AFRICAN STUDIES CENTER - UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA
 

MSU Tuesday Bulletin, 10/20/09


"Declarations of Dependence: Labor, Personhood, and Welfare in South Africa and Beyond," African Studies Center Evening Lecture with Dr. James Ferguson, Chair and Professor, (Anthropology, Stanford Univ.), 4:00 p.m., 3rd Floor, Room 303 International Center. (See MSU Announcements below). Wednesday, October 21, 2009

"International Opportunities Fair," MSU International units and external international organizations will provide information and resources about volunteer, work and teaching abroad, for students who have thought about or are considering the international experience. Sponsored by the Office of Study Abroad, 12:00 noon - 4:00 p.m., 2nd Floor, MSU Union Ballroom. Visit "What's Going on" at http://studyabroad.msu.edu for updates and exhibitors. Thursday, October 22, 2009

"The African Union and Pan-African Parliament," African Studies Center Brown Bag talk with Keith Gottschalk, University of Western Cape, South Africa (Visiting Fulbright Scholar, Oakland University), 12:00 noon – 1:30 p.m., Room 201 International Center. Friday, October 23, 2009

"Ecosystem Services: Linking Science to Action in Malawi and the Region," CASID/GenCen Friday Forum with Dimon Kambewa, Faculty of Development Studies, (Bunda College) and Anne Ferguson, Faculty at MSU (Anthropology and Co-Director GenCen), 12:00 noon, Room 201 International Center. Thursday, October 29, 2009

"Local Economic Development, Poverty Reduction and sustainable Livelihoods within Townships in South Africa. Myth or Reality?," African Studies Center Brown Bag talk with Cecil Madell, Visiting Scholar, Univ. of Michigan-UMAPS program (Univ. of Cape Town, South Africa), 12:00 noon - 1:30 p.m., Room 201 International Center. Thursday, October 29, 2009

"African Audiences from Hollywood to Nollywood," Inaugural Annual ASA Presidential lecture with African Studies Association (ASA) President, Dr. Charles Ambler, Faculty, History Department, University of Texas at El Paso, 6:00 p.m. - 7:30 p.m., Room 115 International Center. Reception to follow in Spartan Rooms B & C, Crossroads Food Court. (See MSU Announcements below). Announcements
Evening Lecture by Professor James Ferguson

Professor James Ferguson is currently Chair and Professor in the Department of Anthropology at Stanford University. His research has been conducted in Lesotho and Zambia, and has engaged a broad range of theoretical and ethnographic issues. Dr. Ferguson's central interests are the political, and the relation between specific social and cultural processes and the abstract narratives of "development" and "modernization." Ferguson's most recent book, Global Shadows: Africa in the Neoliberal World Order, was published by Duke University Press in 2006. The essays that make up the book address a range of specific topics, ranging from structural adjustment, the crisis of the state, and the emergence of new forms of government-via-NGO, to the question of the changing social meaning of "modernity" for colonial and postcolonial urban Africans. These topics converge around u! sing "Africa" as a way to understand broader issues such as globalization, modernity, worldwide inequality, and social justice. Professor Ferguson's new research project in South Africa, explores the emergence of new problematics of poverty and social policy under conditions of neoliberalism. He will speak on South Africa's recent decades of wrenching transformation from a labor-scarce society to a labor-surplus one.

All are welcome to attend this lecture hosted by MSU African Studies Center and the Department of Anthropology on Tuesday, October 20, 2009; 4:00 p.m. to 5:30 p.m., Michigan State University campus, Room 303 International Studies and Programs, East Lansing, MI 48824. Direct questions to the African Studies Center (517) 353-1700. A reception will follow the lecture. 2009 Inaugural Annual ASA Presidential Lecture

The Michigan State University African Studies Center in collaboration with the Departments of History and English will host the 2009 Inaugural ASA Presidential Lecture on Thursday, October 29, 2009, 6:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., Room 115 of the International Studies and Programs building.

The guest lecturer is Professor Charles Ambler, current president of the African Studies Association (ASA), the premier professional association of Africanists in North America. Former Dean of Research and the Graduate School at the University of Texas, El-Paso, Ambler has a long and distinguished career as a historian. He has published extensively on a range of topics, from pre-colonial African communities and their resourceful methods of coping with colonialism (Kenyan Communities in the Age of Imperialism Yale, 1988), to the place of alcohol in the struggles between workers and mine managers in the Zambian Copperbelt (Liquor and Labor in Southern Africa Ohio:1992), to numerous path-breaking articles on leisure in Africa. He will lecture on his current project, a broad-ranging study of media in colonial and post-colonial Africa.

A reception will follow the lecture in Spartan Rooms B and C. Please contact the African Studies Center at (517) 353-1700 for further information.

Conversations with Charles Ambler on the topic: ASA and Graduate Student Training will also take place on Friday, October 30, 2009; 11:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.; Room 305 International Center. Study Abroad Programs in Africa - Info Meetings

TANZANIA

Food, Nutrition and Health

Summer 2010

Thursday, October 22

6:00 pm - 1279 Anthony Hall


MADAGASCAR

Paradise in Peril? Exploring Madagascar's Biodiversity Crisis

Summer 2010

Wednesday, October 28

5:30 pm - 338 Natural Resources


Direct inquiries to Chris Barden, Office of Study Abroad, 109 International Center, (517) 432-8785; or e-mail: barden@msu.edu. GenCen Internship Applications for Spring 2010

The Center for Gender in Global Context offers internship coordination for undergraduate and graduate students interested in issues of gender related to social justice, community development, health, domestic violence, and/or environmental health and justice. Students are encouraged to take advantage of this opportunity to gain hands on experience interning with organizations working on these issues, while receiving MSU credit. More information and a downloadable application form can be found at http://www.giec.msu.edu/internship.htm. Electronic submissions are encouraged.

The submission deadline is November 1, 2009. Students interested in international internships should contact the GenCen Internship Coordinator, Marisa Rinkus, at gencenic@msu.edu as soon as possible to discuss programs and specific deadlines. Africa Past and Present Podcast

Episode 33 of Africa Past and Present -- the podcast about African history, culture, and politics -- is now available at:http://afripod.aodl.org.

In this episode, Marika Sherwood, Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies in London, explores aspects of the history of the African diaspora in Britain. Sherwood shares insights from her most recent book, After Abolition: Britain and the Slave Trade Since 1807, and considers the significance of the 1945 Pan Africanist Congress held in Manchester. She then looks at Pan-African biography and concludes by noting the inadequate treatment of black history in the UK school curriculum. This episode is the last in a multi-part series on African diasporas.

Africa Past and Present is hosted by Michigan State University historians Peter Alegi and Peter Limb. It is produced by Matrix -- the Center for Humane Arts, Letters, and Social Sciences Online http://matrix.msu.edu. Other Announcements
Northwestern U. Global Engagement Summer Institute

The Northwestern University Center for Global Engagement is opening up to non-Northwestern students a unique summer program in Bolivia, Nicaragua, India, and Uganda called the Global Engagement Summer Institute. The program involves a 7-day preparatory institute in Chicago, followed by an 8-week, team-based nonprofit immersion at one of their four sites. The program concludes with a three-day summit in Chicago.

This is a great opportunity for students, as it pairs rigorous academic training with hands-on international community development experience. To learn more, visit http://www.mycge.org. Inquiries may be sent to the program manager at gesi@northwestern.edu; or call (847) 467-0844. Conferences
African Environmental Ethics & Values in the 21st Century - May 21 to 23, 2010 - CFP

The Center for Environmental Philosophy (CEP), University of North Texas (UNT) in the United States, in collaboration with the Center for African Environmental, Human and Societal Ethics at the University of Lagos, Akoka-Lagos, Nigeria invites proposals for its first conference on "African Environmental Ethics and Values in the 21st Century."

The conference will approach the dream of African development in accordance with the thesis "from environmental balance to human peace and happiness" and therefore welcome submissions from researchers and academicians from all disciplines, government representatives, NGO's and multi/transnational companies, as long as they have issues that would impact on African society. Submissions dealing with pre-colonial African ethics of relationship among human, animals, and the environment are also welcome.

More detailed information is available at: http://www.cep.unt.edu/africa. Presented papers will be considered for a special issue of Environmental Ethics on African environmental ethics. Please send proposals of about 250-300 words in Word format to cep@unt.edu. Proposals should include authors' name, affiliation, and e-mail address. The deadline for receipt of proposals is December 15, 2009. Questions should be directed to Dr. Chigbo Ekwealo, Conference Coordinator, e-mail: ekwealo2002@yahoo.com; or Dr. Gene Hargrove, Director of CEP; e-mail: hargrove@unt.edu. Multilingualism and Education - Kenyatta University

The conference, Multilingualism and Education: Global Practices, Challenges and the Way Forward, co-hosted by Kenyatta University and the University of Pennsylvania, and to be held at the Kenyat! ta University Conference Centre (KUCC) in Nairobi, Kenya, is intended to bring together researchers, professionals, classroom practitioners, policy makers and language specialists interested in issues that relate to multilingualism, education and linguistic diversity asglobal phenomena. Papers at the conference are expected to range from presentation of research findings to analysis of practice.

Themes and Sub-themes include:

  1. Language policies and language choice in a multilingual education context.

  2. Linguistic challenges in a multilingual set-up.

  3. Benefits of mother-tongue education in early childhood.

  4. Teaching methodologies in multilingual education.

  5. Multilingualism in education in Africa: Reality on the ground.

  6. Multilingual education and IT/computing.

  7. Models for multi-literacy, multilingual, multimodal practices.

  8. Benefits of multilingualism in education

  9. Socio-cultural issues, multilingualism and special language needs/ disorders.



Principal Speakers are: Prof. Nancy H. Hornberger, Graduate School of Education, University of Pennsylvania; Prof. Okoth Okombo, Department of Linguistics, University of Nairobi and Prof. Susan Malone, SIL International, Bangkok, Thailand. Registration fee for participants from Africa is Kshs 4,000; the rest of the World is $150 USD.

Abstracts not exceeding 300 words (excluding references) should be sent via e-mail as a Word attachment to: multilingualismconference@gmail.com by December 15, 2009. The document should contain presentation title, the abstract, and preference for poster or paper presentation. Please DO NOT include information identifying the author(s) in the e-mail attachment. Author(s) information including name, affiliation and e-mail address(es) should be detailed in the body of the email.The contact person at Kenyatta University is: Martin C. Njoroge, PhD; Department of English & Linguistics; Kenyatta University; P.O. Box 43844-00100; Nairobi, Kenya; Tel. 254208710901 ext 57338; E-mail: marttoh68@yahoo.com. Jobs
Political Science Dept. - U. of Florida (Ref. #025359)

The Department of Political Science at the University of Florida invites applications for a tenure track position in political economy with a focus on Africa at the level of Assistant Professor. The search is open to candidates focusing on comparative or international political economy. Seeking candidates with superior promise who combine original and rigorous scholarship with excellence in teaching and potential for graduate student training. The Ph.D. degree is required. Salary will be commensurate with qualifications and experience.

Interested applicants should submit the following: (a) a cover letter; (b) a curriculum vitae; (c) a graduate transcript; (d) a statement of teaching philosophy along with syllabi and teaching evaluations, if available; (e) a sample of current work; and (f) three letters of recommendation to: Political Economy- Africa Search Committee to: Department of Political Science, University of Florida, 234 Anderson Hall, P.O. Box 117325, Gainesville, Florida 32611-7325. Please reference #025359. The application deadline is November 10. 2009 with a start date of August 2010.


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

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