MSU Tuesday Bulletin, 11/27/07
The African Studies Center at MSU
Tuesday Bulletin for November 27th, 2007
Strengthening Civil Society in Techiman, Ghana: An International Collaboration to Build
the Nkwantananso Cultural Center
Thursday, November 29, 2007
African Studies Center Brown Bag talk with Robert Glew, Faculty (Anthropology, MSU) and
Raymond Silverman, Faculty (Art History, Univ. of Michigan), 12:00 noon, Room 201
International Center.
The Ones Left Behind: Rural Households and Poverty in Mozambique After the Death of an
Adult
Friday, November 30, 2007
CASID/WID Friday Forum with Cynthia Donovan, Visiting Assistant Professor (Agricultural
Economics, MSU), 12:00 noon, Room 201 International Center.
Conditional Payments for Watershed Services in the Developing World: Hypotheses Regarding
Effectiveness, Efficiency, Acceptability, Sustainability, and Poverty
Friday, November 30, 2007
Department of Community, Agriculture, Recreation, and Resource Studies (CARRS),
presentation by Brent Swallow, Development and Environment Economist (World Agroforestry
Centre (ICRAF), 12:00 noon, Room 152 Natural Resources Bldg.
Crisis in the Implementation of Sudan's Comprehensive Peace Agreement
Wednesday, December 5, 2007
Sudan Awareness and Support Group Special Brown Bag talk with Benaiah Yongo-Bure,
Faculty (Kettering Univ., Flint, MI), 12:00 - 1:30 p.m., Room 201 International Center.
Strategic Partnership Panel Report: South Africa
December 6, 2007
African Studies Center Brown Bag talk with a panel of MSU faculties who have recently
travel! ed to South Africa, 12:00 noon, Room 201 International Center.!
Announcements
African Studies Center Application for Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) for
2008-09 AY
The African Studies Center at MSU is now accepting on-line applications for FLAS fellowships for academic year 2008-09 and for the 2008 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.php.
Candidates must have completed application procedures by February 15, 2008. 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. Summer Cooperative African Langu! age Institute (SCALI) 2008 will be hosted by the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. For details, please visit: http://africa.msu.edu/scali.php; or http://scali.afrst.uiuc.edu/ for details.
Scout Banana: Dance- a-Thon, December 1, 2007
S.C.O.U.T. B.A.N.A.N.A. presents: "I Love the 90's" Dance-a-Thon, Saturday, December 1,
2007, 8:00 p.m. to 2:00 a.m. at Demonstration Hall.
There will be a minimum donation of $5.00. Proceeds go toward building community wells in eight African countries. For further details, contact the organizers at: scoutbananamsu@gmail.com.
Other Announcements
Voice of America - African News on-line
As a reminder to all African students, faculty and others with faculty interest, the Voice of America (VOA) web page is available to help keep students and faculty abreast of the latest news from Africa. Please go to: http://www.voaafrica.com. While t! here loo k for the key that says "VOA[Africa] newsletter." The newsletter is sent daily to everyone who subscribes.
Trade Policy Notes from The Nordic Africa Institute
The Nordic Africa Institute hereby introduces a new series "Trade Policy Notes." The
Policy Notes purports to provide a deep understanding, close examination and constructive
debates on trade policymaking in Africa and how other regional and global trade
regulations affect Africa. It is a multidisciplinary publication and a robust forum for
members of the African international trade community to share their research and lessons
learned in the area of trade policymaking. The aim is to provide a forum through which
African diplomats; government officials, civil societies and scholars can access or
exchange crosscutting ideas on trade policy formulations and how the current regime of
regional and global trade impacts development and the fight against poverty in! Africa.
The Nordic Africa Institute hopes you will find "Trade Policy Notes" useful and welcomes
your contributions to this thought-provoking and informative publication. Policy Notes are
available at the Nordic Africa Institute's website. Following are the links to the first
two issues:
- The Development Dimension or Disillusion. The EU's Development Policy Goals and the
Economic Partnership Agreements:
http://www.nai.uu.se/publications/download.html/978-91-7106-610-7.pdf?id=25253;
- Effects of Rules of Origin on the European Union Africa Economic Partnership
Agreements:
http://www.nai.uu.se/publications/download.html/978-91-7106-611-4.pdf?id=25254.
For more information on The Nordic Africa Institute, visit http://www.nai.uu.se.
Conferences
Labour Crossings: World, Work & History Conference - Johannesburg, South Africa,
September 2008
Labour Crossings: World! , Work and History, an international conference will be held
F! riday, 5 September to Monday, 8 September, 2008 at the University of the Witwatersrand,
Johannesburg, South Africa.
The conference is organised by the History Workshop, University of Witwatersrand, and
the Centre for Sociological Research, University of Johannesburg, in association with the
International Association of Labour History Institutions and the International Conference
of Labour and Social History. This conference has two main aims: first, to contribute to
the development of a transnational labour history, and, second, to explore the connections
between, and social imaginations of, different types of workers, working class movements
and types of work.
The conference wants to question conventional understandings of the state and its
relation to the working class, relativise the nation-State, and place Empires centre-stage
as units of analysis in understanding the labour politics of the previous centuries, and
look at connections within and between Empires. The! conference aims to expand the
frontiers of labour history. Within this broad aim, there are a number of possible areas
of interest, including, but not restricted to:
Cross-nationalism and cross-disciplinarity: doing labour history;
The state of labour history in the "emerging countries"; Archives, sources,
museums and working class monuments; Labour and the invention of "the South";
Labour diasporas and imaginations; Slaves, servants and struggles;
Comparing Africa and Latin America; Mining history across the ages;
Public sector workers and teachers: class, leadership and identity;
Service sector workers, globally and comparatively; Gendered worker identity and
social movements; Labour and the environment; Caste, race and class;
Labour and religions: crossings, connections and reincarnations;
Labour, consumption and leisure; Disease and crossings; Workers,
mobility and immobility; Wars and working class movement! s; Transport
and labour across space and time; &n! bsp;&nbs p; Worker movement and
movements: region and empire; The working class and the media: reading publics,
movements and imaginations; Organising in work without wages; Crossing
class: the poor, the unemployed and wage labour; Organising in conditions of
repression and illegality; Political cultures of internationalism;
Explaining global strike waves; Working people and revolutions;
Communism, connections, comparisons; Syndicalism, subversion, solidarities;
State formation, regulation and the nationalisation of labour; and *
Transnational labour movements.
Proposals for papers on these themes, suggestions for related themes, and proposals for panels of 3-4 papers are welcome. In order to propose a paper or a panel, participants need to preregister for the conference through the website and submit their proposal online at: http://web.wits.ac.za/Acade! mic/Humanities/SocialSciences/HistoryWorkshop/Conferences.htm.
If you have trouble registering online, please contact the organisers for an e-mail or paper form. The deadline for submitting abstracts for proposed papers or proposing a panel is 15 January, 2008. For those who wish to attend the conference, but will not be presenting a paper, you must also register online. Please direct any queries to: history-workshop@social.wits.ac.za.
39th Annual Conference on African Linguistics-CFP
Abstracts for individual papers and panel proposals are invited for the 39th Annual
Conference on African Linguistics that will be held on April 17 to 20, 2008 at the
University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, USA. The Conference theme is "Linguistic Research
and the plight of Endangered Languages in Africa." Special invitation is extended for
papers that report or highlight field work and research in the areas of language
documentatio! n, the creation of orthographies and language engineering on t! he Afric an
continent.
The organizers of the ACAL 39 would like to invite papers that address the conference
theme, or any other topic relating to African languages and linguistics. Topics include,
but are not limited to, the following:
Morphology/Phonetics;
Phonology/Pragmatics;
Semantics/Sociolinguistic;
Syntax/Language acquisition;
Language pedagogy/Language planning;
Language use/Language variation;
Language contact/Computational linguistics;
The influence of African languages in the African Diaspora; and other areas of
linguistic research in Africa.
- Abstracts can be written in English, French, Swahili, Yoruba, Manding or any language spoken on the African continent; - Abstracts should be 250 word maximum, in a 12-point font; - A short 100 word summary must accompany abstracts submitted in a language other than English. (Conference presentations can be made in the same language used on the abstract but copies of ! the summary or main ideas in English must be provided prior to the conference);- Abstracts must contain the full names, affiliation and contact information of the author(s); - Abstracts must be submitted by email (word attachments preferred) to either of the following addresses: ACAL39@gmail.com or acalingeorgia@yahoo.com; - Abstracts containing special characters should be prepared and submitted in PDF. format; - Submission by fax is not acceptable.
If you do not have regular access to e-mail, you may submit one copy of your abstract
by regular mail on a 3.5 inch floppy disk (Microsoft Word documents only) to: ACAL 39,
African Studies Institute, 321 Holmes/Hunter Academic Building, University of Georgia,
Athens, Georgia 30602-0000.
The deadline for submitting abstracts and proposals is December 6, 2007. International
participants are encouraged to submit their abstracts sooner so that acceptance letters
can be issued in early January. Please direct inquiries t! o ACAL39 Organizing Committee,
Attn: Akinioye Ojo P! h.D., As sistant Professor, University of Georgia, 246 Joe Brown
Hall, Athens, GA 30602; Tel: (706)-542-7730 or (706)- 542-9865.
Jobs
Director - African Studies Center - Michigan State University
Dr. David Wiley, who has been Director of the Michigan State University African Studies
Center (ASC) since 1977, will be returning full-time to the Department of Sociology after
the 2007-08 academic year. The African Studies Center is arguably the strongest African
Studies center at any United States university, having been a Title VI National Resource
Center continuously since 1960. A new Director is sought to fill the vacancy left by Dr.
Wiley.
The Director is responsible for providing intellectual and programmatic leadership to
advance and promote excellence in MSU's diverse research, teaching, and outreach
activities relating to Africa. The position requires policy development and implementation
capabilities, with th! e ability to work collaboratively with faculty, administrators of
academic units, and other area studies, and international thematic centers in promoting
international research, education, outreach, and service programs.
A more detailed position description and the complete application process can be found at: http://www.isp.msu.edu/ASCDirector/announcement.php.
Please direct inquiries regarding this position to: Michael Stokes, International Studies and Programs, ASC Director Search, Michigan State University, 209 International Center, East Lansing, MI 48824; or e-mail: stokesm@msu.edu. Applications will be reviewed until the position has been filled.
For more information, visit the African Studies Center Website. Please submit information on Africa-related events or news seven to ten days in advance of publication. Send to the African Studies Center, 100 Center for International Progra! ms, Michigan State University. Telephone: (517) 353-1700; Fax:! (517) 4 32-1209; E-mail: africa@msu.edu.
from MSU African Studies Center <africa@msu.edu>
date Nov 21, 2007 2:13 PM
subject Tuesday Bulletin for November 27th, 2007
Page Editor: Ali B. Ali-Dinar, Ph.D.