ANNUAL REPORT 2015-2016
kasc receives NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES grant to share Migration stories The Kansas African Studies Center has received $140,000 in funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities to launch public discussions, community programming, and the creation of educational resources in local communities to discuss the challenges and opportunities surrounding recent demographic changes in the region. With close to 10,000 African immigrants living today in the heartland metropolitan centers of Kansas City, Lawrence, Topeka, Emporia, Wichita and Garden City, a new project entitled “Migration Stories” will facilitate the sharing of migration stories about Africans within Midwestern communities.
into the narrative of the nation even as their stories of migration change that narrative. For those who are a part of host communities, stories about migration are a way to understand the place of new arrivals in their midst, and a way to transform our ideas about what it means to be American. Following our recent public forum and teleconference “Stories About Migration: A Public Forum” (detailed later in this newsletter), future community programming will include humanities workshops in storytelling, poetry, theatre, and visual art. The Center is working with a community partner, the Kansas Humanities Council, to sponsor film and book discussions and research talks. Three KU units, the Hall Center for the Humanities, the Ermal Garinger Academic Resource Center, and the Kenneth Spencer Research Library, are also contributing their expertise to the year-long project that concludes in December. This grant comes from a new program of the National Endowment for the Humanities called “Humanities in the Public Square.” The initiative puts humanities scholars in direct dialogue with the public about some of the most pressing issues of today. For more information or to get involved, visit the project website: www.migrationstories.ku.edu.
These recent demographic changes have particular resonance in the Midwest where increasing numbers of non-traditional migrant groups, including Latinos, Asians, and Africans, now live in communities that are often unaccustomed to large groups of migrants of non-European origin. Although the U.S. celebrates itself as a nation of immigrants, recent immigration is perhaps not as clearly understood as that of earlier periods of our history. Long-term residents are, as such, left without a clear sense of who these new arrivals are and how to include them within the larger local community. The Migration Stories project seeks to gather stories in various forms about both the experience of immigration for Africans and the impact of changing demographics for Midwestern communities. Throughout our history, personal stories have played a crucial role in defining what it means to be American and in illuminating the meaning of America as a country. For immigrants, stories are a way to integrate themselves
www.migrationstories.ku.edu
2015-2016 FLAS Fellows Summer 2016
Academic Year 2016-2017
Graduate Students: Helena Buchmann (French), Arabic Berlin Elgin (African and African-American Studies), Kiswahili Angela Murphy (Rhetoric), Wolof Aminata Seck (Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies), Wolof Emily Smith (History of Art), Arabic Mfon Udoinyang (Linguistics), Kiswahili Peter Vale (UC - Berkeley, History), Kiswahili
Graduate Students: Helena Buchmann (French), Arabic Berlin Elgin (African & African-American Studies), Kiswahili Lindsay Harroff (Communication Studies), Kiswahili Angela Murphy (Rhetoric), Wolof Mfon Udoinyang (Linguistics), Kiswahili
Undergraduate Students: Rebekah Burgweger (Political Science), Arabic Leah Stockton (Elementary Education), Kiswahili
Undergraduate Students: Rebekah Burgweger (Political Science), Arabic Emily Hoy (African Studies), Wolof Daniel Lee (Global and International Studies/ French), Kiswahili Haleigh Peterson (Global and International Studies), Arabic Leah Stockton (Elementary Education), Kiswahili
first ku african language festival a success! On April 14, KASC held the first ever African Language Festival at KU in collaboration with the Department of African and African-American Studies. Held in the The Commons in Spooner Hall, the festival highlighted KU students studying Amharic, Arabic, Haitian Creole, Kiswahili, and Wolof. With over seventy people in attendance, students showcased their language skills through poetry, rap, skits, and more. The high caliber performances elicited praise both at the event and long after, and we hope to make this event the first of many language celebrations. Thank you to the language instructors and students for their participation, and an extra thank you to KASC Faculty Associate Director Peter Ojiambo for spearheading the event.
Program
Above: Kiswahili students David Simon, Tessa Scott, Sierra Upton, and Keenan Gregory teach the audience parts of the body in Kiswahili. Right: Tessa Scott performs “The Traveler.” Far right: Intermediate Amharic student Madison Nigus presents “A Trip to Ethiopia.”
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Amharic: A Trip to Ethiopia Arabic: Friends at a Restaurant Haitian Creole: Encounter with Haiti Kiswahili: Story: Marafiki Watatu; Poem: Amina; Satire: News Report; African Cuisine; Satire: The Drunkard; The Traveler; Witch Doctor; Rap: Parts of the Body/Animals; East African Flags; East African Cuisine Wolof: Familiarizing with Aspects of Senegalese Culture; Polygamy and the Situation of Women in ‘So Long a Letter’; Poem: What’s a Woman?
International Association of African Educators (IAAE) Conference: Erasing Invisibility: Equity, Social Justice and Educational Excellence of Africans in the Diaspora/Immigrants was Erasing Invisibility: Equity, Social Justice and Educational Excellence of Africans in the Diaspora/Immigrants. This conference brought together educators, researchers, students, community activists, and others to begin the work of erasing the invisibility of African immigrants and ensuring their educational and professional excellence, equity, and social justice.
The historic, inaugural conference of the International Association of African Educators (IAAE) was held at the University of Kansas, September 25-26, 2015. Co-sponsored by AAAS, The Commons, IAAE, KASC, CEAS, OMA, OIP, and CGIS, the theme of the conference
Over 60 people attended the conference, including KASC affiliated faculty, students, and FLAS Fellows. Highlights included two keynote speakers: Dr. Rong Xue, Professor of Social Studies Education, School of Education, University of North Carolina, who spoke about “Hitting in Opposite Directions: Adaptive Strategies of Asian Immigrant Students and Black Immigrant Students,” and George J. S. Sefa Dei, Professor of Social Justice Education, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto who gave a compelling talk about “The African Scholar in the (Western) Academy.” The closing banquet included awards and recognition, as well as performances from the KU musical group Asali. KASC was pleased to participate in this successful conference and looks forward to continuing its relationship with the International Association of African Educators.
Conference At A Glance Friday •
African Indigenous Education
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African Culture, Philosophy, Values, and Educational Thought
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Gender, Class, Religion and Language Issues in African Education
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Panel Discussion
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Visionary Session
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Keynote Address and Reception
Saturday •
Education on the African Continent
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African Immigrants and Identity Issues
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Teaching African Immigrants and Refugees
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African Migration and Education, Refugees and Education
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Issues of African Immigrant Student Education in K-12
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African Educators’ Contributions to American Education
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Banquet, Cultural Entertainment, and Awards
Top Left: IAAE Conference attendees converse before the banquet. Middle: Dr. Ukpodoku and keynote speaker Dr. Rong Xue pose for a picture. Above: AAAS graduate student Berlin Elgin and KASC Assistant Director Mackenzie Jones check guests in.
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New KASC faculty Dr. Cécile Accilien African & African-American Studies Cécile Accilien is an Associate Professor of Haitian Studies and Director of the Institute of Haitian Studies in the Department of African and African-American Studies. Her primary areas of interest include Haitian Studies, Gender Studies, and Film Studies. She is the author of Rethinking Marriage in Francophone African and Caribbean Literatures (Lexington Books, 2008).
Dr. Abel Chikanda African & African American Studies, Geography Abel Chikanda is an Assistant Professor of African & African-American Studies and Geography. His main research and teaching interests include migration and development, refugee movement, food security, and the informal sector in Africa. He has held teaching positions at several universities in Canada including Western University, Queen’s University, and the University of Waterloo. Dr. Chikanda is the lead editor (with Jonathan Crush and Margaret Walton-Roberts) of Diasporas, Development, and Governance (Springer, 2016). Dr. Stacey Vanderhurst Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Stacey Vanderhurst is a cultural anthropologist specializing in gender, migration, and governance. She earned a PhD from Brown University and then served as the Jerome Hall Postdoctoral Fellow with the Center for Law, Culture, and Society at Indiana University’s Michael Maurer School of Law. Her current book project examines anti-trafficking programs in Nigeria, including the national politics of women’s migration and the morality of women’s mobility more generally. Dr. Andrew Denning History Andrew Denning’s historical research lies at the intersection of cultural and environmental history and places the study of Europe into its transnational and global contexts. He is currently working on a number of projects that examine Europeans’ relationships to nature, space, and mobility across the globe. One new project, “Driving into the Darkness: Trans-African Automobile Expeditions and the Spectacle of Empire,” examines European attempts to traverse Africa by automobile in the early twentieth century.
Dr. Antje Ziethen French Antje Ziethen is an Assistant Professor of French and Francophone Studies. She specializes in global literature in French, with a particular focus on (urban) space, migration, transnationalism, gender, and modernity. Her research deals with different geographical areas such as subSaharan Africa, the Indian Ocean, the Caribbean, Québec, and Acadia. Antje is currently working on a manuscript tentatively entitled “African Heteropolis,” which reads contemporary novels against the backdrop of the “urban century.”
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event Highlights
KASC Spotlights Dr. Kathryn Rhine Anthropology In her recently published book The Unseen Things: Women, Secrecy, and HIV in Northern Nigeria (2016, Indiana University Press), Dr. Kathryn Rhine uses three years of ethnographic research and over a decade of conversations and work in urban Nigerian communities to illustrate the social and health implications of HIV for women living with the disease.
Retired journalism professor Malcolm Gibson discusses his experiences in African media during an Ujamaa Food for Thought.
As antiretroviral therapies have become more widespread through increased foreign aid and federal subsidies, fatality rates have decreased and fewer women are infecting their children during pregnancy. In her research, Rhine explores how women live meaningful lives with a disease that is no longer a death sentence, but still carries a heavy stigma. The monograph offers a portrayal of northern Nigerian women’s lives which privileges the singularity of their experiences and emphasizes the dignity they seek through discretion. Rhine details the concealment of the disease by women, their counselors, and support group leaders to deflect the stigma, secure respectability, and find love. She shows how HIV disproportionately discredits married women and how the disease is consequently interwoven in the complex tapestry of marriage and family life in Nigeria.
Ibrahima Ba presents “The Syntax and Semantics of Pulaar Causatives” during the Graduate Research Workshop.
Lindsay Harroff takes questions after her presentation on Kenya, “The Intersection of Ethnicity and Politics in the 2007/2008 Post-Election Violence and the Categorization of Genocide” at the Graduate Research Workshop.
flas fellowships from kasc KASC offers funding for the study of Arabic, Amharic, Hausa, Kiswhili, Somali, Wolof & other African languages on request.
Find out more at www.flas.ku.edu.
Helena Buchmann Graduate Student in French Helena Buchmann is a graduate student in French with FLAS awards in Arabic for Summer 2016 and Academic Year 20162017. She graduated from KU with a Bachelor of Arts in French and Global and International Studies with a regional specialization in Africa and a substantive specialization in comparative political and social systems. For her honors capstone in GIST, she analyzed the legacy of colonial abortion legislation on post-independence Tunisia and Senegal, comparing the two countries’ paths to independence and their effects on abortion policy. In one of her honors projects in French, she analyzed the influence of Albert Camus’ perspective as an Algerian pied-noir on his representation of “the Arab” in the novel The Stranger. By studying the Arabic language and the political and social systems of Arabic-speaking countries, Helena hopes to gain a fuller understanding of literature, institutions, and current political and social issues in former French colonies.
Join us at a FLAS info session this fall! Wednesday, November 16 Time: 4:00 p.m. Location: English Room, Kansas Union
Thursday, December 1 Time: 4:00 p.m. Location: English Room, Kansas Union
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Migration Stories: A Public Forum
The Kansas African Studies Center held a public forum highlighting the possibilities for meaningful conversation about immigration through the sharing of stories. The forum was a central component of KASC’s NEH funded project on “Migration Stories” detailed earlier in this newsletter. Held on May 9, 2016 at Unity Temple on the Plaza in Kansas City, almost 100 individuals were in attendance. This community gathering began with presentations by three speakers and was followed by a moderated public discussion on the challenges and opportunities that arise from recent demographic changes in the Midwest. The forum featured: Chris Abani, an acclaimed novelist and poet whose most recent books are The Secret History of Las Vegas, The Face: A Memoir, and Sanctificum. Born in Nigeria, he is a Board of Trustees Professor of English and Comparative Literary Studies at Northwestern University. Garth Myers, a cultural geographer who has forged connections with activists and African communities in the Midwest. A distinguished professor at Trinity College in Connecticut, he offered an overview of recent African immigration to the U.S.
Top: Panel discussion moderator and KASC Interim Director Byron Caminero-Santangelo fields questions. Above: Marta Caminero-Santangelo, Garth Myers, and Chris Abani answer questions during the discussion period.
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Marta Caminero-Santangelo, Professor of English at the University of Kansas, who is an expert on Latino/a migrant experiences and human rights issues. She discussed how migrant youth are redefining what it means to be American by telling distinctly American stories. The forum was moderated by KASC Interim Director and Professor of English, Byron Caminero-Santangelo. Teleconferencing technology connected a remote audience in Garden City, Kansas with the forum in Kansas City. Both communities are hubs of recent resettlement for Africans in the Midwest. A subtitled video recording of the forum is available online for those unable to attend.
get involved: share your story Do you have a story you’d like to share, or know someone that does? Please visit migrationstories.ku.edu for information on how you can participate in this project.
past Event Highlights September 25-26, 2015 Inaugural Conference of the International Association of African Educators (IAAE) “Erasing Invisibility: Equity, Social Justice and Educational Excellence of Africans in the Diaspora/Immigrants” November 4, 2015 Ujamaa Food For Thought: “Twice Married: Women, Secrecy, and HIV in Northern Nigeria.” Katie Rhine, Anthropology
November 18, 2015 Ujamaa Food for Thought: “Troubled Seas of Eastern Africa: Kenya and U.S. Face Insecurity” Hannington Ochwada, History December 2, 2015 Hall Center Resident Fellows Seminar: “Decorative Arts of the Tunisian Ecole: Fabrications of Modernism, Gender, and Class in Tunisia” Jessica Gerschultz, African & African-American Studies
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April 1, 2016 6th Annual KASC Graduate Research Workshop April 14, 2016 African Language Festival May 9, 2016 Stories About Migration: A Public Forum
upcoming events Ujamaa Food for Thought (Lunchtime Lecture) Dr. Abel Chikanda, Assistant Professor of African & African-American Studies and Geography Wednesday, November 16, 2016 12:00-1:00 pm, Bailey 318 Migration Stories Film Screening: “Welcome to Shelbyville” Screening with panel discusssion to follow. Free and open to the public. Monday, September 19, 2016 7:00 pm, Lawrence Public Library
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Support KASC GIVING TO THE KANSAS AFRICAN STUDIES CENTER Your contribution to the Center supports academic activities, outreach, special events, and research programs related to Africa. •
KASC supports the development of new courses on Africa, faculty and student research in Africa, the study of African languages, and the Africana Library at KU.
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KASC promotes knowledge of Africa through academic conferences, seminars, workshops, lunch talks, public lectures, film festivals, cultural performances, exhibits, recitals, and other celebrations.
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KASC offers outreach programs that serve K-16 students and educators, as well as the public throughout the Great Plains region.
Above: KASC Assistant Director Mackenzie Jones distributes information on KASC, FLAS Fellowships, and African languages at the International Jayhawk Festival.
FINAL NOTE: Please go to the KASC website www.kasc.ku.edu to give online, or send a donation marked for the Kansas African Studies Center, to: Gift Processing Department KU Endowment P.O. Box 928, Lawrence, KS 66044-0928
This annual report replaces KASC’s past practice of issuing newsletters twice each year. Many thanks to Byron Caminero-Santangelo for his work as Interim Director of the Center this past year. Liz MacGonagle returns from her leave in August 2016. Kansas African Studies Center University of Kansas @KASC_KU Bailey Hall 201 1440 Jayhawk Blvd. Lawrence, KS 66045 facebook.com/ Phone: 785-864-3745 KansasAfrican Email: kasc@ku.edu StudiesCenter Web: www.kasc.ku.edu
A view from the audience: Over seventy guests attended the first African Language Festival at KU in Spring of 2016. The Festival included presentations from students of Arabic, Amharic, Kiswahili, Haitian Creole and Wolof.