JUA: Penn African Studies Bulletin, (03/23/09)

J U A

UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA
AFRICAN STUDIES CENTER
BIMONTHLY BULLETIN
Issue No. 12, Spring 2009
MARCH 23, 2009

Dear JUA Readers,
Please find attached the twelfth issue of JUA for 2008-2009. You can also find a copy of this and previous archived issues on our website: http://www.africa.upenn.edu/. As in the past, we are currently publishing a new issue every other Monday.

Remember that you can always send your submissions to africa@sas.upenn.edu. For the next issue, kindly send announcements by no later than Wednesday, April 1, 2009.

Sincerely yours,

Namrata Poddar,
JUA Editor

CONTENTS:

EVENTS
CALL FOR PAPERS
FELLOWSHIPS & GRANTS
ACADEMIC JOBS
OTHER RESOURCES

PHILADELPHIA & SURROUNDING AREA EVENTS

DR. JOHN AYOADE - "OIL: BOON AND CATALYST OF CONTENTION IN NIGERIA"

On Monday, March 23rd 2009, from 5:30 - 7:00 PM at 231 Fisher-Bennett Hall (3400 Walnut), University of Pennsylvania African Studies Center Spring 2009 Lecture Series presents: Prof. John Ayoade (Visiting Professor) who will speak on "Oil: Boon and Catalyst of Contention in Nigeria." The event is free & open to the public.
Dr. John A A Ayoade was Professor of Political Science at the University of Ibadan - Nigeria from 1986 until 2008. While at the University of Ibadan, he was the Dean of the Faculty of the Social Sciences from 1997-99, and at various times was the Chair of the Department of Political Science. He served the Government of Nigeria in various advisory capacities including a Member of National Political Reform Conference of 2005 to recommend a new national constitution. In the USA, he taught at Williams College 1972-73; University of Pennsylvania 1984-85; Villanova University Fall 2008, and was a Senior African Fulbright Scholar at Boston University in 1982. Dr Ayoade has published in many scholarly journals including Publius: The Journal or Federalism; Journal of Commonwealth and Comparative Politics: Plural Societies; Africa Quarterly; African Studies Review; and Africana Marburgensia. Among his edited books are: A Handbook of Election Monitoring in Nigeria ; and A Handbook of African Political Philosophy.

DOCU-SCREENING & DISCUSSION - "NEO-AFRICAN AMERICANS: TRANSFORMING THE AFRICAN

AMERICAN NARRATIVE "

On Thursday, March 26, 2009 from 6:00pm - 8:00pm at Jon M. Huntsman Hall 245, join PASA, SAW, and the African Studies Center for a special screening of African filmmaker Kobina Aidoo's documentary on Neo-African Americans, followed by a post-film discussion with the filmmaker himself. The phenomenon of contemporary African and Caribbean-American immigration to the U.S. is transforming the African-American narrative, as well as the contours of the American population.
Snacks will be provided. The event is co-Sponsored by SPEC Connaissance. For the film's trailer, please visit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJKV5roH244

TAKING ROOT: SCREENING EVENT

On Monday, March 30th at 7:00pm at WHYY Civic Space(150 N. 6th Street, 19106), ITVS, WHYY, Philadelphia CineFest in partnership with the African Studies Center at the University of Pennsylvania and the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society presents "Taking Root" - A Philadelphia Community Cinema Special Event Premiere. Discussion and Q&A afterwards with Co-Director/Producer Lisa Merton The event is free and open to the public.
TAKING ROOT follows Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Wangari Maathai in her quest to help village women regain basic resources of water, firewood and food by the simple act of planting trees. This led to environmental improvements, community action and political justice that helped to bring down Kenya's 24-year dictatorship.
Limited Seating. Reservations Are Required to Guarantee Seats. For more information, please visit http://whyy.org/memberexperience/

EAT YOUR WAY THROUGH AFRICA - SOUTH AFRICA

On Thursday, April 2nd at 6:30pm at CA House (118 S 37th St), join the Christian Association to enjoy delectable South African cuisine, enjoy a performance by Penn African Performing Arts (PAPA), and discuss contemporary issues in Africa with students at the University of Pennsylvania. This dinner series raises awareness about Africa as part of the Open Mind for Africa Fund in honor of Louise Shoemaker.
RSVP is required. Students are $2 and non-students are $10.RSVP to 215-746-6350 or upennca@dolphin.upenn.edu. For more information, please visit www.upennca.org/programs/open_mind_for_africa/

DR. KRISTIN PETERSON - "AIDS & ITS FUTURES: DRUGS, CLINICAL TRIALS & US FOREIGN

POLICY TO NIGERIA

On Monday, March 23rd 2009 at 4.30 pm at Penn Museum (Room 345), the Penn Departments of History and Sociology of Science present Kristin Peterson(Department of Anthropology, University of California, Irvine) - "AIDS and its Futures:
Drugs, Clinical Trials, and US Foreign Policy to Nigeria." The seminar will be followed by a reception in the same room at 6pm. Dr. Peterson is a cultural anthropologist whose research and teaching interests focus on international political economy, policy-making, intellectual property law, and science, health, and medicine. Through the lens of HIV/AIDS politics, her work engages the problem of "development" as a strategy and framework that is intertwined with the restructuring of markets, ideas of state legitimacy and the law, and re-imagined desires for, and practices of, citizenship. These topical and theoretical concerns are grounded in ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Nigeria; newer work is beginning to extend to Malawi, Ghana, Cameroon, France, and the U.S.

EXPLORING THE PUBLIC HEALTH WATER/SANITATION CONNECTION IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

St), join the Philadelphia Global Water Initiative for an interactive conference: Exploring the Public Health- Water/Sanitation Connection in Developing Countries The Philadelphia Global Water Initiative is a group of interested organizations and individuals committed to helping to meet the UN Millennium Development Goals for water & sanitation throughout the world. It includes the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia Water Department, Water for People, Aqua America, Pennoni Associates, US Environmental Protection Agency, Uhl, Baron, Rana and Associates, Delaware River Basin Commission, and the United Nations Association Greater Philadelphia Chapter. For more information, please visit
http://www.sas.upenn.edu/earth/abstracts/PGWI%20sdg.pdf

DR. CHRISTOPHER ELIAS on TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS FOR WOMEN'S HEALTH IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

On Tuesday, April 21, 2009 from 4pm - 4:45pm at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing (Fagin Hall - Room 110), Dr. Christopher J. Elias, will address developments in appropriate technology for women's health in developing countries. Dr. Christopher J. Elias is president and chief executive officer of Seattle-based PATH, an international nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the health of people around the world by advancing technologies, strengthening systems, and encouraging healthy behaviors. PATH currently works in more than 70 countries in the areas of health technologies, maternal and child health, reproductive health, vaccines and immunization, and emerging and epidemic diseases. Dr. Elias represents PATH at domestic and international forums, both as a spokesperson for PATH and as an advocate for innovative responses to global health challenges. He serves on the boards of the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition, the Medicines for Malaria Venture, and the Washington Biomedical and Biotechnology Association, among others. Dr. Elias was honored as the Schwab Foundation's Social Entrepreneur of the Year for the United States in 2006 and named Global Health Research Ambassador by the Paul G. Rogers Society for Global Health Research in 2007. He received his MD from Creighton University and his MPH from the University of Washington.

FILM SCREENING AT HAVERFORD: "LIEUX SAINTS / SACRED PLACES"

On Wednesday, April 1 2009 at 7:30pm, Sharpless Auditorium, Haverford College, you are invited to join Jean-Marie Teno (Cameroon) for a screening of his new film LIEUX SAINTS / SACRED PLACES. Through the stories of two men in Ouagadougou -- a drum-maker and a struggling video club proprietor -- the film echoes Sembene's question, "Does today's African cinema serve as the conscience of the people?"
Jean-Marie Teno's visit is sponsored by the Sponsored by the Hurford Humanities Center at Haverford College and the Distinguished Visitors Fund Organized in Conjunction with Vicky Funari's Spring 2009 course "Documentary Film and Approaches to Truth."

*********NATIONAL EVENTS*********

AFRICA ACTION'S DARFUR EXHIBIT AT MLK LIBRARY

"Children of Darfur: Picturing Genocide" exhibit which is on display at and hosted by the Martin Luther King Jr. Library (901 G Street NW, Washington, DC 20001). The exhibit is both art and activism. The art consists of powerfully expressive and heart-wrenching drawings by the youngest victims of genocide in Darfur - children. These images, drawn by children living in refugee camps, depict burning villages, bloodshed, guns and naked terror. They give a profound feel of the horror in Darfur and its innocent victims. Dr Jerry Ehrlich, a Physician who spent time in Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps volunteering with Doctors Without Borders in 2004, collected these drawings. He shared these images with Africa Action and we transformed them into the present exhibit. For more information contact outreach@africaaction.org; or 2025467961.

BETWEEN 3 CONTINENTS : RETHINKING EQUATORIAL GUINEA ON THE FORTIETH ANNIVERSARY

OF ITS INDEPENDENCE FROM SPAIN

conference "Between three continents: Rethinking Equatorial Guinea on the Fortieth Anniversary of its Independence from Spain." Equatorial Guinea, a former Spanish colony (1778-1968) and the only Spanish-speaking nation-state in Africa, has recently marked the 40th anniversary of its independence. This conference, Between Three Continents-the fulcrum of an initiative designed to reshape the place of Africa in debates on the Spanish-speaking and Atlantic worlds-will address historical and cultural connections between Equatorial Guinea, Spain, and the Americas. It will bring together a large number of scholars, cultural figures, and historical protagonists in the life of Equatorial Guinea. The study of Portuguese and Spanish colonial interventions in Africa necessitates disciplinary approaches that encompass comparative colonial interventions, political and diplomatic history, constitutional law, economics, anthropology, literature, linguistics, film, music, photography, plastic arts, ecology and ecotourism, and the politics of oil. In conjunction with the conference, other academic institutions in the United States-including Bates College, The Catalan Center at New York University, Harvard University, Hunter College, University of Missouri-Columbia, Morehouse College, Saint Joseph's College, University of South Carolina-Upstate, and Spelman College-will host additional panels and events featuring at their institutions a number of the Equatorial Guinean participants attending the conference, thus allowing broader dissemination of the project. There will be several special events held in conjunction with the conference. For more information, please visit
http://www.hofstra.edu/Community/culctr/culctr_events_Equatorial_Guinea.html

CALL FOR PAPERS

10th ANNIVERSARY RESEARCHING AFRICA DAY - "REDEFINING RESEARCH PRACTICE IN AFRICA"
9th MAY 2009, ST ANTONY'S COLLEGE, OXFORD

Researching Africa Day provides graduate students with the opportunity to network with fellow researchers, exchange information, share experiences, and discuss research strategies in a stimulating and engaging environment. The workshop is open to all graduates working on Africa within the disciplines of history, politics, development studies, geography, art and literature, anthropology, archaeology and the natural sciences. Please send an abstract of your paper of about 200 words to the organisers no later than 27th March 2009. For more information, please contact Lillian Cherotich St. Antony's College, Oxford University, 62 Woodstock Road, Oxford, OX2 6JF. Email: lillian.cherotich@sant.ox.ac.uk Website:
http://www.africanstudies.ox.ac.uk/news_list/call_for_papers_10th_anniversary_researching_africa_day

ENGAGING ANTHROPOLOGY IN DEVELOPMENT & SOCIAL CHANGE : PRACTICES, DISCOURSES &

ETHICS
20-23 JANUARY 2010, OUAGADOUGOU, BURKINA FASO

The APAD (the Euro-African Association for the Anthropology of Social Change and Development) conference will be held from 20-23 January 2010 in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. Abstracts should not exceed 500 words and must be submitted before 1 April 2009 to the general secretariat of APAD at the African Studies Centre in Leiden at the following email address: apad@ascleiden.nl. The issue of engagement has re-emerged as a key debate in anthropology as a whole. The theme of the 2010 APAD Conference in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, is a way to return to the issue of engaging anthropology in development and social change. The conference will be organized around the following axes: - Anthropology and the ethics of engagement: Development, politics and cultural exchange - Setting the agenda in engaged research: Anthropology on public services, media, democratisation, decentralisation, and gender - Grassroots participation and personal engagement: Anthropologists straddling between the public and the private - Narratives of development: Integrating anthropology and history - Anthropological methods in development: Ethnography, participation and the promotion of social change - Anthropological data and development agencies: Combining research and development work - Public anthropology: Engaging anthropology in public debate, policy and politics For more information about the conference and APAD go to: www.association-apad.org.

ISHR 17th BIENNIAL CONFERENCE - JULY 22-26 2009

The Seventeenth Biennial Conference of the International Society for the History of Rhetoric (ISHR) will be held in Montreal, Canada, from Wednesday, July 22th July to Sunday, July 26 2009. The Society calls for papers that focus on the theory and practice of rhetoric in its historical contexts from classical period to the present. The main theme of the conference is "Innovative Perspectives in the History of Rhetoric". Over the last two decades, new fields of investigation have emerged in the research being done in the history of rhetoric - or should we say "Histories of rhetorics". New spheres of activities (religious studies, queer studies, feminist writings, etc.) as much as new geographical areas (Amerindian, Asian and African traditions, among others) have questioned the a priori of a universal and hegemonic model based on a classical and occidental definition of the history of rhetoric. Papers exploring these new trends in Western and Eastern Europe, Northern Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas are welcomed. Papers are also invited on every aspect of the history of rhetoric in all periods and languages and the relationship of rhetoric to poetics, literary theory and criticism, philosophy, politics, law, and other elements of the cultural context. For more information, please visit http://ishr.cua.edu

FELLOWSHIPS & GRANTS

STUDY ABROAD IN KENYA

The Nairobi Exchange Program offers undergraduates the opportunity to spend the spring semester 2010 at the University of Nairobi. Courses are available in the Social Sciences and are conducted in English. In addition, Swahili tutorials are available at all levels. Independent research and internships are encouraged in Nairobi which is home to many NGO's. Another unique feature of the program is that students live with homestay families in Nairobi. For more information please contact: Jennifer Russell, NEP coordinator at russell@brynmawr.edu or 610-526-7473

GILDER LEHRMAN CENTER FOR STUDY OF SLAVERY, RESISTANCE & ABOLITION

POSTDOCTORAL FELLOWSHIPS 2009-2010.

The GLC Postdoctoral Fellowship Program is designed to support both established and younger scholars in research projects that can be linked to the aims of the GLC. One 4-month fellowship with a stipend of $12,800 and three 1-month fellowships with a stipend of $3,200 each are available each spring and fall semester. Scholars currently holding the Ph.D. are invited to apply for either term of fellowship between August 2009 and May 2010. Fellows will be expected to participate in the intellectual life of the GLC and the larger Yale community, and to acknowledge the support of the GLC and the MacMillan Center in publications and lectures that stem from research conducted during the fellowship term. In addition, Fellows will be expected to offer one public lecture during their tenure at Yale. The Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition (GLC) seeks to promote a better understanding of all aspects of the institution of slavery from the earliest times to the present. Our focus is on the chattel slave system, its destruction, and its legacies including Africans' resistance to enslavement, black and white abolitionist movements, and the comparative study of the ways in which chattel slavery became outlawed around the world. The GLC coordinates annual international and interdisciplinary conferences, lectures, educational outreach, publications, and other activities to bring together scholars and students from across the spectrum of slavery studies. Applications must be received by March 31, 2009 for the Fall 2009 and Spring 2010 semesters. Completed applications should be returned to: Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition,The Betty and Whitney MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies at Yale, ttn: Fellowships P.O. Box 208206, New Haven, CT 06520-8206.Website:
http://www.yale.edu/glc/info/fellowship.htm E-mail: gilder.lehrman.center@yale.edu

ACADEMIC JOBS

BATES COLLEGE, AFRICAN POLITICS

The Department of Politics at Bates College invites applications for a one-year replacement position in African politics, beginning Fall 2009. Candidates should have a Ph.D. completed, or nearly complete. The Politics Department has implemented an innovative curriculum which uses concentrations on broad sets of ideas in political science rather than the traditional subfields. We are interested in candidates who enhance the diversity of perspectives in the department and connect with other disciplinary and interdisciplinary efforts at the College. Those applying should show a strong commitment to excellence in research and undergraduate teaching. The position is contingent on funding. Review of applications begins March 15, 2009 and will continue until the position is filled. Please mail a letter of application, curriculum vitae, graduate and undergraduate transcripts, and three letters of recommendation to: African Politics Search #R2498, Bates College, 5 Academic Services, 2 Andrews Road, 7 Lane Hall, Lewiston, ME 04240. Bates College values a diverse college community and seeks to ensure equal opportunity through a continuing and effective affirmative action program. Website: http://www.bates.edu/positions-available.xml

RESOURCES

For a comprehensive list of websites on research on and from Africa, please refer to the "Other Resources" section in our previous newsletters, archived at http://www.africa.upenn.edu/africa/jua.html

RECENT PUBLICATIONS

Jude Fokwang, "Mediating Legitimacy : Chieftaincy and Democratisation in Two African Chiefdoms," Michigan State University Press, 2009.

Lee Ann Fujii, "Killing Neighbours: Webs of Violence in Rwanda," Cornell University Press, 2009.

James Graham, "Land and Nationalism in Fictions from Southern Africa," Routledge, 2009.

Africa South of the Sahara 2009, 38TH Edition, Europa Publications, 2009.

Jerome Lafargue (Ed.), "The General Elections in Kenya, 2007," Mkuki Na Nyota, Tanzania, 2009.

John Peffer, "Art and the End of Apartheid," University of Minnesota Press, 2009

African Studies Center
University of Pennsylvania
647 Williams Hall
Philadelphia, PA 19104-2615

Phone:(215)898-6971
Fax:(215)573-7379
Email:africa@sas.upenn.edu
Website:http://www.africa.upenn.edu

Page Editor: Ali B. Ali-Dinar, Ph.D.