KWASU selected to host Carnegie African Diaspora Fellowship Programme

KWASU selected to host Carnegie African Diaspora Fellowship Programme

In 2014, the Department of History and Heritage Studies of the Institution also hosted an African Diaspora scholar from Arizona State University, Prof. Aribidesi Usman For the second time in three years, the Kwara State University, Malete has been selected by the Carnegie African Diaspora Fellowship Program to host an African Diaspora scholar from the United States to work with on a collaborative project on Curriculum Development and Graduate Student Training and Monitoring. In 2014, the Department of History and Heritage Studies of the Institution also hosted an African Diaspora scholar from Arizona State University, Prof. Aribidesi Usman. The Dean, School of Postgraduate Studies, KWASU, Prof. Mary Kolawole, will lead the latest project, together with Prof. Tanuri Ojaide, a Fellow from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Prof. Ojaide is already on KWASU campus for the collaborative project. The Director of Public Affairs, Institute of International Education, Sharon Witherell, in a statement through the Director, Centre for Innovation and International Studies, KWASU, Willys Santos, was hopeful that the joint project would go well and lay the groundwork for ongoing collaboration. Also, Willys Santos stated that Prof. Ojaide's presence in KWASU will be a welcome addition to the faculty strength and his experience in curriculum development in English and Africana Studies will be a model for what KWASU wants to establish. In addition to these activities, he will train KWASU students in English and other humanities that are available, in Research Methods, as well as mentor the students in their courses and specific areas of dissertation projects. As a writer who has won many awards in poetry and fiction, he will be a great inspiration to the students as writers and scholars. KWASU wants to be part of the global university system whose curriculum and students are exposed to new theories, concepts, and state-of-the-art instruction, and Prof. Ojaide will contribute to infuse the project with these attributes. Prof. Ojaide's gains from this project will also help him as a scholar and writer of many parts to internationalize and diversify his own curriculum at The University of North Carolina at Charlotte and his own Africana Studies Department. The scholar's visit will likely lead to a linkage relationship between Kwara State University and the University of North Carolina at Charlotte that will benefit both universities mutually. The KWASU project is one of 57 projects that will pair African Diaspora scholars with one of 41 higher education institutions and collaborators in Africa to work together on curriculum co-development, research, graduate teaching, training and mentoring activities in the coming months. The collaborating fellow, Prof. Tanuri Ojaide, is one of a total of 169 African Diaspora scholars who have been awarded Fellowships to travel to Africa over the first three years of the program. The projects span all disciplines from agroforestry to e-learning modules for nursing, and from ethnomusicology to military mental health. This innovative fellowship programme facilitates engagement between scholars born in Africa, who are now based in the United States or Canada, and scholars in Africa on mutually beneficial academic activities. The programme is managed by the Institute of International Education in collaboration with the United States International University-Africa in Nairobi through Dr. Paul Tiyambe Zeleza, who chairs the Advisory Council, and is funded by Carnegie Corporation of New York. The Carnegie African Diaspora Fellowship Program Advisory Council, comprised academic leaders from Africa and prominent African Diaspora academics, has remarked on the quick growth, quality, impact and uniqueness of the programme, which allows African universities to take the lead in proposing projects that meet their needs and hosting African Diaspora scholars at their institutions. According to Dr. Zeleza, the Vice Chancellor of USIU-Africa, who chairs the programme�s Advisory Council: "Diaspora knowledge networks that bring together academics across disciplines and help to facilitate scholarly collaboration, faculty and student exchanges, and networking opportunities are an important component of brain circulation. Diaspora academics constitute a critical facet of higher education internationalization. The connections fostered through them ultimately support capacity building and innovation in home and host countries. Unique in its organization, CADFP offers opportunities for truly collaborative, innovative and transformative engagements between African Diaspora academics in Canada and the United States and African higher education institutions in six countries." Public and private higher education institutions in Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda were eligible to submit project requests to host a scholar for 14 to 90 days. Prospective hosts were invited but not required to name a proposed scholar in their project requests. The proposed scholar and project requests were each evaluated by a review committee and were approved by the Advisory Council. Scholars born in Africa who live in the United States or Canada and work in an accredited college or university in either of those two countries were eligible to apply to be on a roster of available candidates. IIE maintains a scholar roster to facilitate matches, according to the discipline specializations, expertise, activities and objectives described in a project request. The fellowship for the project visit includes a daily stipend, transportation, visa funds and health insurance coverage. Eligible universities can submit a project request via the online portal to host a Fellow for projects starting December 1. The application deadline is June 5, 2016 by 11:59 PM EST.

KWASU selected to host Carnegie African Diaspora Fellowship Programme