EVENTS & ISSUES
– Duke University Public Lecture: Wearing Our Wokeness: The Dressed Black Body and the Fight for Social Justice
Time: Duke University, Monday, Dec 05, 2016 / 6:00PM – 8:00PM.
Place: East Duke Parlors.
In these tumultuous political times, the hashtag “stay woke” has circulated widely. But why does this language have so much political and cultural currency? What does it mean to wear one’s “wokeness,” and why are young activists so keen to do so? In this talk, historian Tanisha C. Ford theorizes wokeness and how it, at once, functions as a strategy for organizing, a political ideology, and a style of dress. Tanisha C. Ford is Associate Professor of Black American Studies and History at the University of Delaware. She is the author of Liberated Threads: Black Women, Style, and the Global Politics of Soul (UNC Press, 2015), which narrates the powerful intertwining histories of the Black Freedom movement and the rise of the global fashion industry.
– Nobel Prize Winner Wole Soyinka Upholds Promise to Leave U.S. After Trump’s Win
Nigeria’s Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka has held true to his promise to leave the United States if Donald Trump won the presidency, announcing Thursday that he has “disengaged” from the U.S. and thrown away his green card. Soyinka was born in Nigeria but later relocated to the U.S where he has resided for more than 20 years. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1986. Before the U.S. election took place November 8, Soyinka vowed to start cutting up his green card “the moment they announce [Trump’s] victory.” Now that Trump has been declared the victor, Soyinka says he is upholding that promise.
More details provided in the following link:
http://cctv-africa.com/2016/12/02/nobel-prize-winner-wole-soyinka-upholds-promise-to-leave-u-s-after-trumps-win/.
– Kemtiyu
This is a new documentary film that explores the lije and work of professor Cheikh Anta Diop. The Senegalese filmmaker Ousmane William Mbaye has just released Kemtiyu, a documentary film that deals with the life and work of professor Cheikh Anta Diop. Professor Diop was renowned historian, linguist and a scientist. The film will be screened in the coming weeks at the University of Dakar, which bears the name of Professor Diop. The films covers his lifetime from 1923 to 1986. More details in the following link:
http://www.rfi.fr/hebdo/20160527-cinema-television-senegal-kemtiyu-documentaire-oeuvre-cheikh-anta-diop-senghor
– Morocco: Treasures found in the oldest library in the world
After several years of restoration, the library Al-Quarayouine, located in the Morocco’s old city, known as the medina in Fez, is again accessible to researchers. This exceptional site hosts thousands of valuable manuscripts. The al-Quarayouine library is often presented as the oldest library in the world, comes out of several years of restoration. Not yet open to the public, it is only accessible to researchers and some lucky journalists. Al-Quarayouine, which housed a mosque and a university, was founded in 859 by a woman, Fatima al-Fihri, daughter of a rich Tunisian merchant, who came to Fez in the reign of the idrissid dynasty.
Read more on the story in the link below:
http://www.lefigaro.fr/livres/2016/12/04/03005-20161204ARTFIG00017-au-maroc-les-tresors-retrouves-de-la-plus-vieille-bibliotheque-du-monde.php
BOOK PROJECT AND CALL FOR PAPERS
– Embodiment and Relationality in Religions of Africa and its Diasporas: Call for Papers for Symposium and Edited Volume
Deadline for Abstracts : January 6, 2017
Symposium at the University of Pittsburgh: April 20-22, 2017
Send Abstracts and Inquiries to: ydc1@pitt.edu and jouili@pitt.edu
Co-Organizers: Yolanda Covington-Ward, Department of Africana Studies & Jeanette S. Jouili, Department of Religious Studies
Potential Research Questions:
What role does embodiment play in the making of religious selves and religious others, for those in Africa and its diasporas?
How do embodiment and memory intersect in the context of religious belief and practice?
How is religious embodiment used in struggles for political and economic power?
What does race mean and how is it used as a signifier in religious embodiment?
How are embodied religious practices immersed in broader concerns of inter-relational ethics and social transformative struggles?
To what extent do sexual identities and gendered experiences affect and rearticulate practices of religious embodiment and relationality?
How is religious embodiment used both as a means of fostering difference and as a tool of reconciliation for individuals and communities?
Abstract Submission: Abstracts of approximately 500 words should be submitted to both jouili@pitt.edu and ydc1@pitt.edu by January 6, 2017. Please also send an abbreviated CV (no more than 2 pages) with your abstract submission. 10 scholars will be selected to attend the symposium. Lodging and meals will be covered for all symposium participants. Travel of up to $500 will also be covered.
Timeline
December 1, 2016: Edited Volume Concept Paper sent to university presses to gauge interest
January 6, 2017: Deadline for Abstracts
January 13, 2017: Notifications of Acceptance Sent Out
April 10, 2017: Working Draft of Papers Due
April 20 – 22, 2017: Symposium held at the University of Pittsburgh
July 15, 2017: First Full Draft of Chapters Due to Co-editors
August 18, 2017: Comments Sent out to Volume Participants by Co-editors
November 1, 2017: Revised Draft due to Co-editors
January 2018: Submission to University Press
An Overview of the Project is available in RA link below
https://researchafrica.duke.edu/files/2016/12/Call-for-Embodiment-in-Religions-of-Africa-and-its-Diasporas-3.pdf
FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES
– Fellowships for African Students at Georgetown University in USA, 2017-2018
The Leadership and Advocacy for Women in Africa (LAWA) Fellowship Program was founded in 1993 at the Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, DC, in order to train women’s human rights lawyers from Africa who are committed to returning home to their countries to advance the status of women and girls throughout their careers.
The goals of the U.S. and LAWA Fellowships are multifaceted to advance the rights and well-being of women and their families through legal advocacy, research, outreach, and education; to allow public interest organizations to benefit from skilled legal assistance.
Applicants must have strong English language skills both written and oral. Language problems have been the primary barrier to success for LAWA Fellows.
Course Level: Fellowships are available for pursuing master (LLM) program.
For more details, follow the following link
http://scholarship-positions.com/fellowships-for-african-students-georgetown-university-usa/2016/12/01/.
NEW BOOKS
– Doing Development in West Africa: A Reader by and for Undergraduates
Author/ Editor: Charles Piot
Language: English
In recent years the popularity of service learning and study abroad programs that bring students to the global South has soared, thanks to this generation of college students’ desire to make a positive difference in the world. This collection contains essays by undergraduates who recount their experiences in Togo working on projects that established health insurance at a local clinic, built a cyber café, created a microlending program for teens, and started a local writers’ group. The essays show students putting their optimism to work while learning that paying attention to local knowledge can make all the difference in a project’s success. Students also conducted research on global health topics by examining the complex relationships between traditional healing practices and biomedicine. Charles Piot’s introduction contextualizes student-initiated development within the history of development work in West Africa since 1960, while his epilogue provides an update on the projects, compiles an inventory of best practices, and describes the type of projects that are likely to succeed. Doing Development in West Africa provides a relatable and intimate look into the range of challenges, successes, and failures that come with studying abroad in the global South.
Publisher: Duke University, Press, 2016
– Islam et Modernité: Contribution à l’analyse de la ré-islamisation au Niger
[ISLAM AND MODERNITY: Contribution to the analysis of the re-Islamization in Niger]
Author: Abdoulaye Sounaye
Language: French
This book revisits the question of contemporary Islam in its multiple relations with modernity in the African context. The book analyzes the dynamics of Islamic reform movements in Africa since the 1990s. It specifically takes on the recent developments related to Muslim religiosities in Niger as a case study of reflection while examining theoretical questions regarding the conceptual categories that could serve us understand key social, political, and philosophical phenomenon in this country.
Publisher: Harmattan, France 2016
harmattan.fr/index.asp?navig=catalogue&obj=livre&no=51930
– Modern Muslims, a Sudan Memoir
Author: Steve Howard
Language: English
Modern Muslims, a Sudan Memoir is an ethnographic work that sketches the progressive struggle by a small political movement called the Republican Brotherhood (Akhwan aljumhuryet) during the 80’s. Through a personalized recount of his three-year journey, the author assesses his experience of living as a Sufi brother in the progressive movement led by Ustadh Mahmoud Mohamed Taha in relation to the contemporary postcolonial society in the Sudan.
Publisher: Ohio University Press, 2016.
Research Africa welcomes submissions of books, events, funding opportunities, and more. Please email your submission to research_africa@duke.edu to be included in next week’s issue.
