2007-2008

Thursday, April 24, 3:30pm, Gambrell Hall 429
Ph.D. candidate in Community Psychology from USC’s Department of Psychology, Eric Green, presented a colloquium entitled, "Communities in Transition: Recovering from War and Displacement in Northern Uganda." The presentation was based on fieldwork for his Ph.D. dissertation in an internally displaced persons' camp in Northern Uganda, where Eric lived for eight months, and where research assistants continue to gather data.

Wednesday, April 16, 3:30pm, Gambrell Hall 429
New faculty member Erik Doxtader, from the University of Wisconsin, in USC’s Department of English, presented a colloquium entitled “Nonsense without Stilts?: The Rhetorical Question of Reconciliation in the UN’s Discourse on Transitional Justice.”

Thursday, April 3, 2008
Visiting scholar, Sverker Finnström, from the Department of Social Anthropology at Stockholm University in Sweden presented a colloquium entitled “Fieldwork Under Fire: Anthropological Research During War in Northern Uganda.”

Colleagues Rob Rolfe and Doug Woodward from the Moore School of Business presented a colloquium on “The Crisis in Kenya.” This event was co-sponsored by the African Studies Program, the Center for International Business, Education, and Research (CIBER) in the Moore School of Business, and the Development Studies Working Group.

Aaron Hale (University of Florida) discussed his research in Africa in a talk titled: "In Seach of Peace: An Autopsy of Violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo."

Ericka Albaugh (PhD, Duke University) presented a candidate presentation in comparative politics of Africa in a lecture titled, "Dangerous Diversity: The Politics of Multilingual Education in Africa."

The Office of International and Comparative Education announced a Roundtable: "Challenges in Higher Education: Developing and Post-Conflict Countries," that featured Higher Education Officials from: Oman, Jamaica, Cambodia, Afghanistan, Bosnia & Somalia.

The Department of Geography hosted a development related talk on Thursday evening with Ben Wisner from Oberlin College, who presented, "Is Banana-Millet Beer the Answer to Climate Change? Small farmer and pastoralist adaptation in transnational/ vertical space: The case of Mt. Kilimanjaro."

Dr. Jacques Semelin, from Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris presented a talk on European genocide titled “Understanding Massacre? Exploring the Genocidal Process: Holocaust, Rwanda, Bosnia.”

Ms. Joan Mower, a US Public Affairs Officer, presented a lecture titled, “Darfur Today: U.S. Policy on Sudan.”

Development Foreign Aid and Education with Dr. Joel Samoff
Dr. Joel Samoff, Consulting Professor of African Studies at Stanford University (a Political Scientist (PhD, Wisconsin-Madison, 1972)), one of the leading figures in the study of comparative politics, development and education in Africa, presented two lectures: “Partnership and Dependence: The Dysfunctions of Foreign Aid," and “Education for All: Still a Distant Dream.”

2006-2007

The Office of International and Comparative Education presented a colloquium by Neil Roos, from the University of Pretoria in South Africa and a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Chicago, “From Didactics towards a Critical Scholarship of Teaching and Learning: Reconstructing the Teacher-Education Curriculum at a South African University.”

The African Studies Program and Amnesty International hosted a program titled "Uganda Rising," that explained the conflict that has ravaged Northern Uganda for over 20 years and impacted the lives of thousands.

The Walker Institute hosted the Global Issues Forum: Responding to Global Hunger.
"Alleviating Global Hunger: Are We Getting Anywhere?" by Edward A. Frongillo, Jr., Professor and Chair, Department of Health Promotion, Education, and Behavior of the Arnold School of Public Health, Univerity of South Carolina.
"Putting a Human Face on Hunger", a photo presentation by Matthew Powell, professional photographer.
"Using Food Aid to Achieve Sustainable Reductions in Food Insecurity and Malnutrition: Title II Food-Assisted Development Programs" by Anne Swindale, Directory, Food and Nutrition Technical Assistance Project of the Academy for Educational Development.
"U.S. Food Aid: What Has Changed and What Still Needs to Change" by Christopher B. Barrett, International Professor, Department of Applied Economics and Management of Cornell University.
"What Political Commitment Can Do: An Inspirational Response to Hunger in Guatemala" by José Andrés Botrán B., Secretary of Food and Nutrition Security of the Government of Guatemala.
"Hunger in America and What We Can Do About It" by Sonya J. Jones, Research Assistant Professor, Center for Research on Nutrition and Health Disparities, Department of Health Promotion, Education, and Behavior, Arnold School of Public Health of the University of South Carolina.
"Tackling Hunger in Emergency and Development Settings: Trends, Successes and Challenges" by Patrick Webb, Dean for Academic Affairs & Associate Professor, Former Chief of Nutrition for the UN World Food Programme, Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy of Tufts University.
"Challenges to Reaching People in Need with Food Assistance: A View from the Ground" by Douglas Casson Coutts, Special Advisor to the Esecutive Director for Child Hunger, Office of U.S. Relations, World Food Programme.

The Department of Rare Book & Special Collections of the Library presented an exhibition celebrating the bicentenary of the abolition of the slave trade in 1807.
A related earlier exhibition, on the European encounter with Africa 1500-1900, also drawn from the holdings in Rare Books & Special Collections, is available at: http://www.sc.edu/library/spcoll/sccoll/africa/africa.html. In connection with this exhibit, Prof. Patrick Scott, Department of English and Director, Rare Books and Special Collections, gave an illustrated talk, “Olaudah Equiano and the Abolition of the Atlantic Slave Trade: Some Rare Books from Thomas Cooper Library and What They Might Tell Us." This exhibit featured recently-acquired early editions of three eighteenth-century African writers:
• Ignatius Sancho (1729-1780), the only African to vote in a British parliamentary election in the
period;
• Phillis Wheatley (1753-1784), the Boston poet; and
• Olaudah Equiano (1745-1797).
Equiano’s autobiography The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African, Written by Himself (London, 1789) went through nine British editions in only five years and another eight editions in the early nineteenth-century. The library recently acquired the third edition, published within a year of the first. Among subscribers listed is Thomas Cooper, of Manchester, second president of South Carolina College, after whom the library is named.
Displayed with these writings are contemporary sources on the Atlantic slave trade and slavery in the century before abolition (including an engraving by William Blake), contemporary responses to the writings of the three authors (including Thomas Jefferson’s comments on Wheatley and Sancho, a 1789 review of the first edition of Equiano, and a French commentary on his work from 1808), and published documents from British parliamentary investigations and debates, through to the Emancipation Act of 1833. Especially notable among these is an 1808 engraving of Thomas Clarkson’s well-known plan showing how slaves were packed into the ships for the Middle Passage.
All the materials on display come from Thomas Cooper Library’s Department of Rare Books & Special Collections, and many of them have been in the collections since soon after their original publication. Recent acquisitions have been made possible by generous gifts through the library’s Treasures Acquisitions Program (TAP). A related earlier exhibition, on the European encounter with Africa 1500-1900, also drawn from the holdings in Rare Books & Special Collections, is available at: http://www.sc.edu/library/spcoll/sccoll/africa/africa.html.

In connection with this exhibit, Prof. Patrick Scott, Department of English and Director, Rare Books and Special Collections, will give an illustrated talk, “Olaudah Equiano and the Abolition of the Atlantic Slave Trade: Some Rare Books from Thomas Cooper Library and What They Might Tell Us.” Co-sponsored by the African Studies Program and the Department of Rare Books & Special Collections.

In the first Social Foundations’ Colloquium of 2007, Dr. Alan Wieder, Chair of the Educational Studies Department in the College of Education, will discuss his soon-to-be published book, Teacher and Comrade (SUNY Press), focused on one educator’s fight for democracy in South Africa. The title of the colloquium is "Researching & Writing: Teacher and Comrade: A Narrative/Biographical Study of Apartheid Resistance." Co-sponsored by Educational Studies and the African Studies Program.

Dr. Ibro Chekaraou, Coordinator of African Languages at Michigan State University, will give a lecture titled "Education in Africa: Elementary School Teachers' interaction with a bilingual education reform policy in two Hausa-French schools in Niger". The lecture is co-sponsored by the Walker Institute of International & Area Studies, African Studies, Educational Studies, Educational Leadership & Policies, and the Program in Language and Literacy.

As part of the USC School of Law’s 2007 Randolph C. Barnes Symposium, the panel, “Conflicted Societies and Legal Development,” has an African focus. The two panelists who will present on African topics are Professor (Colonel) Cindy Jebb, from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, and Justice Albie Sachs, South African Constitutional Court, Johannesburg. USC African Studies faculty members Joel Samuels (Law) will moderate the panel and Ronald Atkinson (History) will be the commentator.

"Yes, but is it History? Reflections on Historical Archaeology." This event is free and open to the public - Co-sponsors of this public lecture are SC Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology, The African Studies Program, The Walker Institute of International and Area Studies, Departments of Anthropology and Geography, the Institute for Southern Studies, and The Archaeological Society of South Carolina. There will be a reception following the lecture at the home of Ken Kelly, Historical Archaeologist in the Department of Anthropology.

Four undergraduates who have recently traveled to Africa will take part in a panel discussion entitled “Studying and Living in Africa: Four Student Experiences.” The four participants – Denise Dunovant, Shelly Fleming, Jesse Grainger, and Thomas Scott – will talk about some of the reasons they went to Africa, some of the difficulties they faced, some of what they learned and what was positive about their respective trips, and what impact the trips have had on their lives and on the way they view the world. This student-centered event will be of special interest to anyone interested in Africa, and to all those planning on, or even considering, studying abroad, especially outside of Western Europe. Co-sponsored by the African Studies Program, the Walker Institute of International and Area Studies, and USC’s International Programs for Students office.

Dr. David Decker will present a colloquium entitled "Darfur: A Regional and Historical Perspective." Dr. Decker’s academic home is USC Sumter, but he regularly teaches African history and regional geography courses on the Columbia campus as well. He has done extensive archival and field research in Kordofan on Darfur’s eastern border, and knows the region well. His presentation will provide a more in-depth look at Darfur than was possible in the Panel Discussion earlier this month (described above). Co-sponsored by the African Studies Program and the Walker Institute of International and Area Studies

As part of the Solomon-Tenenbaum Lectureship, there will be a panel discussion on Darfur, the Sudanese region torn by conflict and genocide.  The panel discussion is titled, "Darfur: It's Happening Again". Charles Bierbauer, former journalist and dean of the USC College of Mass Communications and Information Studies, will moderate a panel that includes; Prof. Ronald Atkinson of the USC History Department, Prof. Ann Kingsolver of the USC Anthropology Department, Prof. Joel Samuels of the USC Law School, and Prof. Scott Straus of the University of Wisconsin Political Science/International Studies Department, who will discuss genocide and social responsibility in a post-Holocaust world.  This panel is panel is part of the Solomon-Tenenbaum Lectureship hosted by Religious Studies Department at the University of South Carolina.  This panel discussion is co-sponsored by the African Studies Program at the University of South Carolina.

2005-2006

International Law Film Night will screen the award-winning documentary “Long Night’s Journey into Day.” The film examines South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), set up by the post-apartheid government to consider amnesty for perpetrators of political crimes committed during the apartheid regime, and was awarded the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival. A brief introduction will precede the showing of the film and a discussion session will follow featuring Professors Ron Atkinson (Department of History) and Joel Samuels (Law School). Co-sponsored by the International Law Society and Program of African Studies

Dr. Walt Hanclosky , Department of Art, USC, will present a colloquium where he will show his international award-winning film on AIDS in Kenya, “The Key to the Future,” and then discuss his experiences researching the film. Co-sponsored by the Walker Institute of International and Area Studies and the African Studies Program.

Professor Jacques Depelchin, Visiting Fellow, University of California, Berkeley, will present a colloquium, "Is Sustained Peace in the Democratic Republic of the Congo Possible?" Professor Depelchin is at Berkeley on a MacArthur Foundation Program on Peace and International Cooperation Fellowship and is the founder and Executive Director of the Ota Benga Internation Alliance for Peace in Congo.

Dr. Edward Carr, Department of Geography, will present a colloguium, "Local Strategies, Global Implications:  Managing Globalization and Development in Coastal Ghana."  This Colloquium is co-sponsored by the African Studies Program and the Walker Institute.

Dr. Ron Atkinson (Professor of History, University of South Carolina) will present a colloquim on "War, Displacement, and the Issue of Resettlement in Acholi, Northern Uganda".  Co-sponsored by the Walker Institute of International and Area Studies and the African Studies Program.

The Anthropology Department, African Studies Program, and McKissick Museum present "Somali Lenses," a photographic exhibition of work by six Somali Bantu Families. The families participating in the exhibition are from a group of approximately 120 people called the Somali Bantu. As an ethnic minority in Somalia, the Bantu experienced discrimination with limited access to political participation, upper-level employment, and education. In 1991, as part of wide-spread civil war in Somalia, many Somali Bantu were killed and thousands displaced, often to refugee camps in nearby Kenya and Tanzania. All the families participating in this project lived in Kenya's Kakuma camp, where many of the featured children were born.
In 2000 the United States agreed to repatriate approximately 12,000 Somali Bantu to different cities across the country, including Columbia. Lutheran Family Services of the Carolinas set up most families with "co-sponsors," usually religious groups, to assist in the families’ transition and in becoming self-sufficient. Local media followed the story intensely making the Somali Bantu a major topic of interest. The photographs in this exhibit represent just one moment in the lives of these families and reveal connections formed throughout the community.
The exhibition is co-sponsored by The Humanities Council of South Carolina (a state program of the National Endowment for the Humanities), the USC Department of Anthropology, African Studies Program, the McKissick Museum , and Allen University. There will be an o pening reception open to the public, with a talk by Dr. Garane Garane, Allen University.

Ismail Lagardien, A visiting scholar from South Africa and PhD Candidate in the Department of International Politics at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, will speak on "Some Social and Historical Antecedents of Contemporary Inequality in the World Trade Organization: A Critical Realist Response to the Neo-Classical Model".

Ms. Bridget McDonald, a graduate student in the Anthropology Department at the University of South Carolina, will present a colloquium titled "Shifting Representations: The Somali Lenses Exhibition".

Aslam Fataar, University of Western Cape, Fulbright Scholar/University of Illinois. "Educational Renovation in a South African 'Township on the Move'". Sponsored by the Department of Educational Studies and the African Studies Program.

In a second collaboration, the African Studies Program and McKissick Museum will present a photographic exhibition "Sudan: The Land and the People." Sponsored by the Humanities Council SC, the African Studies Program, McKissick Museum, the USC Arts Institute, the Richard L. Walker Institute of International and Area Studies, the African American Studies Program, and the USC Departments of Art, Anthropology, Geography, History, and Political Science.
Drawn from a book with the same title, with text by Timothy Carney and Victoria Butler, the selected photographs by Michael Freeman illustrate the incredible diversity and potential of Africa’s largest and most culturally-varied nation. The goal of this exhibition is to promote understanding and appreciation for the various ethnic groups within Sudan and raise awareness of the enormous cultural diversity and resulting complexity in all regions of the country. Through these images, Freeman illustrates a grand, vast geography from savannahs and swamps to rocky hills and desert.  The authors and photographer visited all the major towns in every region and many remote villages.  Nomads, herders, and farmers, teachers and students, lawyers and doctors, industrialists and laborers – are all featured in this exhibition.  The pictures show Sudanese getting married, having children, and growing old.  They capture Muslims, Christians, and followers of traditional religions.  Freeman’s camera has caught, as former President Jimmy Carter notes in his foreword to the book, "the essential humanity of Sudan."

"Sudan: The Land and the People" is a nationally traveling exhibition from the Meridian International Center in Washington, DC. There will be a talk by photographer Michael Freeman and authors Timothy Carney and Victoria Butler, followed by a reception. The exhibition will also feature responsive works to the exhibition’s content by photography students from USC’s Art Department (on display at the entry to the exhibition) and a poetry workshop focused around poetic responses to the exhibit (date and time to be announced).