African Studies Institute

Executive Committee: Associate Professor of African and African American Studies Kalenda Eaton, Associate Professor of English Rita Keresztesi, Assistant Professor of International and Area Studies Natalie Letsa

The African Studies Institute is an interdisciplinary center that seeks to promote African studies at the University of Oklahoma through the coordination of Africa-related activities across disciplines. The institute is led by an executive committee of faculty from various departments.

The ASI’s recent activities demonstrate its crosscampus collaboration. In fall 2019, the ASI helped sponsor a visit from Shuaib Lwasa (Makerere 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.

In response to the global pandemic, the ASI shifted fall 2020 programming online and focused on the theme of “dual pandemics. ” The institute organized a virtual panel, “Global BLM: African & African Diaspora Students Respond, ” with four student panelists and a student moderator, and 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.