Tuesday, April 24, 5:30pm Tuesday, April 24, 7pm

EVENTS CALENDAR
last updated April 23, 2012
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The Newark Museum presents the exhibition,
"Expanding Africa at the Newark Museum: New Visions, New Galleries"
On view through May 2013
Programs associated with the exhibition


SPRING 2012

[January | February | March | April ]

2012
JANUARY
January 18 Wednesday 3:15pm-4:15pm Lucy Stone Hall Room B314 LIV The Department of African, Middle Eastern, and South Asian Languages and Literatures presents a talk by Dr. Gretchen Head (Professor of Arabic, Amideast/Muhammad V University, Morocco) entitled, “Toward a New Literary History of Contemporary Moroccan Arabic Narrative."
January 20 Friday 2pm-3pm Lucy Stone Hall Room B314 LIV The Department of African, Middle Eastern, and South Asian Languages and Literatures presents a public lecture by Yasmine Ramadhan (Columbia University) entitled, “Urban Space, Surveillance, and the State: Reading the City in Sonallah Ibrahim’s The Smell of It and Gamal al-Ghitani’s The Zafarani Files."
January 24 Tuesday 11 am, lunch to follow at 12:30 pm RCHA Seminar Room, 88 College Avenue CAC The Rutgers Center for Historical Analysis' Tuesday Morning Seminar Series presents a talk by Carolyn Brown (RCHA Faculty Fellow; History) entitled, "Slum Yards and Autonomous Settlements: The Radicalism of Informal African Communities, Enugu, Nigeria 1914-1945." If you are planning to attend the seminar, copies of the paper can be requested by email: jet137@rci.rutgers.edu.
January 24 Tuesday 7:15pm Ruth Adams Building 001 DOUGLASS flyer CAS, the Department of Political Science, and the Center for Middle Eastern Studies present a talk by Adebajo Adekeye (Executive Director, Centre for Conflict Resolution) entitled, "The Curse of Berlin: Africa after the Cold War." Special thanks to Sarah Milburn for holding this talk in her "Sub-Saharan African Politics" course (01:079:314/ 01:016:314).
January 27 Friday 2pm-3pm Lucy Stone Hall Room B314 LIV The Department of African, Middle Eastern, and South Asian Languages and Literatures invites you to a public lecture by Yasmine Khayyat (Columbia University) entitled, "Memory in Ruins: Appropriating *Atlal *in Modern Arabic Literature and Culture." This presentation examines the various ways in which the modern Lebanese poem, novel and museum fashion an aesthetic response to decades of war in the region. It demonstrates how ruins, real and imagined, traditional and modern, create a productive tension that underlies the modern memorial poetics of Arab culture.
January 31 Tuesday 11 am, lunch to follow at 12:30 pm RCHA Seminar Room, 88 College Avenue CAC The Rutgers Center for Historical Analysis' Tuesday Morning Seminar Series presents a Narratives of Power talk by Kim Butler (RCHA Faculty Fellow; Africana Studies) entitled, “Pharaohs, Queens and the Beauty of Blackness: Constructing Diasporic Black Identities in Bahia, Brazil.” Evie Shockley (RCHA Faculty Fellow; English) will be the Commentator. If you are planning to attend the seminar, copies of the paper can be requested by email: jet137@rci.rutgers.edu.
FEBRUARY
Office of Multicultural Student Involvement's Black History Month Calendar
February 1 Wednesday 2pm-3pm Lucy Stone Hall Room B314 LIV The Department of African, Middle Eastern, and South Asian Languages and Literatures invites you to a public lecture by Benjamin Koerber (University of Texas, Austin) entitled, “Whispers of the Phantom Public: Combating Rumors in Mubarak’s Egypt."
February 1 Wednesday 8pm Center Hall Busch Campus Center flyer CAS, Undergraduate Education, and Twese present "An African Movie and Dialogue" documentary screening of, Pray the Devil Back to Hell, a film by Abigail E. Disney and Gini Reticker, (USA, 2008, 72 minutes). Pray the Devil Back to Hell is the gripping account of a group of brave and visionary women who demanded peace for Liberia, a nation torn to shreds by a decades-old civil war. The women's historic yet unsung achievement finds voice in a narrative that intersperses contemporary interviews, archival images, and scenes of present-day Liberia together to recount the experiences and memories of the women who were instrumental in bringing lasting peace to their country. Professor Abena P. A. Busia (Chair, Women's and Gender Studies; Associate Director, Center for African Studies; Department of English) will present the film and moderate a post-discussion.
February 3 Friday 3:30pm Lucy Stone Hall, Room B115 LIV The Initiative on Climate and Society together with the Department of Geography are pleased to co-sponsor a seminar featuring: Jesse Ribot (Geography, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign) on Local Democracy Effects of Climate Change Interventions. Malawi, Senegal, and South Africa will be included as examples in the talk.
February 11 Saturday 7pm Livingston Student Center LIV TWESE, Rutgers' largest and oldest African student organization, presents its Annual Fashion Show. Advance tickets, which can be purchased at the Student Activities Center (613 George Street, College Avenue Campus), are $10 for RU students and $12 for guests. The ticket price at the door will be more. For more information contact rutwese@gmail.com.
February 14 Tuesday 11 am, lunch to follow at 12:30 pm RCHA Seminar Room, 88 College Avenue CAC The Rutgers Center for Historical Analysis' Tuesday Morning Seminar Series presents a talk by Edward Ramsamy (RCHA Faculty Fellow; Africana Studies) entitled, "Ethnic Particularity and National Identities: Indian and Zulu Ethno-nationalism in post-1994 South Africa." If you are planning to attend the seminar, copies of the paper can be requested by email: jet137@rci.rutgers.edu.
February 17 Friday 4:30pm Biological Sciences Building, Room 302 DOUGLASS The Anthropology Speaker Series presents a talk by Megan Biesele (Director, Kalahari Peoples Fund, Texas A&M University) entitled, "Conserving San Heritage and Languages: Communities, NGOs and Linguists in Southern Africa." For more information contact rhmurphy@rci.rutgers.edu.
February 18 and 19 Saturday and Sunday Continuing Studies Conference Center 178 Ryders Lane New Brunswick DOUGLASS flyer The 40th Annual Meeting of the North American Conference on Afroasiatic Linguistics will be held at Rutgers. Charles Häberl (Center for Middle Eastern Studies Director and Professor, Department of African, Middle Eastern, and South Asian Languages and Literatures) is the Convener. Please visit the website for the program and for further information. The Rutgers co-sponsors include the Center for Middle Eastern Studies, the Jewish Studies Department, the Bildner Center for the Study of Jewish Life, the Department of African, Middle Eastern, and South Asian Languages and Literatures, and CAS.
February 21 Tuesday 2pm-5pm Alexander Library 4th Floor Teleconference Lecture Hall CAC flyer CAS, the Department of African, Middle Eastern, and South Asian Languages and Literatures, the Office of the Vice President for International and Global Affairs, the Center for Middle Eastern Studies, the Department of Linguistics, the SAS Dean of Humanities, and the Program in South Asian Studies present a program in honor of UNESCO's International Mother Language Day. The program includes: A public lecture by Ekkehard Wolff (Visiting Professor, Adama University, Ethiopia, and Professor Emeritus, Leipzig University, Germany) entitled, “Mother Tongue-based Multilingual Strategies for Education in Africa,” Ousseina Alidou (Rutgers University) will Chair; a panel discussion entitled, “The Politics of Mother Language in Education and Society” with Nuran Nabi ( Plainsboro Councillor), Jyotirmoy Datta (Rutgers University), Charles Haberl (Rutgers University), Daniel Kaufman (Endangered Languages Alliance), Maryam Borjian (Rutgers University) will Chair; a poetry recital by Abena P. A. Busia (Rutgers University); and student performances.
February 24 Friday 9am-5pm Ruth Dill Johnson Crockett Building 1st Floor Conference Room 162 Ryders Lane New Brunswick DOUGLASS flyer The Department of Anthropology, CAS, and the Institute for Research on Women present a symposium entitled, “Gender Justice in Africa: Historical and Comparative Perspectives.” This symposium brings together some of the most innovative scholars at Rutgers and elsewhere working on gender justice in Africa to consider and compare alternative approaches to framing and seeking justice by, for and on behalf of women and men. The presenters in Panel 1's "Colonial Contestations" include Andrea Cornwall (Sussex), Dorothy Hodgson (Rutgers), and Emily Susan Burrill (University of North Carolina); Chaired by Allen Howard (Rutgers). Panel 2's "Beyond Legal Pluralism?" includes Jessica Johnson (Cambridge), Ousseina Alidou (Rutgers), and Barbara Cooper (Rutgers); chaired by Carolyn Brown (Rutgers). Panel 3's "States of Struggle" includes Abena P. A. Busia (Rutgers), Zakia Salime (Rutgers), Pamela Scully (Emory), and Chiseche Salome Mibenge (Lehman/CUNY); Chaired by Omotayo Jolaosho (Rutgers). Rapporteur Susan Hirsch (George Mason) will lead the final discussion, "Perspectives on Gender Justice." Please rsvp to Renee DeLancey (rdelance@rci.rutgers.edu) by February 10 to receive access to the precirculated papers and for the lunch that will be provided. Visitors to Rutgers may park with a permit in lots 71, 71a, and 76.
February 27 Monday 4pm-5:30pm presentation 5:30pm-6:30pm reception Alexander Library 4th Floor Teleconference Lecture Hall CAC flyer CAS, the Center for Inernational Social Work, and the SAS International Programs present a Technologies Without Borders: Technologies Across Borders series program entitled, "Preventing Human Rights Atrocities through Media: Voices of Rwanda." The film's director/journalist Taylor Krauss will present his film. He has recorded guided oral histories of survivors of the Rwandan genocide from childhood to the present. The testimonies include stories of parents, grandparents, proverb and song in order to put the genocide in broader Rwandan context. Educational outreach is central for educating young people about genocide and the conditions that lead to it. Using technology to record, preserve and disseminate victim’s stories, Mr. Krauss’s overall aim is to raise awareness and a global sense of responsibility to preserve human rights.
MARCH
March 5 Monday 3:30pm-4:30pm Lucy Stone Hall Room B314 LIV The Department of African, Middle Eastern, and South Asian Languages and Literatures invites you to a public lecture by Emrah Cakmak (Columbia University) entitled, "From the Congo to Bosphorus: 'The Eminent Fitness of Things’ in Politics and Literature." Abstract: Both Omer Seyfeddin (member of Young Turks, man of letters, soldier and bureaucrat) and Joseph Conrad wrote on horror in Africa, the end of the Ottomans, and the future of Constantinople. The Italian invasion of Ottoman Libya (1911) and the First Balkan War (between the Balkan nations and the Ottoman Empire in 1912-13) inspired both authors. While Conrad was celebrating the closing of the European chapter of Ottoman history, Seyfeddin was still fighting in the Balkans as an Ottoman soldier, writing a diary of war. This paper will examine, primarily through Seyfeddin and Conrad, the intersections between politics and literature in the late Ottoman Empire and in the broader context of colonialism.
March 6 Tuesday 11 am, lunch to follow at 12:30 pm RCHA Seminar Room, 88 College Avenue CAC The Rutgers Center for Historical Analysis' Tuesday Morning Seminar Series presents a talk by Stephane Robolin (RCHA Faculty Fellow; English) entitled, "Local Transnationalism and the Spaces of Black Literature." If you are planning to attend the seminar, copies of the paper can be requested by email: jet137@rci.rutgers.edu.
March 7 Wednesday 4pm-5:30pm, reception at conclusion Alexander Library, Pane Room CAC The Rutgers Centers for Global Advancement and International Affairs and the Rutgers University Libraries as part of the "Technologies Without Borders: Technologies Across Borders" program series present a program entitled, "Digital Divides and Learning Divides: Focus on Africa." With ubiquitous access to the Internet and the proliferation of cellphones, particularly in Africa, many ask, is there still a digital divide? But, not all of Africa is equal. There are many poor countries with inadequate electricity, water, and food, particularly in rural communities, that also lack access to basic education, have high rates of illiteracy and important information is unavailable in agriculture, health, and social services. A panel of faculty, and experts in the field, hosted by Marty Kesselman will discuss the current situation in Africa and how RU is collaborating with the University of Liberia and Cuttington University to advance libraries and education in agriculture and engineering and opportunities for sustainability that can be replicated in other developing countries around the world. After Marty Kesselman's introduction to the theme, we are very fortunate to have as our speakers: Dr. Rodolfo Juliani, Research Professor in the Department of Plant Sciences who will speak about the multifaceted US AID funded project, EHELD (Enhancing Higher Education for Liberian Development) Connie Wu, Engineering Librarian and Laura Palumbo, MSLIS Student who will talk about an Engineering Information Funded project, the EAKO System (Engineering Access to Knowledge Offline) and the unique use of California Digital Library's xtf software to develop subject repositories in any subject that can be accessed without the use of the Internet. Dr. Richard Rowe, Founder and CEO of the Open Learning Exchange (ole.org), that has been very successful in Africa, in particular, Ghana and Rwanda, will talk about his experience in the creation of school and community learning libraries, known as BeLL (Basic e-Learning Library) that can work without electricity via a solar panel or car battery. Refreshments and a Lively Discussion to follow!
March 7 Wednesday 7:30pm-9pm Alexander Library 4th Floor Teleconference Lecture Hall CAC The Journalism Research Institute Colloquium and CAS present a lecture by Dr. Kole Ade Odutola, Yoruba Lecturer at the University of Florida, who will be speaking about his new book, Diaspora and Imagined Nationality: USA-Africa Dialogue and Cyberframing Nigerian Nationhood. The lecture includes a book signing co-sponsored by JRI, his publisher Carolina Academic Press and the Rutgers Barnes & Noble Campus Bookstore. For more information please contact John Pavlik.
March 8 Thursday 6pm-8pm Van Dyck Hall, Room 301 CAC The RU British Studies Center is pleased to present a faculty workshop with Professor Al Howard (Emeritus, History), who will discuss his paper, “Defeat Fascism, Yes -- But How and What Next?: Struggles Over Gender, Class, Race, Ethnicity, Nation, and Policy in the Strategically Vital Port of Freetown, Sierra Leone.” Please RSVP to Kathryn Fisher (kathrynfisher@rbsc.rutgers.edu) to confirm your attendance for catering purposes as well as to request a copy of the paper. A copy of the paper is also available on the British Studies Center's Sakai website.
March 22 Thursday 3:30pm Graduate School of Education Building, Room 124 CAC flyer CAS, the Department of African, Middle Eastern, and South Asian Languages and Literatures, the "Technologies Without Borders: Technologies Across Borders" SAS International Programs Series, and the Graduate School of Education's Department of Learning and Teaching present a talk by Hamadou Saliah-Hassane (Informatics and Computer Networks, TELUQ) entitled, "African Education in a Digital Age."
March 28 Wednesday 4:30pm lecture (reception to follow) Ruth Dill Johnson Crockett Building 1st Floor Conference Room 162 Ryders Lane New Brunswick DOUGLASS flyer The Department of American Studies, SAS Office of the Executive Dean, Centers for Global Advancement and International Affairs, and the Department of Women’s and Gender Studies present a talk by Nicola Cloete (Harvard University Fellow; Lecturer at University of Witwatersrand, South Africa) entitled, "Sincerity, Cynicism and Society: Thinking about Slave Heritage in Cape Town." Nicola Cloete is a lecturer in the Division of Dramatic Art at the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa. She is currently working on her dissertation, which examines the gendered memory politics in representations of slavery in post-Apartheid South Africa. She is the recipient of a Harvard South Africa Fellowship for 2011-12 where she is currently researching feminist methodologies and memory politics. She was also rewarded a Carnegie grant for her dissertation research. Nicola has served as a member of council of the Market Theatre Foundation, a member of the theatre panel for the National Arts Council of South Africa. Her research areas include slave narratives in South African cultural production; film theory and analysis; depictions of national identities; coloured-ness and identity; gender and nation; gender and education and the intersections between gender, race and sexuality. For more information, contact Nicole Fleetwood at nifleet@rci.rutgers.edu
March 30 Friday 1pm-6:30pm Alexander Library 4th floor Teleconference Lecture Hall CAC poster The Center for Cultural Analysis cordially invites you to "Toward a Global Public Sphere?" for the third and final conference in their year-long exploration of "Public Knowledge." Conceived and organized by our CCA Fellows, Jennifer Bajorek and Sam Lebovic, and made possible with the gracious support of the School of Arts and Sciences/the Dean of Humanities, the Whitman Center/the Department of Political Science, the Department of Anthropology, the Office of Undergraduate Education, the School of Communication and Information, the Department of Journalism and Media Studies, the Centers for Global Advancement and International Affairs, the Center for Middle Eastern Studies, and the Center for African Studies, this conference is free and open to the public. From the Arab Spring to Occupy Wall Street, the ongoing globalization and digitization of communication flows have prompted new reflections on the role of mediation, publicity, and transparency in social and political life. Enthusiasts embrace the democratic potential of these developments; skeptics query the extent and implications of a globalized public sphere. This conference will interrogate both the meaning and practice of a globalizing public sphere. What sorts of public knowledge are being created and circulated in such locations as post-colonial Africa and the contemporary Middle East? Do these circuits and practices constitute a public sphere of politically engaged citizens? To what extent should we categorize them as global? And in a world racked by economic inequality and political strife, can we even speak of a global public? 1pm-3:30pm Sean Jacobs, New School Brian Larkin, Columbia Helga Tawil-Souri, NYU 3:45pm-5:30pm Jodi Dean, Hobart and William Smith Tom Keenan, Bard College 5:45pm-6:30pm Closing Roundtable
March 30 Friday 8pm-11pm Douglass Lounge Douglass Campus Center flyer RU Wanawake invites you to join them at "Honoring the African Woman" as they celebrate the accomplishments of great women leaders in the community. Enjoy terrific food, music, and performances including the RU TWESE dance troupe! Admission is free, dress is semi-formal. For more information please contact RU Wanawake.
APRIL
April 12 Thursday 4:30pm Ruth Dill Johnson Crockett Building 162 Ryders Lane DOUGLASS The Institute for Research on Women's Distinguished Lecture Series "(De)Generations: Reimagining Communities" presents a talk by César Braga-Pinto (Spanish and Portuguese, Northwestern University) entitled, "Generation, Degeneration, Miscegenation."
April 16 Monday 1:30pm panel 4:30pm poetry reading Reception to follow Murray Hall 302 CAC flyer English, the Office of the Vice President for Undergraduate Education, CAS, and the Department of African, Middle Eastern, and South Asian Languages and Literatures present a panel and poetry reading by the Poet Laureate of South Africa, Keorapetse Kgositsile. 1:30 Panel on the Poetry of Keorapetse Kgositsile Margo Natalie Crawford (Cornell University) Tsitsi Jaji (University of Pennsylvania) Stéphane Robolin (Rutgers University) 4:30 A Reading by Keorapetse Kgositsile Small reception to follow South Africa’s current Poet Laureate, Keorapetse Kgositsile, is the author of numerous volumes of poetry, including My Name is Afrika, The Present is a Dangerous Place to Live, If I Could Sing: Selected Poems, and This Way I Salute You. A dedicated activist, poet, and educator, Kgositsile is a founding member of the ANC’s Department of Arts and Culture and the Department of Education. During and since his years in exile, he has taught in universities in the United States, Tanzania, Zambia, Kenya, and Botswana. For more information please contact the organizer, Stéphane Robolin.
THIS EVENT WILL BE RESCHEDULED. NEW DATES TO BE ANNOUNCED. April 18 and April 25 Wednesday 7pm-9pm (Refreshments provided 6:45pm) Foran Hall Room 138 COOK The School of Environmental and Biological Sciences' International Science Education Program and the School of Arts and Sciences' Office of International Programs series Technologies Without Borders: Technologies Across Borders present a two-part panel focusing on "Culture and Tradition Considerations in Agricultural Technology Development and Transfer in Sub-Saharan Africa" on April 18 and 25, 2012. For more information please contact Alberty Ayeni: ayeni@AESOP.Rutgers.edu
April 19 Thursday 3:20pm-4:40pm Rutgers Student Center, Room 411 CAC flyer CAS and the African Studies Association present the Seventh Annual African Studies Association Presidential lecture at Rutgers, by ASA President Aili Tripp (Political Science and Gender and Women’s Studies, University of Wisconsin – Madison) entitled, "The Decline of Conflict in Africa: Causes and Consequences." Special thanks to Ousseina Alidou for holding this lecture during her "Women Writers of Africa" course (013:311/016:363/195:363).
April 24 Tuesday 11 am, lunch to follow at 12:30 pm RCHA Seminar Room, 88 College Avenue CAC The Rutgers Center for Historical Analysis' Tuesday Morning Seminar Series presents a talk by Evie Schockley (RCAH Faculty Fellow; English) entitled, "What's Queer About Contemporary Narratives of Slavery? Non-Normative Sexualities in Bloodlines and Slave Moth." If you are planning to attend the seminar, copies of the paper can be requested by email: jet137@rci.rutgers.edu.
April 24 Tuesday 5:30pm-7pm Paul Robeson Gallery or Multipurpose Room 231 350 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. NEWARK flyer The Rutgers-Newark MFA Program in Creative Writing presents the "Writers at Newark Reading Series 2011-2012." The talks by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Uzodinma Iweala, the African writers included in the series, will be held on April 24. For more information contact 973.353.1107. The sponsors include the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/ Department of State, A Partner Agency of the National Endowment of the Arts, administered by the Essex County Division of Cultural and Historic Affairs, the Rutgers English Department, Paul Robeson Galleries, the Institute on Ethnicity, Culture, and the Modern Experience, the Newark Public Library, and the Cultural Programming Committee.
April 24 Tuesday 7pm-9pm Multipurpose Room A Rutgers Student Center CAC flyer CAS, the Association of Concerned Africa Scholars, and the College Avenue Campus Dean present a panel entitled, "Understanding the Kony 2012 Phenomenon, Putting Kony in Context: Get Your Questions Answered Concerning the History and Politics of Africa." Barbara Cooper (History) and Mark Robson (SEBS Dean of Agricultural Programs) are the faculty panelists. Stephanie Furman is the student panelist.
April 25 Wednesday 12pm Wright Rieman Laboratories Auditorium BUSCH The Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences and the Quarternary Studies Program present an EPS Colloquium presentation by Christian Tyron (Anthropology, New York University) entitled, "Late Pleistocene environmental change and human evolution in the Lake Victoria region of Equatorial Africa." For more information contact Eileen Pagnutti-Kish.
THIS EVENT WILL BE RESCHEDULED. NEW DATES TO BE ANNOUNCED. April 25 (2nd of 2 panels; 1st panel April 18) Wednesday 7pm-9pm (Refreshments provided 6:45pm) Foran Hall Room 138 COOK The School of Environmental and Biological Sciences' International Science Education Program and the School of Arts and Sciences' Office of International Programs series Technologies Without Borders: Technologies Across Borders present a two-part panel focusing on "Culture and Tradition Considerations in Agricultural Technology Development and Transfer in Sub-Saharan Africa" on April 18 and 25, 2012. For more information please contact Alberty Ayeni: ayeni@AESOP.Rutgers.edu