CIS RESEARCH CENTERS UPDATE The College of International Studies houses nine thematic or regional centers and institutes that foster crosscampus collaboration on research and outreach as well as international partnerships. As the following summaries make evident, collectively, the centers and institutes elevate the presence and role of the College of International Studies on campus, in the state of Oklahoma, nationally and internationally. Additionally, each of the centers/institutes navigated adaptation to the pandemic gracefully and effectively, utilizing online delivery to innovate and to broaden the reach of their activities.
AFRICAN STUDIES INSTITUTE The African Studies Institute is an interdisciplinary center that seeks to promote Executive Committee (from left): Associate Professor of African and African African studies at the University of Oklahoma American Studies Kalenda Eaton, Associate Professor of English Rita Keresztesi, Assistant Professor of International and Area Studies Natalie Letsa through the coordination of Africa-related activities across disciplines. The institute is led by In response to the global pandemic, the ASI shifted an executive committee of faculty from various fall 2020 programming online and focused on the departments. theme of “dual pandemics.” The institute The ASI’s recent activities demonstrate its crossorganized a virtual panel, “Global BLM: African & campus collaboration. In fall 2019, the ASI helped African Diaspora Students Respond,” with four sponsor a visit from Shuaib Lwasa (Makerere student panelists and a student moderator, and University, Uganda), who gave a talk in the College of Geographic and Environmental Sustainability, as well as an African music event
with Balafon Master Tijan Dorwana, who visited from Ghana. In November, the ASI put together a roundtable, “Youth and Protest in Africa,” with OU professors and students from the Honors College, Gaylord College of Journalism and CIS. In spring 2020, the ASI brought to campus George Paul Meiu from Harvard for a talk on Kenya titled “Under the Layers of Citizenship.” In March the institute organized a panel, “Arts in Contemporary Africa,” featuring four OU panelists from the College of Arts and Sciences and the School of Music, Weitzenhoffer Family College of Fine Arts.
held a virtual talk, “Essential Workers, Covid-19, and the African diaspora,” featuring Fumilayo Showers (University of Connecticut) and Faranak Miraftab (University of Illinois). In the past year, the ASI launched new studentoriented initiatives, including a $500 student research grant (the first was awarded in spring 2020 to Robert Bob Okello), as well as a $1,000 student internship award to fund research assistance for an ASI affiliate faculty member. In fall 2020 the first award went to Thomas Fenn (Department of Anthropology) and his RA Ian Miller, a sophomore anthropology and economics major.
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