MSU Tuesday Bulletin, 02/18/03

Issue No. 6 Spring 2003
February 18, 2003 Weekly News from the AFRICAN STUDIES CENTER MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY 100 INTERNATIONAL CENTER
EAST LANSING MI 48824-1035

BULLETIN CONTENTS

MSU ANNOUNCEMENTS OTHER ANNOUNCEMENTS CONFERENCES FELLOWSHIPS/FUNDING INTERNSHIP

EVENTS

February 20, Wednesday "Seed Policy and the Prospects for Regional Coordination in Southern Africa," African Studies Center Brown Bag with David Rohrback, Senior Research Staff (ICRISAT), Visiting Scholar (Dept. of Agricultural Economics, MSU), 12:00 noon, Room 201, International Center.

February 27, Thursday "The Impact of oil in the Sudanese War," African Studies Center Brown Bag with Sam Laki, Faculty (Central University, Ohio), 12:00 noon, Room 201, International Center.

March 6, Thursday Spring Break - No Brown Bag

March 13, Thursday "The Global Politics of AIDS: African States and Recent International AIDS Policies,"African Studies Center Brown Bag with Amy S. Patterson, Faculty (Dept. of Political Science, Calvin College, Grand Rapids), 12:00 noon, Room 201, International Center.

MSU ANNOUNCEMENTS

African Studies Center Application for Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) 2003-04 DEADLINE EXTENDED to February 28, 2003 The African Studies Center at MSU is now accepting applications for FLAS fellowships for academic year 2003-04 and for the 2003 Summer Cooperative African Language Institute (SCALI). The FLAS fellowship is funded by the U.S. Department of Education Title VI program for the study of language and non-language courses on Africa.

Detailed information on the fellowship, and on-line application guidelines and forms are available on the Center's website: www.isp.msu.edu/AfricanStudies/. Applicants who can not access the on-line forms can either use the printable PDF files available on the webpage or contact the African Studies Center at (517) 353-1700; or e-mail: africa@msu.edu.

The deadline for submitting applications to the Center has been extended to FEBRUARY 28, 2003. In accordance with the Title VI centers' agreement of rotating summer course offerings under SCALI, African languages study in summer 2003 will be hosted by Ohio University. For more information on SCALI, prospective applicants should visit the URL at http://www.ohiou.edu/linguistics/dept/SCALI/Index.h tml.

Faculty Publication John M. Hunter, Professor Emeritus with the Department of Geography and the African Studies Center has written an article entitled: "Inherited burden of disease: agricultural dams and the persistence of bloody urine (Schistosomiasis hematobium) in the Upper East Region of Ghana, 1959-1997;" Social Science and Medicine 56 (2003) 219-234.

OTHER ANNOUNCEMENTS

Visit to Michigan by Archbishop Desmond Tutu On Tuesday, March 25, 2003, at 7:00 p.m., Archbishop Desmond Tutu will be in Grand Rapids, Michigan to speak on "The Struggle for Social Justice and Human Rights." The World Affairs Council of Western Michigan is sponsoring the visit.

In 1984 Bishop Tutu was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of "the courage and heroism shown by black South Africans in their use of peaceful methods in the struggle against apartheid." Apartheid, South Africa's system of racial separatism, has since been dismantled. In 1995 Archbishop Tutu was selected by Nelson Mandela, then President of South Africa to serve as head of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in No Future Without Forgiveness (1999).

The event will be held at the VanAndel Arena in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Tickets from $10 can be purchased through TicketMaster: 456-3333 or online: www.ticketmaster.com, or VanAndel Arena Box Office.

Volunteer Programs Winrock International is a private, non-profit organization that seeks to increase economic opportunity, agricultural productivity, rural employment, and protect the environment. The organization heads programs that aim to improve resource management to benefit the poor and disadvantaged in some 40 countries around the world. Volunteer opportunities are available in countries in Asia, Latin America, Africa, and former Soviet Union countries. For further information contact: Winrock International, Volunteer Program, 38 Winrock Drive, Morrilton, AK 72110, USA; http://winrock.org; e-mail: tgeorge@winrock.org; Phone: (501) 727-5435; fax: (501) 727-5426.

CONFERENCES

Call for Papers Graduate Research Conference - Boston Univ. The Eleventh Annual Graduate Research Conference in African Studies will be held March 21-22, 2003 at Boston University. This is an interdisciplinary conference intended for students at all levels of their graduate careers. In past years, participants have presented research proposals, thesis chapters, methodological papers, works in progress or simply outlines of dissertation proposals in an informal and friendly setting.

Abstracts are due February 22, 2003. Abstracts submitted by mail should include the author's name, address, institutional affiliation, e-mail address and phone number. The mailing address is: Graduate Student conference, African Studies Center, 270 Bay State Road, Boston, MA 02215. There is a $15 conference fee. Abstracts may also be submitted on-line at: http://www.bu.edu/africa/programs/graduate/gradconf. Please e-mail questions to Shelby Carpenter at: carp@bu.edu.

FELLOWSHIPS / FUNDING

Institute of War and Peace Studies Columbia University, is hosting a competition offering three prizes of $5,000 each for papers that develop practical ideas for dealing with problems of political violence including civil and international wars, ethnic violence, genocide, and terrorism. Specific conflicts may be discussed for illustrative purposes, but the principal goal is to put forward knowledge that will be broadly applicable. Papers should be 20-40 pages double spaced, and unpublished as of submission date.

Deadline for submissions is March 31, 2003, and will only be accepted via mail. For further information contact: Combat Political Violence Competition, Institute of War and Peace Studies, Columbia University, 1336 International Affairs Building, MC 3347, 420 West 118 Street, New York, NY 10027, USA.

African Women Leaders in Agriculture and Environment (AWLAE) This PhD Scholarship Program is held in Wageningen, Netherlands. Eligibility is given to African citizens; residents of Kenya; Master's degree; at least three years of post-qualification professional experience; willing to return to Kenya and commit four years of active participation in AWLAE-Kenya networks and activities. For more information contact: African Women Leaders in Agriculture and Environment National Project Steering Committee - Kenya Winrock International/African Women Leaders in Agriculture and Environment - East Africa (AWLAE-EA), PO box 60745-00200, Nairobi, Kenya; e-mail: awlae.ea@winrock.org; telephone: 254-2- 2711590/2712966; fax: 254-2-2712878.

Research Fellowship on African Youth in a Global Age 2003-2004 The Social Science Research Council (SSRC) and the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS), in partnership with the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) and South Africa's National Research Foundation (NRF) announce the 2003-4 program for research and training on Understanding Exclusion, Creating Value: African Youth in a Global Age. The theme for this year is Youth, HIV/AIDS and Social Transformation. Applications are invited from junior researchers, whether academics, practitioners, or independent researchers.

Demographic trends reveal that about 50% of Africa's population is below the age of 18 years and an extraordinarily high percentage of it between the ages of 15-25. This makes Africa the most youthful continent in the world. Despite this, young people in Africa are often placed in the margins of the public sphere and major political, socio-economic, and cultural processes. The challenging political and socio-economic situation and the devastating public health constraints on the continent make young people particularly vulnerable to poverty, disease and death. Many have no or little access to education, employment, healthcare, and basic nutrition. In the past two decades, the HIV/AIDS pandemic has constituted a crisis of virtually unprecedented proportions confronting younger generations of Africans. Africa is the most affected area in the world, with more than 23 million people estimated to be infected with HIV or to have full-blown AIDS. While AIDS touches all parts of the population, it has especially powerful impact upon the lives of youth the present and future productive members of society. How are young Africans being affected by the epidemic?

The fellowship program especially seeks projects that examine the impact of HIV/AIDS on the lives of African youth and the ways which young people creatively organize and redefine their lives to deal with the pandemic. The fellowship puts emphasis on empirical social science research informed by theory and analysis from a wide range of perspectives and disciplines historical, anthropological, sociological, economic, demographic, public health and others.

African researchers based in the region who hold at least a Masters degree and who are no more than five years beyond a Ph.D. are eligible for this program. A few fellowships are also available to Ph.D. candidates based in other regions, who seek field research funding for their dissertations.

Applications will be accepted in English, French, and Portuguese and should include a research proposal (not more than 10 pages long), 2 letters of reference, graduate level academic transcripts, a detailed budget, a one page abstract summarizing your research agenda, and a comprehensive curriculum vitae. Please consult the websites at www.ssrc.org and www.codesria.org for more information prior to submitting an application. Applications are due no later than Friday May 2nd, 2003

Questions should be directed to: Funmi Vogt at the SSRC (Africa@ssrc.org), Tel: 212-377-2700 ext. 452, Virginie Niang at Codesria e-mail: virginie.niang@codesria.sn; Tel: 221-825-9822/3, or Mpumi at the NRF, e-mail: mpumi@nrf.ac.za), Tel: 27- 12-481-4000. Send complete applications to any of the following: Social Science Research Council, Africa Program, 810 7th Avenue; 31st Floor, New York, NY 10019; CODESRIA, Avenue Cheikh Anta Diop, Canal IV, BP 3304, Dakar, Senegal; or National Research Foundation, The Manager, Socio-Political Impact of Globalization: The Challenge for South Africa, P.O.Box 2600, PRETORIA, 0001.

Research Fellowship - Cambridge University The Centre of African Studies, Cambridge University, with the assistance of the Ford Foundation, Isaac Newton Trust and Smuts Memorial Fund, is pleased to announce a Visiting Research Fellowships Scheme, to be held at the University of Cambridge on the theme: "Resource rights, gender and development." Applications are invited for five Visiting Research Fellowships to take effect from October 2004. The maximum duration of a Fellowship is six months and is non-renewable.

Applications are invited from all disciplines and are open to scholars and others in academia, research institutes, NGOs, museums and libraries. Preference will be given to candidates with a distinguished research profile who are permanent residents in Africa and who have active research interests in the area or areas advertised for the Fellowships Theme.

The closing date for completed applications is October 1, 2003. For further information on this fellowship and future fellowship themes see: http://www.african.cam.ac.uk/applicationpackage/appl icationpackage.html

INTERNSHIP

Interns Needed in Central America and Namibia The Center for Global Education is looking for one intern in each of the above areas. The internship programs provide an opportunity to learn about coordinating semester-long programs for undergraduates as well as short-term travel seminars. Interns live in the program house and work with staff, college students, and travel seminar participants, facilitating community life and participating in the logistical operation of the programs. The position in Namibia involves traveling with students in Namibia and South Africa. Previous experience in southern Africa is preferred, though not mandatory. Room and board, travel, health insurance, deferred student loans, and a living stipend are provided.

The time commitment for Namibia is July 15, 2003 through August 1, 2004. The deadline for applications is April 1, 2003. For a job description and application, contact Juanita Chwaro at juanita@cge.com.na.

Editor: Ali B. Ali-Dinar

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