News and Noteworthy Achievements

By: Khalid El-Hassan

John M. Janzen, ASRC Director and Professor of Anthropology received the 2003 Balfour Jeffrey Research Award in Humanities and Social Sciences in recognition of his work in medical anthropology and African Studies. He was one of four Higuchi Research Achievement Award recipients recognized annually by the KU Endowment Association among faculty and researchers at Kansas public universities.

Garth Myers, ASRC Associate Director and Associate Professor of Geography, received recognition awards from the Office of International Programs and Phi Beta Delta for establishing the affiliation with the University of Zambia through a grant from the State Department Public Affairs Division. Garth has had a busy fall term. He returned from three months of fieldwork in Tanzania on a Fulbright the day before classes started, and then returned to London for the Institute of British Geographers annual meeting during the first week in September. After a family reunion in Arizona for Thanksgiving to celebrate his father’s 80th birthday, in early December, he went to Auckland, New Zealand, to present a part of his Fulbright research results to the International Conference of Historical Geographers. If only some ploy would present itself by which he could connect his Eastern and Southern Africa research to a comparative study with New Zealand, to help speed his return to the land of the Lord of the Rings. In between the travel and teaching, Garth managed to get two articles to the “forthcoming” stage, one in the Canadian Journal of African Studies, and the other, a piece co-authored with Wilma Nchito from the University of Zambia that will appear in Urban Forum. The Department of State Zambia grant comes to a formal close in July 2004, but Spring 2004 will bring Simasiku Simasiku (for a full semester) and Imasiku Nyambe (for six weeks) to KU, and Summer 2004 promises a contingent from KU visiting Lusaka (Byron Caminero-Santangelo, Brian Daldorph, Liz MacGonagle, and Garth). Garth and his colleagues also are very hopeful about a USAID grant we submitted in October to extend the KU-UNZA link for two more years.

Robert Mark Timm, Associate Professor of Systematics & Ecology, and Associate Curator, Natural History Museum, also received the Office of International Programs recognition award and a Phi Beta Delta award, for his participation as one of several lecturers of the new South Africa spring semester program organized by the Organization for Tropical Studies headquartered at Duke University (KU is an institutional member). The program features four courses in ecosystems of southern Africa and the culture and history of South Africa. The course is filled for spring 2004, but KU students are urged to apply for spring 2005.

Iwake Masialeti, a full-time lecturer on leave from the University of Zambia’s department of geography, is a Fulbright fellow pursuing a doctoral degree in geography at KU. Masialeti holds a bachelor’s degree in geography and development studies attained at the University of Zambia, and master’s degree in rural and land ecological survey, attained at ITC, the Netherlands. His interest lies in the management and sustainable utilization of the natural resources, with particular focus on the application of remote sensing (RS) and geographic information systems (GIS) in land-use and land-cover dynamics and modeling.

As a lecturer and researcher, Masialeti has participated in both national and regional projects dealing with the use of RS/GIS in natural resource monitoring and community participation in environmental issues. Upon completion of his Ph.D., Masialeti hopes to return home and continue with his teaching and research responsibilities in rural geography, RS/GIS and cartography. He is married and blessed with three kids. Welcome Iwake!

Regan Buck Bardeen, B.A. History May 2003, has been awarded a $25,000 Rotary scholarship to the University of Ghana for the coming academic year. She graduated with honors in History in May 2003, writing an honors thesis on Onitsha market literature. Among other KU Africanists including Liz MacGonagle, Ken Lohrentz, and Joy Wrolson, Regan presented her thesis work in a brownbag and for the audience of the MAAAS conference on teaching Africa held here in Lawrence last October.

Mohammed Buba Marwa, a Nigerian leader was the 2003 award winner of the Center for Multicultural Leadership at KU. Marwa is a former governor of Lagos state, the founder of Albarka Airlines and chairman of the Nigerian Defense Corporation. The Department of African and African American Studies at KU organized a very successful ceremony for honoring Marwa on Tuesday October 15, 2003 at the Kansas Ballroom in the Kansas Union. Provost Schulenberger attended the ceremony along with a large gathering of KU Africanists and citizens from the Lawrence community. Dr. Marwa generously offered the Department a gift of $25,000 for a new lecture series at KU. The lecture series entitled “The Marwa African Lecture Series” will critically examine political and economic leadership in Africa. Aminu Gusau, Lecturer of Hausa at KU was a major factor behind the success of this event.

Jessica Cook, a KU junior studying African Studies and Sociology will go to Senegal in a study program sponsored by the Council on International Educational Exchange (CIEE). The program starts on January 18, 2004 and ends in May 2004. Jessica may stay for the summer to continue working with the NGO she interns with, and to perhaps do some research, as she plans to apply for the Undergraduate Research Award at KU. The study will be in Dakar at the Baobab Center, which is a cultural resource organization and training center operated by African Consultants International, a non-profit founded in 1984. Basic language classes, cultural classes, as well as CIEE courses are taught there. Jessica will also do an Internship with a local NGO/non-profit organization. She will live with a host family. Many thanks to Dean Diana Carlin, Associate Dean Carl Strikwerda, Melissa Birch, and the Study Abroad Office at KU for their generous support for Jessica’s trip to Senegal.

Madior Diouf, member of the Senegalese Parliament and Professor of Literature at the University of Cheikh Anta Diop in Dakar, Senegal and former Minister of Higher Education, will be spending time this spring in Lawrence. Professor Diouf is the father of Selbee Diouf, a Ph.D. student at KU in English. Although his visit will be a private visit to Selbee, he is willing to talk to classes and seminars at KU. He will also be involved in meetings and discussions in favor of promoting our existing exchange program with Senegal.

Abdirahman Gutale is a KU undergraduate student from Somalia majoring in Political Science with a co-major in International Relations. He was awarded a Constituency for Africa internship with New York Congressman Elliot Engle from New York State’s 17th Congressional District. Congressman Engle serves on the House of RepresentativesForeign Relations Committee and will give Abdirahman a great opportunity to learn about how American foreign policy operates on the Congressional level. He will also be able to observe the political and policy process of the legislative part of the government of the United States. Abdiarahman will also have the opportunity to meet former Senator Dole and current Kansas Senators Brownback and Roberts. Constituency for Africa is an advocacy group that tries to mobilize and foster cooperation and coordination among a large number of American and African organizations and individuals that will help empower and advance African peoples. Abdirahman will be working on five projects during his internship and these will include U.S. foreign policy on Africa, HIV/AIDS, Africa Trade and Investment policy, an internship workshop and embassy visits. The internship workshop will include weekly seminars, various lectures, visits, and briefings.