Upcoming Africa at Noon Events
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
African Journeys
Iris Berger
Professor of History
University at Albany (State University of New York)
Time and Location: 12:00pm, 206 Ingraham Hall, 1155 Observatory Drive, Madison, WI
Presented as part of a special series of Africa at Noon talks by distinguished affiliates and alumni on the development and influence of Wisconsin’s African Studies Program.
Description:
Inspired by the ACLS annual lecture, “A Life of Learning” and a recent plenary panel at the Berkshire Conference on the History of Women, entitled “Where is Africa in Gender History?” this presentation will reflect on my scholarly career in the context of my own formative experiences in Ann Arbor, Paris and Kenya; the emergence and development of African history and African women’s/gender history; and the importance of African Studies at UW to the development of both fields. I will conclude with a discussion of some of my current work on African women in international women’s movements and African women and U.S. asylum cases.
Speaker’s Bio:
Iris Berger received her BA in history from the University of Michigan and, after teaching for two years in Kenya, she went on to receive her MA and PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in African and Comparative Third World History. She has written extensively on the history of precolonial East Africa and on twentieth-century South Africa. Her major publications include Religion and Resistance: East African Kingdoms in the Precolonial Period, Women and Class in Africa, Threads of Solidarity: Women in South African Industry, 1900-1980, Women in Sub-Saharan Africa, and, most recently, South Africa in World History as well as numerous articles. She has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Social Science Research Council, and the Rockefeller Foundation and other awards for research and service, including the Distinguished Africanist Award from the New York African Studies Association. Her extensive professional service has included terms as a Board member of the African Studies Association and the Social Science Research Council, President of the African Studies Association, delegate to the American Council of Learned Societies, Vice President for Research of the American Historical Association, and editor of the Journal of African History as well as four years directing the Institution for Research on Women at the University at Albany and six years chairing her department.