sub-
regional and country case studies as diverse as the
small-state post-conflict transitions of Liberia and Sierra
Leone, transformations from conflict to peace in the
Great Lakes Region (the DRC and Rwanda), change and
hegemony in Africa's large states: Nigeria and South
Africa, foreign policy transformation in Francophone
Africa (Cote D'Ivoire), and the politics of ethno-
religion, Islam and anti-terrorism in the Sudan.
For further details about this course contact Professor
Rita Kiki Edozie, Political Science (JMC), e-mail:
rkedozie@msu.edu; Phone: 432-5291.
ENG 823/991B - Postcolonialism/Postmodernism
This is a course about the culture that is being produced
under conditions of globalization, viewed primarily
from an African and North African, Asian, and diaspora
perspective. Globalization and postmodernism appear
differently when seen from a postcolonial point of view.
The certainties of Jameson and Lyotard about its
categories and definition are altered when read in
Tangiers or Dakar. Yet the effects of globalization have
left their marks on the cultures in Africa, Asia, and
Latin America, casting into doubt western certainties
over the culture of postmodernism. There are three
aspects of its production to be considered: that of a
culture shaped in Africa, yet with people looking to
move abroad, to emigrate across the barriers of a fortress
Europe and North America; a "postcolonial,"
"postmodern" culture produced in the west, and often
looking back to the author's homeland; and a return to
Africa, Asia, Latin America. This three part paradigm
has a specific meaning for the culture of postmodernism
and relations between the west and Africa, one that
differs radically from the period of late colonialism and
the early period of independence. The course will
include a range of works of literature and of visual
cultures, including film.
Contact Prof. Ken Harrow, English Dept., e-mail:
harrow@msu.edu; Phone: 353-7243 for more
information.
EAD 813 - Education and Development
This course will be offered by Professor David Plank,
Tu., 12:40-3:30p.m. Open to MA or Ph.D. students.
May be taken for Teacher Education credit as TE 813.
This course examines the role of education in the
process of economic, social, and political development.
It begins with the "public" character of schooling, and
with the claim that providing educational opportunities
for all is a responsibility of the State. This claim is
increasingly subject to challenge, on both practical and
ideological grounds, and the class explores these
challenges in the first part of the course. In the second
part of the course, the class will address the specific
policy issues associated with expanding access and
enhancing quality at different levels of the education
system, including the teacher training system. In the
concluding section of the course, the class will look to
the future, and consider the prospects for expanding and
improving educational opportunities in developing
countries in the new century. This course will especially
valuable for students who are planning careers in
educational development, whether in national planning
agencies or in international agencies, including the
World Bank and the United Nations, or for students who
expect to conduct research in these areas. For further
details about this course, contact: Professor David Plank
at 355-3691; e-mail: dnplank@msu.edu.
MSU International Predissertation Travel Awards
MSU announces the first competition for up to ten
awards of $5,000 each for foreign travel of MSU Ph.D.
candidates in the predissertation stage in the Colleges of
Agriculture and Natural Resources, Arts and Letters,
Education, and Social Science for travel in 2006. The
application deadline is April 24, 2006. See full
announcement and application form at:
http://africa.msu.edu/awardannouncement.pdf.
OTHER ANNOUNCEMENTS
The Big Green Benefit Bash, East Lansing, MI
A free, city-sponsored community event will take place
Saturday, April 22, 2006, 2:00 - 6:00 p.m.., at Valley
Court Park (behind Crunchy's and the W. Grand River
Beaners). Donations are being accepted for Starfish
Organization, a South Africa/U.K./U.S. charity that
helps HIV/AIDS orphans in Southern Africa with food,
clothing, school fees and general support. The "Benefit
Bash" will feature The Velvet Audio, The Family Tree,
slam poetry, silent auction, and more. E-mail:
letters@thebiggreen.net for details on the event. Visit
the Starfish web site for information on their
organization at: http://www.starfishcharity.org/.
Orphans in Rwanda Benefit - April 22, 2006-Haslett
2nd Annual Coffeehouse & Cultural Celebration to
benefit orphans in Rwanda will be held, Saturday, April
22, 3-5 p.m., at Haslett Community Church, 1427
Haslett Road, Haslett, MI (1/2 mile east of Marsh
Road). Featuring: Brand New Me Workshop/African
Masquerade Dance Troupe, African drumming, St.
Stephen's Church choirs, Haslett Community Church
choirs, and a buffet of homemade desserts with gourmet
Rwandan coffee served. There is no admission charge,
but donations are appreciated and will go for food,
clothing, housing, and education for Association Mwana
Ukundwa's approximately 2,000 children orphaned by
the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.
This event is the main fundraiser for a continuing
sponsorship started by Haslett Community Church in
2001. This event is ACCESSIBLE. Please direct any
questions to Ms. Turney at Haslett Community Church,
Phone: (517) 339-0371.
Free Instruction for African Immigrants & Families
1050 Fuller Ave., NE, Grand Rapids, MI
The African Community Center and American Red
Cross extend an invitation to African immigrants and
their families to receive valuable training and
professional instruction in home safety; nutrition;
American family laws and culture, child care, and Red
Cross First Aid and CPR. The training is Friday, April
21, 2006 from 3:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m., and Saturday,
April 22, 2006 from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
Ten hours of instruction are free for African immigrants
and their families. Trainees will be eligible for the Red
Cross certificates in "Your Baby's Health," "First Aid,"
and "Cardio-Pulmonary Resuscitation (CPR)" for adults,
children and infants. Call the African Community
Center at (616) 248-3552 for more details.
Sudanese/African event, Lansing, MI, April 23, 2006
A local Sudanese community will be sponsoring a
Sudanese/African cultural event at Trinity Lutheran
Church on Sunday, April 23rd. The festivities will begin
at 12:00, after the regular Sunday service. There will be
a $5 charge for adults and $2 for children 8 and under.
There will be different types of African food (not just
Sudanese), as well as dancing, etc. The church address
is 501 W. Saginaw, Lansing, MI 48933.
Rally to Stop Genocide, Washington, DC, April 30th
On April 30, 2006, Unitarian Universalist Service
Committee (UUSC) and Save Darfur Coalition are
sponsoring a Rally to Stop Genocide. The rally will be
held at the National Mall in Washington D.C. (between
3rd and 4th Streets in front of the U.S. Capitol, from
1:30-4:00 p.m. Join UUSC and a wide spectrum of
human rights advocates, faith leaders, political figures,
entertainers, and activists working to end the genocide.
- Please RSVP at
- savedarfur@uusc.org or contact Claire
DeWitte at 800-388-3920, ext. 378. For more
information visit http://www.uusc.org/darfur/rally.html.
Have your voice heard at the Congressional Lobby Days
on April 28 and May 1! To register and learn more, visit
http://savedarfur.org/rally/lobbydays.
Can't make it to Washington D.C.?Unite with Dear
Sudan Our Pledge for Day of Conscience for Darfur in
San Francisco, Calif. on April 30, 2006, 10:00-11:25
a.m., at the Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco, at
Crissy Field. There will be a silent vigil for the victims
of genocide in Darfur. For more information, contact:
savedarfur@uusc.org, Claire DeWitte at 800-388-3920,
ext. 378, or http://www.dearsudan.org/april30.htm.
CONFERENCES
ECDC's 12th National Conf., May 8-10, 2006
The Eastern Cape Development Corporation (ECDC) is
holding it's conference on the theme: African Refugees:
The Faces Behind the Numbers. In selecting this as the
theme for ECDC/ARN's 12th national conference, the
program planning committee sought to address what it
feels to be a serious-yet-unintended-outcome of
advances in technology, communications and
globalization. It is reports and commentaries about
massive numbers of people that depersonalize and
obscure the plight of individuals victims of terror,
persecution and neglect; and erode the emotional
response necessary to prompt meaningful engagement.
To read or hear about millions of African refugees, for
example, produces quite a different reaction than that
experienced by those who work in refugee camps, or in
resettlement agencies or in health and social welfare
offices where the numbers become people, with faces,
hopes, dreams and anxieties common to everyone, but
uncommonly acute because of their experiences.
Go to http://www.ecdcinternational.org for logistics and
registration information, or call: (703) 685-0510. Early
registration is on or before April 21, 2006.
Page Editor: Ali B. Ali-Dinar, Ph.D.