MSU Tuesday Bulletin, 01/30/07

AFRICAN STUDIES CENTER - UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA

MSU Tuesday Bulletin, 01/30/07

THE TUESDAY BULLETIN

Issue No. 3 Spring 2007
January 30, 2007

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
FELLOWSHIPS

EVENTS

January 30, Tuesday

Hausa-table has moved to every Tuesday, 11:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m., Room 6 International Center. Contact Professor Ibro Chekaraou at 353-0746 or e-mail: ichek@msu.edu for information.

February 1, Thursday

"The Rise and Fall of the Islamic Courts in Somalia," African Studies Center Brown Bag talk with Lee Cassanelli, Faculty, (Univ. of Pennsylvania), 12:00 noon, Room 201 International Center.

February 2, Friday

Swahili-table will meet every Friday, 12:30 - 1:30 p.m., MSU Union (UB-Lake
Michigan Room). Contact Professor Aggrey Wasike at 353-4051 or e-mail
wasikeag@msu.edu for information.

February 8, Thursday

"Future Directions of MSU's African Studies Center I," African Studies Center Brown Bag talk with MSU African Studies Center faculty (TBA), 12:00 noon, Room 201 International Center.

February 15, Thursday

"Future Directions of MSU's African Studies Center II," African Studies Center Brown Bag talk with MSU African Studies Center faculty (TBA), 12:00 noon, Room 201 International Center.

February 16, Friday

"Tourism Development in Niger," CASID/WID Forum with Boulou Akano, (Hubert H. Humphrey Fellow), 12:00 noon, Room 201 International Center.

February 22, Thursday

"Workers Culture in Two Nations: South Africa and the United States," African Studies Center Brown Bag talk with John Beck and Yvonne Lockwood, MSU Faculty (respectively Labor & Industrial Relations and Traditional Arts Program), 12:00 noon, MSU Museum Auditorium (note change of venue).

March 14-17, Thursday - Saturday

African Culture Week and Gala. More details coming at a later date. MARK YOUR CALENDAR for the Gala which will be on Saturday evening, March 17, 2007 in the Pasant Theatre of the Wharton Center.

MSU ANNOUNCEMENTS

African Studies Center Application for Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) for 2007-08 AY

The African Studies Center at MSU is now accepting on-line applications for FLAS fellowships for academic year 2007-08 and for the 2007 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 African languages and non-language courses on Africa. Up to date information and on-line application forms are available at: http://africa.msu.edu/FLAS/FLAS.htm.

Candidates must have completed application procedures by February 15, 2007. Related application materials are to be mailed to the Assistant Director of the African Studies Center, 100 International Center, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824-1035; Phone: (517) 353-1700; Fax: (517) 432-1209; e-mail: fisseha@msu.edu. In accordance with the Title VI centers' agreement of rotating summer course offerings under SCALI, African languages study in summer 2007 will be hosted by the University of Illinois, Urbana- Champaign. For details, please visit: http://www.afrst.uiuc.edu/SCALI07.htm for details.

2007 Compton Africa Peace Fellowships

Michigan State University's African Studies Center (ASC) and Women and International Development (WID) Program are offering Compton Africa Peace Fellowships to graduate students from Sub-Saharan Africa to support their dissertation field research in Africa. This program is an element of the MSU African Higher Education Partnerships Initiative (AHEPI). These dissertation fellowship awards are made possible by a grant from the Compton Foundation through its Peace Fellowship Program for addressing peace, conflict resolution, and security in Africa.

The goal of the Compton Fellowship Program in Peace and Security is to strengthen intellectual capacity in Sub-Saharan African nations and institutions that can address the challenges of conflict resolution, peace, and security issues intra- and internationally. The fellowships will support exceptional Ph.D. degree candidates at MSU from Sub-Saharan Africa who intend to return to their country or region of origin after completing their studies. A secondary goal is to promote the integration of environment, peace, and/or population issues in graduate-level study and research.

The Compton Foundation's peace and security program focuses on a variety of activities and issue areas which include: resolving and avoiding international and regional conflict; reducing the threat from weapons of mass destruction; and broadening the definition of national security to include environmental and population aspects.

For Information on eligible research topics, eligibility requirements, and application forms please visit: http://www.wid.msu.edu/forstudents/opportunities.htm or http://africa.msu.edu/compton.php. Completed application forms must be submitted by mail and e- mail to: MSU-Compton Fellowship Committee, c/o David Wiley, African Studies Center, 100 International Center, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan 48824-1035; Tel: 517-353-1700; Fax: 517- 432-1209; e-mail: wiley@msu.edu. The application deadline is March 16, 2007.

Explore Africa at MSU, June 17-23, 2007

Explore Africa at MSU is a residential program designed for academically talented high school students (entering grades 10, 11, and 12) who would like to become immersed in learning about the tremendous diversity found within the continent of Africa. This program is a cooperative venture by the African Studies Center and the Office of Gifted and Talented Education at MSU.

Participants will attend daily language classes in Swahili; participate in sessions on African literature; develop self-selected projects on African topics; participate in African music and dance, as well as assist an African chef in making a traditional dinner.

For registration or other information, contact John Metzler, (517) 353-1700; e-mail: metzler@msu.edu, url: http://www.msu.edu/gifted/exploreafrica/exploreafrica.htm.

WID Working Papers - CFP

Michigan State University's Women and International Development (WID) Program publishes Working Papers on Women and International Development, a peer- reviewed series examining the relationships between gender and global transformation and exploring processes of change, in the broadest sense. Presenting new understandings of women's ever-changing economic, social, and political positions, Working Papers offer theoretically grounded analysis of empirical research in order to contribute to existing literatures on gender and international development.

The Working Papers series is currently accepting manuscripts for review. With a focus on women and gender in the global South, the Working Papers series invites manuscripts that explore gender in relation to historical and contemporary economic and political spheres. Possible topics include but are not limited to:

Gender, violence, and human rights
Gender and agriculture
Gender dimensions of globalization and transnationalism Gender, health, and healthcare
Gender and environment
Gender and social movements
Masculinities and international development Fertility and reproduction
Intra- and inter-family roles and relationships

If you are interested in submitting a manuscript to the Working Papers series, please send a 150-word abstract summarizing the paper's essential points and findings to: Dr. Anne Ferguson, Editor, and Nidal Karim, Managing Editor, at papers@msu.edu. If the abstract suggests your paper is suitable for the Working Papers, the full paper will be invited for peer review and publication consideration.

FELLOWSHIPS

Social Science Research Council - DPDF program

The Social Science Research Council is pleased to announce the Dissertation Proposal Development Fellowship (DPDF), a strategic fellowship program designed to help graduate students in the humanities and social sciences formulate doctoral dissertation proposals that are intellectually pointed, amenable to completion in a reasonable time frame, and competitive in fellowship competitions. Funding for the program is provided by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Graduate students apply to one of five research fields led by two directors; each group is made up of ten to twelve graduate students. Fellows participate in two workshops, one in the late spring that helps prepare them to undertake predissertation research on their topics, and one in the early fall, designed to help them synthesize their summer research and to draft proposals for dissertation funding. For the 2007 application cycle, the eligible research fields and respective research directors are:

Black Atlantic Studies

Andrew Apter, Professor of History, UCLA
Percy Hintzen, Professor of African-American Studies, UC Berkeley

Rethinking Europe: Religion, Ethnicity, Nation

John Bowen, Professor of Anthropology, Washington University
Rogers Brubaker, Professor of Sociology, UCLA

The Political Economy of Redistribution

Jonathan Rodden, Associate Professor of Political Science, MIT
Erik Wibbels, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Washington

Visual Culture

Anne Higonnet, Professor of Art History, Columbia University
Vanessa Schwartz, Professor of History, University of Southern California

Water Sustainability: Society, Politics, Culture

Steven Caton, Professor of Anthropology, Harvard University
Ben Orlove, Professor of Environmental Science and Policy, UC Davis

Sixty fellowships of approximately $5,000 will be awarded in 2007 with funds provided by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Fellowships will provide support for predissertation during summer 2007.

The program is open to full-time graduate students in the humanities and social sciences--regardless of citizenship--enrolled in doctoral programs in the United States. Further eligibility exceptions are detailed online. Graduate students should be in the early phase of their research, generally in the 2nd or 3rd year of their doctoral program.

To access the online application, please visit http://programs.ssrc.org/dpdf/. Applications must be complete and submitted online before 9:00 pm (EST) on March 1, 2007. The reference letters must also be submitted online by the same deadline. In addition, undergraduate and graduate transcripts must be sent to the SSRC by mail and received by March 1, 2007. Applicants will be notified of the competition results in April 2007.

For further information about each of the research fields, application and eligibility requirements, please visit the DPDF Program online at:
http://programs.ssrc.org/dpdf/ or contact dpdf@ssrc.org.

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