African Studies Highlights

A Rhodes Scholar and student leader, U of T grad Ikran Jama brought her community into the classroom. Read the article on U of T News

Michel Chikwanine’s inspiring journey and his tireless advocacy for peace and human rights were recently recognized with a Global Impact Award presented by the University of Toronto African Alumni Association during its annual African Scholars Awards ceremony.  Read the full article on A&S News

Read African Studies Director Marieme Lo’s message to graduates here

Read African Studies Director Marieme Lo’s message to graduates here

Following the success of our inaugural edition, we are excited to announce that volume 2 of Elimu,  The African Studies Program Undergraduate Journal, is out.  

Congratulations to all the contributors and the Elimu Editorial Team for your brilliant work!

Volume 2, 2020

We are excited to announce the 2020/2021 ASCU executive team. We look forward to a great year and are excited to aid students in whatever way possible. If you have any questions, please feel free to dm us or email us at asc.union@gmail.com. Read more.

Please join us in congratulating Dr. Khalid Ahmed on being chosen as one of the recipients of the Superior Sessional Instructor Teaching Award for 2019-2020 by the Faculty of Arts and Science. Dr. Ahmed was nominated by many current and former students, and supported by the nomination endorsement of the Director of the African Studies Program.

Thank you to all students who put forward nomination letters! Please join us in congratulating Dr. Ahmed on his achievement.

Bio

Ahmed received his Ph.D. in 2018.  The committee noted he is currently working on two book manuscripts, and has had one article accepted in Peace Review.  He has participated in several high-impact conferences over the past few years.  Most notably, he was a participant in a large conference on the Sudanese Revolution in 2019, which received Youtube coverage.  Of note is his past participation in several community and international organizations that inform the candidate’s teaching, most recently including Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Warden Woods Community Centre (2011-2017), the Peace and Security Council in the African Union, Project Ploughshares/African Peace Forum, and the UN Development Program in Sudan in 2007.  In this last role, he drafted the UNDDR Public Information and Strategic Communication Policy Guidelines- Sudan, and was responsible for all key media contacts. He has been interviewed by the Real News Network on recent peace efforts in Sudan. 

As a graduate student, he was the recipient of the Alumni Association of Woodsworth College Alumni Recognition Award, the Royal Bank Graduate Fellowship in Public and Economic Policy, and the Canadian International Development Agency “Student for Development” Fellowship,  funding work with the UNDP in Khartoum, Sudan, as well as the Hamm Shannon Award and William Beattie Award funding fieldwork on peace and development initiatives in Sudan.  Dr. Ahmed is also  the recipient of  the Kathleen O’Connell Teaching Award at New College (2019).   His extensive fieldwork and practical professional experience in policy-making internationally and in Toronto enrich his teaching and help students navigate different scales of policy arenas and analyze the relationship between theory and practice as well as evaluate knowledge gaps. He has taught as a sessional in African Studies at New College since 2012. 

At Woodsworth College, as a member of the council, he participated in discussions about WDW ONE and undergraduate policy, and is thus familiar with discussions about how to support academic transitions into university.  He was the recipient of the Peter Bronfman Award in 2006, recognizing volunteer services with Accessibility Services.

Binta is a doctoral candidate working with Dr. Marieme Lo, and Chair of the WGSI Graduate Student Union which has done amazing work this past year. Binta is also being specially recognised in African Studies for her amazing work mentoring African Studies and Black undergraduate students. Read the full story here.

African Studies’ student Dereck Sakyi-Oduro, one of the recipients  of  the 2020 Faculty of Arts and Science Undergraduate Research Fund for his project: “Public Discourse and Queerness in Ghana”

Mohamed Ali, Recipient of the Queen Elizabeth Scholarship, Kenya, 2019

Rafique van Uum, Recipient of the Queen Elizabeth Scholarship, Rwanda, 2019

Judy Androsoff, Recipient of the University of Toronto Nelson Mandela Scholarship Award, 2019-2020

Please see the video for a special performance of “Young, Gifted and Black” by Nicki Lawrence, and messages of congratulation from Debora Oresajo, Jessica Rayne, Adriana Williams, Dr. Marieme Lo (Director, African Studies), Njoki Kamau, Ike Okafor (New ’03), Apefa Adjivon and Tijuana Turner). 

We are delighted to announce that Dr. Khalid Ahmed is the winner of the 2018-2019 Kathleen O’Connell Teaching Excellence Award. This award honours outstanding teaching and recognizes the important contributions made by sessional instructional staff to the teaching mission of New College in its academic programs, interdisciplinary courses and writing centre.  

Dr. Ahmed is a Lecturer of Political Science in the African Studies program, University of Toronto. In addition, he is the Secretary General of the Sudanese Canadian Human Rights Organization in Toronto and the former Chair of the board of directors at Warden Woods Community Centre. He is the winner of numerous awards including Canada’s prestigious Canada Graduate Scholarship.

Through his research, professional policy experience, and extensive fieldwork Dr. Ahmed has made connections between global, regional, and local power imbalances and their detrimental impact on peacemaking as well as on economic, political, and social development in Africa and the Middle East. His forthcoming books are The Impact of Geopolitical Interests on Peace Negotiations: A Critical Analysis of the Role of Superpower Mediation in Civil Wars in Africa (Vernon Press: Wilmington, DE, USA) and Mediation and Peacebuilding: The Missing Link (McGill-Queen’s University Press)

As a teacher, Dr. Ahmed has earned high praise from his students. His teaching philosophy is predicated on Transformative Learning which is about challenging universal norms, uplifting the subaltern, and igniting action. He has taught a diverse range of courses including NEW357HF: The Horn of Africa: Critical Perspectives, NEW452: Negotiating Peace in Africa, NEW359: Humanitarianism Industry in Africa, NEW353: The International Relations of Africa, POL447: Political Economy of Development, POL412: Human Rights, and IFP90: Challenges to Global Equity. 

This year, twenty-five students, faculty, staff and alumni were celebrated for their achievements and leadership recently at the third annual African Scholars Awards ceremony.  New College would like to congratulate two members of the college’s African Studies Program who were honoured at this year’s award ceremony. 

Professor Marieme Lo, director, African studies program, associate director for education at School of Cities and associate professor in African studies and women and gender studies, was presented with the Influencers’ Award. 

Mariam Olafuyi, a New College African Studies Senior Doctoral Fellow, received the Emerging Academic Award.  Olafuyi is a doctoral candidate at U of T’s Faculty of Law whose thesis is focused on economic integration in Africa and the role of non-state actors like businesses and non-governmental organizations in the unification of economic policies.  She is also the founder of GetIn, an education consultancy firm based in Nigeria that equips young people from underrepresented backgrounds with the skills and knowledge required to access quality education.

The awards, created by the University of Toronto’s African Alumni Association, recognized the largest group of winners yet – across seven categories and in fields ranging from social entrepreneurship and theatre to medicine and law.  Congratulations to all the 2019 African Scholars Award recipients! 

Click here for more details on the awards ceremony and a list of all the award winners.

Elimu is an undergraduate student-led and edited journal for cutting-edge scholarly works revolving around the study of Africa and its diaspora from students both in African Studies and across a variety of disciplines. We intend to showcase critical and interdisciplinary perspectives on Africa in a multipolar and globalized world, challenge the dominant narratives of our continent, and provide a platform for new generations, trends, and theorizing emerging out of African Studies and African scholarship. While this journal prioritizes work from students in our program, we also encourage academic, artistic, and creative submissions from the University of Toronto tri-campus and beyond.

The journal is also available on the U of T website and journal system: https://jps.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/elimu

African studies and political science grad Edil Ga’al intends to pursue a master of science in African studies at Oxford followed by a doctor of philosophy in political science. Read more at U of T News

Dickson Eyoh and Chizoba Imoka are two of the recipients of this year’s African Scholars Awards. Dr. Dickson is a core African Studies faculty member and the program’s former director, while Chizoba was New College’s Senior Doctoral Fellow in African Studies in 2017-2018.

Chizoba, a Ph.D. candidate at OISE, also received the emerging academics award this year. “Forums like this are really important . . . for providing space for us to be able to acknowledge the things that matter in our community and acknowledge the people who are actively engaged,” she said about the honour.

“We are creating a new culture, appreciating African alumni who have done distinguished work in their communities and within the university,” said Henry Ssali, founder and executive director of the African Alumni Association and the office assistant in the office of U of T’s President Meric Gertler. “It’s something people have been yearning for and are excited it’s continuing at U of T.”

Also recognized with an African Scholars Award were the following alumni and community members:

• Emmanuela Alimlim, recently completed an undergraduate degree in Economics; MasterCard Foundation Scholar (Woodsworth)
• Eugenia Duodu, alumna and advocate for education and engagement in STEM
• Nana Adwoa Frimpong, a former vice-president of equity for U of T Scarborough’s Students’ Union and co-president of the African Students’ Association
• Kofi Hope, Rhodes Scholar and U of T alumnus who attended Innis College in the Faculty of Arts & Science. Hope is now the Bousfield Distinguished Visitor in Planning and strategic consultant to the vice-president, human resources and equity
• Salma Hussein, alumna who was an executive member of the Muslim Students’ Association

• Ahmed Hussen, federal minister of immigration, refugees and citizenship
• Fatima Kamenge, alumna, entrepreneur and community leader  
• Souleik Kheyre, Somali-Canadian researcher and community organizer, as well as a U of T alumna 
• Walied Khogali, who went to U of T Mississauga and was a candidate for Toronto city councillor
• Alfred Majak Maluach, recently completed his master’s in Pharmacology and the collaborative program in Biomedical Toxicology
• Isaac Olowolafe Jr., alumnus, real estate broker and philanthropist
• Chika Stacy Oriuwa, medical student and spoken word artist  
• Njoki Wane, chair of the department of social justice education at the University of Toronto’s Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE)

Read more and view the full list of recipients in the U of T News article about the 2018 African Scholars Awards.

The course – African Systems of Thoughts (NEW351) – is devoted to foundational thinking about issues relating to genocide, as well as African thought in many different forms from cosmology to ethics to language, politics and government. Read more on A&S News

Please join us for presentations by students who participated in the NEW352 (African Studies) international course module to Cameroon.

Convener:

Prof. Marieme Lo

Presenters:

Protecting Cameroon’s Future:
The Government’s War Against High Rates of Child Labour and Youth Unemployment
by Adiam Abraham

The Nexus between Sustainable Livelihoods and Conservation Management:
Incorporating Women into Structures of Environmental Governance in Cameroon
by Charlotte Connolly

Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation Initiatives:
Does Gender Matter?
by Alfred Maluach

Illegal Wildlife Trafficking in Cameroon:
Exploring Its Implications on Environmental and Human Security
by Chase McNabb

Challenges to Conceiving, Implementing and Monitoring Environmental Projects:
The Case of International Organizations in Yaoundé, Cameroon
by Lebo Radebe

Examining the Relationship between Climate Change and Labour Geographies from a Gendered Perspective
by Fern Ramoutar

The Gendered Impacts of Climate Change in Cameroon:
Gender Mainstreaming and Development Policy
by Emma Sanchez-Swaren

Indigenous Communities, Climate Change and Conservation in Central Africa:
The Case of Cameroon
by Nina Umanec

Acknowledgements:

Thanks to the Faculty of Arts & Science’s International Programs and Partnerships, the government of Cameroon, the United Nations Development Programme, UN Women, World Bank, the World Health Organization, World Wildlife Fund, International Labour Organization, International Union for Conservation of Nature, University of Yaoundé 1, the Mefou community and New College.

Date: March 19th, 2015
Start Time: 4:00pm
Location: Wilson Hall Lounge, 40 Willcocks Street, Toronto, ON
Contact: Prof. Marieme Lo
E-Mail: marieme.lo@utoronto.ca