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African Studies Northwestern University Winter 2014/Volume 24, Number 2 news and events Program of African Studies NorthwesterN UNiversity PAS to host 25 fellows for Young african Leaders Initiative PAS has been chosen to be a entrepreneurship and business (2012), and more than 2,000 “Africa’s future belongs five-year host institution for that will offer in-classroom subsequent programs in sub- to its young people… President Barack Obama’s learning along with experien- Saharan Africa. Young African Leaders Initia- tial learning at Chicago-area The next phase of YALI we need young africans tive (YALI), which aims to centers for entrepreneurship. will develop a prestigious who are standing up invest in the next generation of The US Department of network of leaders across criti- and making things African leaders and strengthen State has supported YALI cal sectors in Africa, cement partnerships between the through a series of high-profile ties to the United States, and happen not only in United States and Africa. forums with youth leaders, offer follow-up leadership their own countries Working with North- including the President’s opportunities, with the goal but around the world.” western’s Farley Center for Young African Leaders Forum of strengthening democratic President Barack Obama Entrepreneurship and Innova- (2010), the First Lady’s Young institutions and spurring eco- tion, PAS will host 25 Afri- African Women Leaders nomic growth. can fellows during summer Forum (2011), Young African 2014. Fellows will participate Leaders Innovation Summit in a six-week program in and Mentoring Partnership Leading african writer Chris abani joins english faculty By evan Maina Mwangi reserved for faculty “at the top of their game,” Weinberg College The study of Africa at Northwestern University has received a of Arts and Sciences dean Sarah C. Mangelsdorf said at Abani’s major boost with the recruitment of one of today’s most respected November 13 investiture ceremony. African writers, Chris Abani, to the English department fac- Mediating between the foundational generation of African ulty. Although other African literary heavyweights have taught writers—such as fellow Nigerians Chinua Achebe and Wole at Northwestern—Ngugi wa Thiong’o (1971) and Dennis Brutus Soyinka—and the emerging generation, Abani is among the most (1971–85), among others—this is the first time an African writer discussed African artists. His many honors include a Guggenheim will teach creative writing as fellowship (2009) and a PEN Beyond the Margins literary award a full-time faculty member. (2008). Before coming to Northwestern, he taught literary criticism Abani is a novelist, theorist, and creative writing at the University of California, Riverside. Inside essayist, and poet who also Abani’s arrival enhances the stature of the Program of Afri- works across genres in film can Studies as well as the University’s ability to meet the needs of PAStories 2 and drama. students of African literature and postcolonial theory. He makes The Nigerian author Northwestern more attractive to students interested in cutting- ISITA news 4 is now Board of Trustees edge scholarship on various African literatures. He joins faculty Viewpoint 6 Professor of English. One of members Nasrin Qader, Rebecca Johnson, Brian Edwards, and Community news 9 Northwestern’s most presti- Evan Mwangi, who teach the literatures of various regions of gious appointments, a Board Africa as well as the Middle East. Events calendar 11 of Trustees Professorship is continued on page 10 PAStories Panofsky awardees did research in four countries Graduate students who received Hans E. Panofsky Pre- dissertation Research Awards last summer explored a range of topics in South Africa, Ghana, Botswana, and the Democratic Republic of Congo last summer. Priscilla adipa conducted fieldwork at two Johannesburg theaters —the Market Theatre and Soweto Theatre —to examine how location shapes cultural production. Drawing from interviews with theater administrators, she found that the development of audiences is contingent on perceptions about a theater’s geographic setting as well as the degree to which it is embedded in a culturally rich environment. Kofi asante was in Ghana collecting archival data for his dis- Panofsky awardee sally nuamah (right) interviews a student at an accra school. sertation on African merchants of the Gold Coast from the mid-19th to mid-20th centuries and the coalitions they devel- access to resources (commonly cited by previous research) but oped to resist colonial policy. His study challenges theories also to internal factors—specifically, spirituality and discipline. based on notions of “colonial legacy” and the imported nature Going beyond a narrow look at the barriers that girls face, of independent states. He argues that the strategies of resis- her research looks at the conditions under which girls from tance and cooperation that indigenous people adopted toward disadvantaged backgrounds enter, stay in, and do well in school. colonizers allowed them to influence the development and implementation of colonial government policies and, in so david Peyton traveled to the Democratic Republic of Congo doing, shape the formation of the emergent state. to conduct interviews and collect official records to understand how conflict affects local politics and spatial development in sakhile Matlhare carried out fieldwork at two vocational cities. Departing from conventional wisdom that holds that schools in Maun in northern Botswana. She conducted partici- warfare has a singular destructive effect, Peyton explores how pant observations and interviews to analyze how safari guides protracted conflict in eastern Congo has quadrupled the popu- manage their positions as both knowledgeable leaders and lation of the city of Goma, expanded its boundaries, and built accommodating servants. Her study shows how guides learn its infrastructure over the past two decades. His research shows to represent themselves and other Batswana in sharing their how conflict-driven urbanization results in large-scale infor- country’s natural landscape with tourists. Her research exam- mal settlements, wealthy enclaves inhabited by international ines the role of Botho, a Bantu principle, as both a cultural aid workers, and increased political and economic competition value and structuring tool for aligning the guides’ training and among elites. professional work. When professional rules and hospitality pro- tocols fail, tour guides use Botho as a self-affirming and orient- nikki Yeboah conducted ethnographic research in Ghana with ing vocabulary to guide their interactions with foreign guests. African American repatriate communities who migrated to the country in search of their roots. She also had access to data in sally nuamah conducted surveys, interviews, and classroom the national archives and the personal archives of renowned observations in Accra, Ghana, for her study of how educa- Ghanaian playwright Efua T. Sutherland. She is now investigat- tion policies are shaping disadvantaged female students in the ing discourses of timelessness that have long shaped African- country. Her preliminary findings indicate that the success of descended people’s relationship to Western intellectualism. female students is related not only to structural factors such as 2 students sought for global health case competition northwestern students from across the University’s undergraduate, over spring break to compete in the emory Global Health graduate, and professional schools are being recruited to participate Case Competition. the top two northwestern teams will also receive in the first annual northwestern Global Health Case Competition Feb- cash prizes. ruary 14–15, 2014. the competition aims to provide the next genera- the competition at northwestern is being cosponsored by tion of leaders unique training in confronting a real-world challenge. PAS, the Office for International Program development, the Center for at the event, teams of three to five undergraduate and graduate Global engagement, the Buffett Center for International and students from at least three different academic disciplines will be Comparative studies, and the Center for Global Health. challenged to develop a multidisciplinary approach to a global health students may register individually or in teams at globalhealth problem. each team will present its solutions to a panel of judges. .northwestern.edu/announcements/GHCaseCompetition2014.html. the winning team will receive an all-expenses-paid trip to atlanta For more information, please contact [email protected]. northwestern well represented at african studies association meeting Several Northwestern scholars presented elise dufief (political science), “Poli- nikki Yeboah (performance studies), papers or participated in roundtables tics and Governance Reconfigured: “The Sankofa Project: The Performative and panel discussions at the African The Case of the European Union and Practice of African Diasporan Repatria- Studies Association Meeting in Balti- Ethiopia.” tion to Africa.” more in November. sally nuamah (sociology), “Education as Two graduate students also partici- Faculty member and director of a Socializing Institution for Construct- pated in panel discussions: elise dufief, international studies Galya Ruffer ing Achievement-Oriented Identities “New Actors in Africa? China and presented her paper, “A View of Conflict for Female Students in Ghana.” Turkey”; and sally nuamah, “Politics, and Displacement in Eastern Congo Knowledge Production, and
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