Every Wednesday at noon — since 1973! — African Studies Program faculty, students, and community members have gathered for AFRICA AT NOON, a one-hour weekly lecture series bringing diverse African research from scholars around the world to a campus and community audience.
Complimentary coffee and tea is routinely served and bagged lunch is welcome. Check out the full spring 2018 line up below and join us weekly at 206 Ingraham Hall.
SEPTEMBER 5
Fall Semester Welcome Featuring Nancy Kendall
Nancy Kendall
Incoming African Studies Program Faculty Director
University of Wisconsin-Madison
SEPTEMBER 12
“A Perspective on the ‘Forever’ Presidents of the Great Lakes Region of Africa”
Russ Feingold
United States Senator 1993-2011
U.S. Special Envoy to the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the DRC 2013-2015
SEPTEMBER 19
“African Religion and the Haitian Revolution: The Case of Romaine-la-Prophetess”
Terry Rey
Professor and Chair of Religion
Temple University
SEPTEMBER 26
“Building Bonds for Conservation: 20 years in the Salonga National Park, Democratic Republic of Congo”
Gay Edwards Reinartz
Director of The Bonobo and Congo Biodiversity Initiative
Coordinator for the Zoological Society of Milwaukee
OCTOBER 3
“Jah Kingdom: Rastafarians, Tanzania and Pan Africanism in the Age of Decolonization”
Monique Bedasse
Assistant Professor of History and African and African American Studies
Washington University, St. Louis
OCTOBER 10
“Development in Africa”
Roger Ervin
President and CEO, Blumont and International Relief & Development (IRD);
Former Wisconsin Secretary of Revenue; US Commercial Envoy to Africa
OCTOBER 17
“Yoko of Mendeland: Queen of Collaborator?”
Lynda Day
Professor of Africana Studies
Brooklyn College, New York
OCTOBER 24
“Common law courts, currency, and colonial administration: A public historian’s perspective”
Ellen Feingold
Curator of the National Numismatic Collection
Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History
OCTOBER 31
“Zombies Speak Swahili: Language, Horror, & Area Studies”
Jamie Thomas
Assistant Professor of Linguistics
Swarthmore College
NOVEMBER 7
Ambassador’s Roundtable
Ambassador Michelle Gavin
Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations
Ambassador Johnnie Carson
Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of African Affairs
NOVEMBER 14
“Socioeconomic & Ecological Dimensions of Restoring Wildlife in Akagera National Park, Rwanda”
Adrian Treves
Professor of Environmental Studies
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Lisa Naughton
Professor of Geography
University of Wisconsin-Madison
DECEMBER 5
“Political Transitions in Ethiopia: Human Rights, Democracy, and the Politics of Hope”
Abadir Ibrahim
Human Rights Lawyer
St. Thomas University School
Kalkidan Negash Obse
Lecturer of African Union Law and Human Rights
Addis Ababa University