Alliances 2019
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Weiser Hall, 500 Church Street, Suite 500 Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1042 AFRICAN STUDIES CENTER • NEWSLETTER 2019 • ISSUE 11 Alliances is published annually by the African Studies Center THIS COVER IS A COMPOSITE OF SELECTED UNIVERSITY (ASC) at the University of Michigan. ASC is a member of the OF MICHIGAN LANDMARKS, AND THE TWELVE COHORTS are you in the next cohort? International Institute (2009-2019) OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN AFRICAN The twelve cohorts (2009-2019) PRESIDENTIAL SCHOLARS (UMAPS) PROGRAM. Andries W. Coetzee , ASC Director CREATED FOR ASC'S ALLIANCES, ISSUE NO. 11. of the U-M African Presidential Laura Beny, ASC Associate Director J. Henrike Florusbosch, ASC Grant Manager and Project © 2019 Regents of the University of Michigan: Jordan Scholars (UMAPS) program Coordinator B. Acker, Michael J. Behm, Mark J. Bernstein, Paul W. Application to the 2020-2021 cohort runs August 15 until Brown, Shauna Ryder Diggs, Denise Ilitch, Ron Weiser, Sandie Schulze, ASC Outreach and Program Coordinator October 15, 2019. Turn to page 15 to read more about the Katherine E. White, Mark S. Schlissel, ex officio. Gloria Caudill, II Global South Cluster Manager program, the newest alumni, and the incoming cohort. “A Non-discriminatory, Affirmative Action Employer” Kathy Covert, II Global South Assistant Raquel Ramos Buckley, II Communications Editor ALLIANCES COVER AND DESIGN BY RAQUEL BUCKLEY. 2019. MESSAGE FROM THE DIRECTOR CONTENT participants. Some examples are described on pages 24-27, 30-31, and DIRECTOR’S MESSAGE…2 Dear ASC community, 36. ASC APPOINTS ADVISORY 5 BOARD…5 The African Studies Center (ASC) has been mission-driven since it was founded in Foster interdisciplinary research to find 2008. ASC’s mission, summarized in six points, helped us to focus our activities imaginative solutions to contemporary AHHI UPDATES…7 over the past year, and helps set the course into the future. During the 2018- social, cultural, medical, technological, » SEED GRANTS & OTHER 19 academic year, the many conferences, presentations, and activities of the FUNDED PROJECTS IN and environmental problems: Since 2018-19 center were all guided by our focus on this mission. This 11th issue of our annual our founding, ASC has been organized » JOINING THEORY AND newsletter, Alliances, features a selection of some of the activities, and in this around initiatives (ASRI, AHHI, STEM-Africa, with EMC2 joining this year). EMPIRICISM IN THE message, I will highlight how these activities have been aligned with our mission. These initiatives bring together faculty from across all U-M schools and REMAKING OF THE AFRICAN HUMANITIES colleges to collaboratively explore research on Africa. The initiatives organize Deepen and expand scholarly and interdisciplinary conferences on campus and on the continent, offer educational partnerships between U-M and ASRI UPDATES…10 7 training workshops, award seed grants to teams of U-M faculty and African African institutions: Our flagship UMAPS EMC2 UPDATES…12 collaborators, and more. See pages 7-14 for a report on the activities of the program has become one of the most initiatives during the 2018-19 academic year. STEM-AFRICA respected US-based research fellowships for UPDATES…14 ANDRIES COETZEE Africa-based scholars. In 2018-19, we hosted Serve as a public resource on Africa UMAPS UPDATES…15 Director, African Studies Center the 11th UMAPS cohort on campus, bringing and Michigan’s involvement with it for » CHEERS TO THE NEWEST Professor, Department of to 149 the number of scholars who have the state and local community: ASC ALUMNI: 2018-19 15 Linguistics participated in the program. See pages 15-19 for a report on the 2018-19 UMAPS events are free and open to the public, UMAPS COHORT alumni, and an introduction to the new 2019-20 cohort. and are regularly attended by interested » ASC WELCOMES THE members of the Ann Arbor and broader 2019-20 UMAPS Support exchanges of students, faculty, and COHORT Michigan community. ASC participated staff between U-M and African institutions: again this year in the African World INTERVIEW WITH Since our founding over a decade ago, ASC Festival in Detroit, the largest public UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN has funded hundreds of students and faculty PROVOST MARTIN event in the US focusing on African culture. Starting in the fall 2019, ASC will with over a million dollars to conduct research PHILBERT…20 20 also be the sponsor for the African Students Association (ASA), an organization in and on Africa. We continued with this that serves the interests of students of African descent on our campus, and THE LAST ANIMALS: FILM important work in 2018-19, awarding funds to SCREENING AND PANEL whose many activities actively reach out to the broader community. SUPPORTING ASC 21 students and to nine faculty-led research DISCUSSION…24 projects. See page 37-39 for more on the work that U-M faculty and students are We would not be able to realize our mission without support from the U-M BEYOND BORDERS: doing in and about Africa. We also hosted senior delegations from key partner community and the ASC team—consisting of Laura Beny, Raquel Buckley, GLOBAL AFRICA…26 Gifts to ASC are used institutions on the continent, including from the University of Ghana and Makerere Gloria Caudill, Kathy Covert, Henrike Florusbosch, and Sandie Schulze. We are BEST AFRICA BOOKS WE to support initiatives University, thereby further strengthening relations between U-M and our African deeply thankful to President Schlissel for his ongoing support of our UMAPS READ IN 2018…28 that enhance the partners. program, to Provost Martin Philbert for his commitment to expanding U-M’s 28 AFRICAN WOMEN FILM engagement in Africa (see pages 20-23 for more), and to (former) Vice Provost study of Africa at the Enhance the study of Africa, past and present, within the U-M curriculum: SERIES AT MICHIGAN James Holloway for his many years of support to the ASC. THEATER…30 University of Michigan ASC has supported the development of Africa-focused courses at U-M since our founding, including the development of an African languages program in We would like to add a special thanks to Cindy Nguyen, who served as ASC’s CONNECTING TO HERITAGE and beyond. collaboration with the Department of Afroamerican and African Studies. U-M academic program specialist for the past two years, and has left us to pursue THROUGH LANGUAGE: now offers a full three-year sequence of Swahili, and we are happy to add Yoruba STUDYING SWAHILI AND If you are interested in making a graduate program in philosophy at Boston College. Her enthusiasm for ASC YORUBA AT U-M…32 as a second African language taught on the U-M campus starting in the 2019- a planned gift to the African has contributed immeasurably to our community. Many good wishes, Cindy, as 20 academic year. See page 32-33 for more information about our language you embark on your next endeavor! Congratulations are also in order. Raquel IN MEMORIAM…34 Studies Center, please: programs, including about Oluwatoyin Olanipekun, who will join us as Yoruba Buckley, our communications editor (and hence also the person responsible for visit ii.umich.edu/asc/donate; THE ALCHEMY OF CULTURE lecturer through the Fulbright FLTA program in the fall. the design of this newsletter), graduated at the end of the winter semester with AND LAW IN THE SOUTH email [email protected]; a master’s degree from the U-M School of Education. Congratulations from all AFRICAN CONSTITUTIONAL 38 or use the gift envelope Connect faculty and students working in/on Africa from all colleges and units COURT…36 of us, Raquel! enclosed in this issue. on campus: ASC continues to be a hub for U-M faculty and students with an FACULTY NEWS…37 interest in Africa. In 2018-19, we sponsored or cosponsored 25 Africa-focused events on campus and on the continent, that were attended by over 1,100 STUDENT NEWS…38 AFRICAN STUDIES CENTER · Alliances 2019 · 3 ASC APPOINTS ADVISORY BOARD ASC is pleased to announce the formation of its advisory board and the inaugural members, who share our passion for committing to the University of Michigan’s vision of equitable engagement with Africa-based partners, specifically in the domain of higher education. Dominic Akuritinga Ayine based in Washington, D.C. After completing a year-long is a former deputy attorney internship in Liberia in 1987 with USAID/Monrovia, she general of the Republic of moved to Pretoria, South Africa in 1988. Until 1993, she Ghana and a senior partner served as the senior education specialist at USAID/Pretoria, of Ayine & Felli Law Offices, a which had been established under the United States firm he co-founded in 2009. Congress’ Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act of 1986. He is currently the Member of Bisgard co-founded Khulisa Management Services in Parliament for Bolgatanga East 1993, and currently leads the company’s evaluations MEMBERS OF THE ASC Constituency and the chairman and capacity building assignments in the education, ADVISORY BOARD, of the Subsidiary Legislation UMAPS ALUMS, AND democracy, and governance sectors across Africa. She Committee of the Parliament ASC STAFF AT THE ASC speaks and writes about evaluation and evaluation use, ADVISORY BOARD of Ghana. Prior to entering most recently publishing a chapter in Evaluation Failures: MEETING politics, Dr. Ayine was a lecturer at the University of Ghana 22 Tales of Mistakes Made and Lessons Learned (Sage Law School from 2000-2013, where he taught International Publishers, 2018). She has served on the boards of the Trade and Investment Law, Natural Resources Law, and African Evaluation Association (AfrEA), the International Administrative Law. Organization for Cooperation in Evaluation (IOCE) and Dr. Ayine graduated from the University of Ghana Law School the South African Monitoring and Evaluation Association in 1993.