The Issues in African Development Seminar Series examines critical concerns in contemporary Africa using a different theme each semester. The seminars provide a forum for participants to explore alternative perspectives and exchange ideas. They are also a focal activity for students and faculty interested in African development. In addition, this seminar series prepares students for higher level courses on African economic, social, and political development. The presentations are designed for students who are interested in development as well as Africa’s place in global studies, want to know about the peoples, cultures, and societies that call Africa home, and wish to explore development theories and alternate viewpoints on development practice.

The Issues in African Development Seminar Series examines critical concerns in contemporary Africa using a different theme each semester. The seminars provide a forum for participants to explore alternative perspectives and exchange ideas. They are also a focal activity for students and faculty interested in African development. In addition, this seminar series prepares students for higher level courses on African economic, social, and political development. The presentations are designed for students who are interested in development as well as Africa’s place in global studies, want to know about the peoples, cultures, and societies that call Africa home, and wish to explore development theories and alternate viewpoints on development practice.

James Yékú is an Assistant Professor of African and African American studies at the University of Kansas, where he leads the African digital humanities program. He is the author of Cultural Netizenship: Social Media, Popular Culture, and Performance in Nigeria (Indiana University Press), and a book of poetry, Where the Baedeker Leads (Mawenzi House, Toronto). His current digital projects include Digital Nollywood, an Omeka-based collection of vintage film posters from Nigeria. Yékú is a 2022 fellow at the Center for Advanced Internet Studies (CAIS) in Bochum, Germany.

Community involvement in public services delivery is widely acknowledged in the literature and practice as being pivotal to local development initiatives especially in cities of the global south. However, the nature and role of social composition of communities is rarely explored. This presentation applies a case study research approach to retrospectively analyse how the social make-up of local communities and their organizations influenced coproduction of public services in a low income informal settlement in Dar es Salaam city. It is argued that unpacking community level contextual factors including local resources, socio-cultural and institutional structures, partnerships and networks is key to addressing the challenges that produce and sustain poverty, inequalities and exclusion in low income settlements. The paper also calls for search for more knowledge on how partnerships and community engagement can be sustained in low income settlements.

Wilbard Kombe is a Professor at Ardhi University, the Institute of Human Settlements Studies, Tanzania. He received his PhD from the Technical University of Dortmund, (TUD). His research works have focused on governance of informal urbanization, land management and administration; disasters management and livelihoods of the poor; urban inequality and coproduction of basic infrastructure services; and climate change and urban vulnerability. He has also been extensively involved in research activities in several countries in the Sub-Sahara Africa.

Kombe has also implemented several real-life projects undertaken in Tanzania covering a wide range of subjects. This includes large projects on coproduction of basic infrastructure services and livelihoods in low income settlements funded by UNDP, Ford Foundation and local government authorities LGAs in Tanzania.

Robtel Neajai Pailey is an IAD guest speaker who will speak to this question and more at a lecture based around her work in Development, (Dual) Citizenship and Its Discontents in Africa: The Political Economy of Belonging to Liberia.

Pailey is an assistant professor in international social and public policy at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). A Liberian scholar-activist working at the intersection of Critical Development Studies, Critical African Studies and Critical Race Studies, she centers her research on how structural transformation is conceived and contested by local, national and transnational actors from ‘crisis’-affected regions of the so-called Global South.(Cambridge University Press, 2021). Hers is the first book to evaluate domestic and diasporic constructions and practices of Liberian citizenship across space and time and their myriad implications for development. In this seminar drawing on rich life histories from over two hundred in-depth interviews in West Africa, Europe, and North America, Pailey uses a contested dual citizenship bill, introduced in Liberia in 2008 but never passed, as an entry point to ask broader questions about how citizenship is differentiated by class, gender, race, ethnicity, etc, and whether dual citizenship actually reproduces inequalities. She develops a new model for conceptualizing citizenship within the context of ‘crisis’-affected states while offering a compelling critique of the neoliberal framing of diasporas and donors as the panacea to post-war reconstruction.

Cosponsored by the Migrations initiative.

The Issues in African Development Seminar Series examines critical concerns in contemporary Africa using a different theme each semester. The seminars provide a forum for participants to explore alternative perspectives and exchange ideas. They are also a focal activity for students and faculty interested in African development. In addition, this seminar series prepares students for higher level courses on African economic, social, and political development. The presentations are designed for students who are interested in development as well as Africa’s place in global studies, want to know about the peoples, cultures, and societies that call Africa home, and wish to explore development theories and alternate viewpoints on development practice.

The Fulbright U.S. Student Program supports college graduates conducting research or teaching in any field in more than 150 countries. Join this Einaudi Center Student Info Session to find out if Fulbright is right for you!

Applications are due in the fall. Students who wish to begin the program immediately after graduation should start the application process in their junior year.

The Einaudi Center administers the Fulbright program at Cornell. As the home of Cornell’s Fulbright program, we offer all the resources that students need to apply for prestigious Fulbright international study and research funding. Learn more about Fulbright at Cornell.

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Contact: fulbright@einaudi.cornell.edu

The Laidlaw Undergraduate Leadership and Research Program promotes ethical leadership and international research around the world—starting with the passionate leaders and learners found on campuses like Cornell.

Open to first- and second-year students, the two-year Laidlaw program provides generous support to carry out internationally focused research, develop leadership skills, engage with community projects overseas, and become part of a global network of like-minded scholars from more than a dozen universities.

Join this Einaudi Center Student Info Session to learn more about the program and application process. We’ll also share tips for approaching potential faculty research mentors and writing a successful application.

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Contact: laidlaw.scholars@cornell.edu

The Einaudi Center's Research Travel Grants for Graduate Students provide international travel support for Cornell graduate students conducting short-term research or fieldwork outside the United States.

If you’re traveling between the United States and a host country for activities directly related to your dissertation or thesis research, Einaudi can help you get there. Join this Einaudi Center Student Info Session to find out more.