AFRICAN STUDIES CENTER - UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA
 

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.

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