Saint-Louis, Senegal
Kansas African Studies Center’s 7th Annual
Graduate Research
WORKSHOP March 31, 2017 9:30 AM - 4:00 PM Divine nine Room, Kansas Union
Engage. Network. Converse.
Program 9:30-10:00. Light Breakfast and Welcome. Morning Session: Dr. Byron Santangelo, Chair 10:00-10:40. “Gender-based Violence in Namibia.” Mariah Crystal 10:40-11:20. “Transnational Feminism, Women’s Rights Policies, and Advocacy Workers: The Cases of Germany and Senegal.” Angela Murphy 11:20-12:00. “Beneath Kenya’s Image as a Model Democracy and the Failure of the Rule of Law.” Lindsay Harroff 12:00-1:00. Lunch and Further Conversation. You may purchase lunch from The Market (3rd Floor) and bring it to the Divine Nine Room. Afternoon Session I: Dr. Katie Rhine, Chair 1:00-1:40. “Psychosocial Predictors of Eldercare.” Darlingtina Atakere 1:40-2:20. “The Challenges of Administering Healthcare in an Island Setting.” Lia Thompson 2:20-2:30. Short Break. Afternoon Session II: Dr. Glenn Adams, Chair 2:30-3:10. “The Ivory Trade and Conservation Resistance.” Berlin Elgin 3:10-3:50. “David Walker and the African roots of Ancient Egypt.” Lukas Alsmeier 2
abstract Gender-based Violence in Namibia Mariah Crystal Department of Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies This topic of this presentation will be gender-based violence in Namibia. The presentation will combine research from several Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies courses which examine the dynamics of gender equality and gender-based violence. The work will examine historical aspects such as colonialism, apartheid, and genocide in the context of modern-day Namibia and the country’s very high rates of gender-based violence. The presentation will explore the ways that Namibians have been marginalized throughout the process of German colonialism and occupation, the implementation of apartheid rule under South Africa, the genocide of the Herero and Nama tribes, and how these historical legacies continue to affect Namibians today. Have they contributed to Namibia’s epidemic of gender-based violence? Furthermore, how have these phenomenon shaped, influenced or marginalized Namibian identities? Current Namibian laws and policies will be used as a case study within which to better understand dynamics of gender equality or inequality in Namibia, and the current climate of social justice in terms of gender equality.
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abstract Transnational Feminism, Women’s Rights Policies, and Advocacy Workers: The Cases of Germany and Senegal Angela Murphy Department of English My presentation is about a qualitative research project that arose from questions I had about the relationships between policies about women’s rights and the people who engage in women and gender advocacy work on the ground. By studying policies that describe or define women’s rights and analyzing them with references to people engaged in women’s rights advocacy work in two countries, Germany and Senegal, this study explores how women’s rights are constructed and enacted at multiple points in the transnational system of women’s rights. Connecting transnational feminism and public policy, this project provides insight into the relationships between policies at multiple levels of global governance and the relationships between the experiences of advocacy workers in Germany and Senegal. Conducting research in these two countries, Germany and Senegal, was a way to combine my interest in African Studies and my experience with German Studies. I realized that if I could analyze policies from both countries as part of a larger framework about women’s rights and spend time with people working for non-profits and NGOs in both countries, I would have the opportunity to contextualize the relationship between rhetoric and social action in the process of women’s rights advocacy.
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Abstract Beneath Kenya’s Image as a Model Democracy and the Failure of the Rule of Law Lindsay Harroff Department of Communication Studies Almost since gaining independence in 1963, Kenya enjoyed an international reputation as a model democracy on the African continent. Despite regular punctuations of violence in response to deeply embedded social and political inequities, as well as well-documented human rights abuses, this image persisted. Tracing the development of this reputation, and its consequent destruction with the 2007/2008 Post-Election Violence, in international development discourse, demonstrates Kenya’s reputation was predicated on an emphasis on democratic processes and institutions, rather than substance and outcomes. Turning to the discourse following the post-election violence, particularly in the work of Kenya’s Truth, Justice, and Reconciliation Commission and its new constitution passed in 2010, I demonstrate how this tendency to focus on the existence of structures and institutions continues through an emphasis on the rule of law as the central component of political development and suggest how this rationality has challenged attempts at social and political transformation in Kenya.
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abstract Psychosocial Predictors of Eldercare Darlingtina Atakere Department of Psychology (coauthored by G. Adams, PhD) Life in Eurocentric global modernity emphasizes neoliberal individualist understandings of relationality associated with a sense of voluntary connection and freedom from obligation. Although people in their (re) productive prime may find these constructions of relationality to be liberating, their negative consequences are more evident for people—like elders—whose well-being depend on care from others. We investigated these ideas about conceptions of relationality and patterns of elder care in a study of N = 455 participants from Ghanaian and U.S. settings (both European American and African American) characterized by relatively less and more engagement with Eurocentric global modernity. Participants responded to items assessing knowledge, belief, and perception of eldercare; anxiety about aging; and additional social and ecological characteristics. Results indicated that age, marital status, and contact with a grandparent as a child were associated with integrative care. Moreover, evidence for an integrative approach to eldercare was more evident among Ghanaian participants than American participants. We discuss implications of results for theories about relationality and for evolving patterns of elder care.
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abstract The Challenges of Administering Healthcare in an Island Setting Lia Thompson Department of Anthropology An economically vulnerable archipelago, Mafia Island, off the coast of Tanzania, has very different health challenges in comparison to its more frequented sister island, Zanzibar. The circumstances of the island render it a difficult place to administer healthcare, with it having only one hospital, a few village clinics, a constant shortage of supplies, and a consistent lack of resources. Through ethnographic research, I would like to explore the challenges of being a doctor and/or healthcare professional on Mafia Island. I intend to consider how different factors, including but not limited to mobility between islands, policy, ecology, economics, education, ethics and morality, food insecurity, the role of traditional medicine, etc., may influence the overall health of the community and the healthcare professionals ability to do their job.
The Ivory Trade and Conservation Resistance Berlin Elgin Department of African & African-American Studies Elephants are a keystone species and are, therefore, needed for the sustainability of life in Eastern Africa. The poaching of elephants in Eastern Africa for ivory is dwindling the population numbers, and the regions in which elephants no longer reside have been negatively affected because of this change. Resistance to conservation areas has also affected elephant population numbers, and has deep rooted ties to colonialism. The illicit trade of ivory, mainly to Southeast Asia, occurs because of illegal networks beginning on the African continent. Activists have spoken out around the world against the sale and trade of ivory, as well as for conservation in Africa, but until demand is curbed in Southeast Asia, illicit networks will continue to thrive. Although conservation efforts began as a naively positive endeavor in the early 1900s, the negative impacts of taking land from East African people in order to create tourism ventures has continued to impact conservation resistance movements and land rights issues for rural communities in Kenya and Tanzania.
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abstract David Walker and the African roots of Ancient Egypt Lukas Alsmeier Graduate Direct Exchange Department of History, Kiel University, Germany In his “Appeal [...] to the Colored Citizens of the World” African-American writer David Walker made the claim that the people of ancient Egypt were black. He did that in order to achieve two things: First and foremost, Walker wanted to point out that the slavery in the Americas was the most cruel one in human history. He was well aware that there was precedence for slave-owning societies before the creation of the transatlantic slave trade. Yet, according to Walker, the Egyptian captivity of Moses and his people was not as cruel as slavery in the United States, since the Egyptians treated their slaves with at least some human decency, whereas slaves in the Americas were not treated as humans. Also, people like Thomas Jefferson never failed to mention the “racial inferiority” of colored people and thus to justify slavery. However, to me, it still remains unclear to a certain extent why Walker insists on the African heritage of the Egyptian civilization, since regardless of the somewhat humane treatment of Moses and his people, ancient Egypt was still a slave-owning society. Therefore, I hope to examine in my research project why David Walker would make such a claim. This is part of an ongoing debate still today about cultural exchanges in the eastern Mediterranean in the second millennium b.c.e. Martin Bernal used Walker’s appeal as one example for the knowledge of what he calls the ancient mode of the Afroasiatic roots of Classical civilization. Thus, in a second step, I seek to analyze which role Walker’s appeal plays in Bernal’s argument.
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