NEWS & NOTEWORTHY ACHIEVEMENTS

Beverly Mack, Associate Professor of African Studies is completing a new book, entitled, The Popular Songs: Muslim Women's Scholarship and Song in Contemporary Northern Nigeria. "Islam and Citizenship," a Dutch organization has established an annual "Nana Asma'u Community Development Award" in 2002. Beverly presented papers and attended many conferences in the United States. This summer she visited Morocco and Northern Ghana on her field research on African Muslim women

Peter Ukpokodu, Chair of AAAS and Associate Professor of African Studies and Theatre/Film published "African Heritage from the Lenses of African-American Theatre and Film," in the Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism (Spring 2002) pp.65-85. Professor Ukpokodu also published "Review Essay of South African Theatre As/And Intervention," in Theatre Survey (Journal of the American Society for Theatre Research), Vol. 43, No.1 (May 2002), pp.117-124 . "Ngugi Wa Thiong'o," is also an article published by Peter in the Black Drama (Alexandria, VA: Electronic Publishing for Harvard Yale, Michigan and Indiana), 2002.

Student Union Activities (SUA) at KU presented the former President of South Africa F.W. de Klerk for its annual Student Lecture Series, Saturday, April 20, at the Lied Center. The Student Union realized that former President de Klerk is controversial. According to them the lecture was not intended to simply allow de Klerk to speak without any questioning. Therefore, students were offered a 30 minute period of Q&A following the lecture. The ASRC organized a meeting between the Union officials and Walter Bgoya on de Klerk and his visit. The interview was published in the Lawrence Journal World.

Kathleen Korphage and Melanie Naasz, KU students, went to Kenya this summer in a student-initiated program. They spent five weeks studying Kenyan culture in Kenyatta University outside Nairobi. Kathleen studied African textile and Melanie studies Kenyan Music. They are both African studies majors and attend KiSwahili classes. Kathleen received an undergraduate summer research grant for doing photographs that will be compiled in a book on a project about visual stereotyping. Kathleen and Melanie enjoyed their trip very much and hope to find another opportunity to visit Africa.

Byron Caminero-Santangelo, Assistant Professor of English, published "Moving the Center: Ngugi wa Thiong'o's Language Crusade (1990-Present)" in the African Literature Association Bulletin, 28.1 (2001): 82-92. He also published "Subjects in History: Disruptions of the Colonial." in Conrad at the Millennium: Modernism, Postmodernism, Postcolonialism. Boulder: Social Science Monographs, 2002. Distributed by Columbia UP, New York. 427-452. Byron also presented the paper "Shifting Boundaries: The Post-Colonial in/and African Literature," at the African Literature Association Conference. San Diego, CA, 2002.

In June 2002, five KU Africanist researchers led workshops and tutorials in cartography, geographic information systems, and remote sensing techniques at the University of Zambia. Garth Myers was coordinating the program in collaboration with Dr. Imasiku Nyambe of the University of Zambia. Steve Egbert, Terry Slocum, Kevin Price, and Brianna Mercier of the KU Geography department led the workshops and tutorials. Myers also organized orientation sessions for the UNZA faculty who will be coming to Lawrence in late September and October of 2002. Myers, Egbert, Slocum, Price, and Mercier also made site visits to the field research settings proposed in the still-under-review National Science Foundation proposal in which all five str collaboratomg with UNZA faculty members.

The ASRC Research Working Group continues its investigation of the implications of African immigrants' settlement in the US Great Plains. So far, the group includes John Janzen, Garth Myers, Kathy Porsch, Ken Lohrentz, Helen Hartnett, Folabo Ajayi, Saadia Malik, Melissa Filippi-Franz, and Khalid El-Hassan. The group will present a panel discussion for the MAAAS Eighth Annual Meeting in Norman, Oklahoma in September and a roundtable discussion on the topic for the ASA Annual Meeting in Washington DC on December. The group is finishing a grant proposal that will be submitted to the Russell Sage Foundation by September 1

Garth Myers, Associate Professor of Geography and African Studies, has been awarded a Fulbright grant in the Africa Regional Research Program. The award covers 5 months of fieldwork - 2 in Zambia and 3 in Tanzania - during 2002-3. Garth will be in Lusaka during December and January and then splitting his time between Dar es Salaam and Zanzibar in May-August 2003. The title of the project is "Participatory Urban Planning and the Sustainable Cities Program in Lusaka, Dar es Salaam, and Zanzibar." Garth conducted research on the project during his May-June visit to Lusaka on the KU-UNZA exchange project. Garth Myers has published articles this Spring in Area and in Gender, Place and Culture. Both publications benefited from the feedback that came when the works were presented in Hall Center Seminar Series - the former in the Nature and Culture Seminar and the latter in the British Seminar. He will also be presenting a paper, participating in an NSF-sponsored research workshop, and conducting Fulbright research during (and just after) the International Geographical Union meetings in Durban, South Africa, this August. The NSF workshop concerns race, space, and urban development in comparative perspective between US and South African geographers. The paper to be presented contains the basic premises behind the Fulbright, and the interviews are connected to the book project that will come out of the Fulbright research. Since he is looking at the politics of participatory sustainable urban management in the SADC region as a whole, and Durban is a member city in the UN network for Localizing Agenda 21 from the Rio Summit, this will be an exciting combination of activities for Garth.

The outreach conference on the Post-Cold War World, sponsored by KU Area Studies Centers and the Hall Humanities Center, was held at Johnson County Community College, April 13, 2002. The conference featured Walter Bgoya as one of the two plenary speakers.

John Janzen, Professor of Anthropology and Director of the African Studies Resource Center, published The Social Fabric of Health: An Introduction to Medical Anthropology. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2002. He also published "Continuity, Change, and Challenge in African Medicine," In Medicine across Cultures: The History of Non-Western Medicine, ed. Helain Selin. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers. with Edward C. Green. Another publication in 2003 is "Illusions of Home: The Story of Return of a Rwandan Refugee," that will appear in Lynellyn Long & Ellen Oxfeld, eds. Coming Home? Refugees who Return, Univ. of Pennsylvania Press.

Glenn Adams, Assistant Professor in the Psychology Department at KU, published "Toward a conception of culture suitable for a Psychology of 'Cultural'." in M. Schaller & C. Crandall (Eds.), Psychological Foundations of Culture. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. He is also working on "Self and Identity in West African settings," to be submitted to Self and Identity.

Senegalese filmmaker Sembène Ousmane's most recent film, Faat Kine, was shown on campus Monday January 28. Sembène is one of Africa's most important novelists and cinematographers, whose films include Emitai, Guelwaar, Borom Sarret, and Camp de Thiaroye. Faat Kine is a Senegalese comedy/drama in French. This entertaining and critically praised film tells the story of Faat Kine, a Senegalese woman and unwed mother of two children as she climbs the ladder of success in a male dominated field.

Surendra Bhana, Professor of History at KU, is finishing a book manuscript of 9 chapters that will be published soon as The Making of a Social Reformer: Gandhi in South Africa. Surendra visited South Africa from June 19 to July 27 to finalize this project. Professor Bhana will inaugurate the African Studies Fall Seminar Series on the theme of "New Directions in African History: Perspetcives & Methodolgies" on September 12. The title of his presentation is "Gandhi, Indians, and Africans in South Africa"

Joane Nagel, University Distinguished Professor of Sociology will publish Race, Ethnicity, and Sexuality: Intimate Intersections, Forbidden Frontiers, Oxford University Press, forthcoming, 2003. She also published "Masculinities and Nations," in Handbook on Men and Masculinities, ed. M. Kimmel, R.W. Connell, J. Hearn, Sage Publications, 2002. Professor Nagel's other recent publication is "Race, Ethnicity, and Nationalism: Sexual and Symbolic Interactions," Symbolic Interaction, 24, 2001.

"Early Us and Them in Africa," is an exhibit at the KU Museum of Anthropology on early hominids from 6 - 1 million years ago. The exhibit has been open for the public with several guest speakers since March 25. It will continue until Aug. 28.

Elizabeth Asiedu, Assistant Professor of Economics, published a book review on State Legitimacy and Development in Africa by Pierre Englebert in CHOICE Magazine. She also published "On the Determinants of Foreign Direct Investment to Developing Countries: Is Africa Different?" In World Development, 30 (1), January 2002, 107-119. "Ownership Structure in Foreign Direct Investment Projects," is also an article co-authored by Professor Asiedu that appeared in the Review of Economics and Statistics, 83 (4), November 2001, 647-662.

The African Students Association Cultural Show was held on Saturday, April 20th at the Knights of Columbus Hall at 2206 East 23rd Street. As usual the night was very successful. It was well attended by KU students as well as people from Lawrence and Kansas City. As usual delicious African foods and delightful entertainment were presented.

Deborah Gerner and Philip Schrodt, Professors of Political Science, published "Taking Your Academic Expertise Public: Lessons Learned Responding to the 11 September Crisis," in the International Studies Perspectives 3(2), 2002. They also received a National Science Foundation grant, 2001-2003. This summer Misty and Phil organized a big farewell party in their house at Baldwin for Fiona McLaughlin, Leo Villalon, and their family.

Jane Irungu, the former ASRC Outreach Assistant will be the Interim Language Coordinator for the Center. Jane will continue teaching Kiswahili classes and the ASRC is now in the process of recruiting a new outreach coordinator. Last spring Jane gave birth to a lovely baby boy by the name of Mathew. This summer the family moved to a new house in Topeka. Congratulations Jane on all these achievements.

The International Awareness Week was organized on Sunday, April 21, with the kick-off dinner, and ended on Friday, April 26, with the cultural show "Festival of Nations," which was completing its 50th anniversary this year. The week included African dance day performed by the KU Music and Dance Department. It also included "Better International Understanding Using Satellite Imaging," "Cultural/International Diversity at KU," and an International Fashion Show. The events were open to KU students and the entire Lawrence community.

Claire L. Dehon, Professor of French at KState and the Treasurer of MAAAS published Le Réalisme africain. Le Roman francophone en Afrique subsaharienne. Paris: Harmattan, 2002.

Michelle Kuenzi, Ph.D Political Science, Michigan State University, has been appointed for two years to teach African politics and some other courses that Leo Villalon was teaching. She will teach Political Science 665: "Politics in Africa," and 151 "Introduction to Comparative Politics" (Honors). Michele's research interests include Comparative Politics/African Politics (Democratization, Public Opinion, Ethnic Conflict, Political Party Systems, Civil Society/Social Capital, Development Policy), Public Policy and Administration, Research Methodology (Survey Research, Research Design). She has worked in Senegal on grassroots political participation among women, and other topics. Welcome Michelle. We're delighted that you're coming to Kansas!

The ASRC next year's Title VI NRC budget has come through, at $221,925, an increase of $17,576 over last year. The increase is specifically in response to the ASRC's activities in the area that Congressional committee allocated for "increasing the nation's capacity to understand Islamic cultures and states." "NRCs focused on the targeted world areas must use the additional funds to increase their capacity to produce knowledge and human resources (with a high level of foreign language proficiency) on societies 'where Islamic and/or Muslim culture, politics, religion, and economy are significant factors." This means that any activity the ASRC undertake with this extra funding must be over and above what we are already doing.