Distinguished Africanist Scholar

Each semester, the Institute for African Development (IAD), Cornell University, sponsors a Distinguished Africanist Scholar visit to Cornell. The invited Scholar makes a public presentation (free and open to the Cornell and surrounding community) that goes beyond stimulating discussion to providing exciting perspectives on contemporary African issues, challenges and future policy directions. In addition, the Scholar participates in one or more classes as appropriate for his/her broad span of competence and experiences, meets with students and faculty, and as the need may arise, joins the Africanist faculty for a more intensive workshop/seminar.

Spring 2008

Vusi Gumede (Ph.D. Economics, University of Natal ’02) is Chief Policy Analyst and Head of Social Policy in the President’s Policy Coordination and Advisory Service, South Africa, where he was previously a Senior Economist (when he joined the President's Office in 2001) and later a Chief Director. Among his earlier jobs, Dr. Gumede served as an Economist in the Ministry of Trade and Industry and also as an Economic Researcher at the National Institute of Economic Policy in South Africa doing research for/with various international and South African institutions and the South African government.

He has published papers in internationally refereed journals including Small Business Economics: International Journal, Studies in Economics and Econometrics, etc. In addition, he has (co)authored policy/strategy documents for the South African government and authored various working papers and chapters in books as well as numerous op-ed articles in South African newspapers. He continues his involvement in academic matters as a journal papers’ referee, an external examiner for some South African Universities, and a scholarly researcher on economic and public policy issues. As such he has been a visiting scholar/fellow for the UNDP’s International Poverty Centre and the G. Ford School of Public Policy (Michigan University), among others. Dr. Gumede also serves on a number of Boards and Councils, including as a Trustee of the Southern Africa Trust. He has been featured in the “Who’s Who of Southern Africa” publication since 2005, and in the American Biographical Institute’s “Great Minds of the 21st Century.”

Dr. Gumede is a guest of the Department of Applied Economics and Management (AEM), the Division of Nutritional Sciences, and the Institute for African Development (IAD) during April and May, 2008.

Fall 2005

Marcel Fafchamps completed a Ph.D. in Agricultural Economics from the University of California at Berkeley, for which he won an Outstanding Ph.D. Thesis Award from American Agricultural Economists Association. He spent nearly five years working for the International Labour Organization, a United Nations agency overlooking issues of employment, income distribution, and vocational training. He has taught at the University of Chicago, the Food Research Institute, and Stanford’s Department of Economics. Professor Fafchamps has written numerous books and articles, including his recent book, Market Institutions and Sub-Saharan Africa: Theory and Evidence (MIT Press, 2004). He currently teaches in the Department of Economics at Oxford University and continues to travel to Africa regularly. His latest research trips were to Benin, Malawi, Morocco, Nepal, and Uganda.

Dr. Fafchamps is the IAD Distinguished Africanist Scholar for the fall 2005 semester. He was nominated for this position by the Department of Applied Economics and Management. He will be at Cornell from November 16 to November 19, 2005. For more information on Professor Fafchamps, please visit his homepage.

Spring 2005

Dr. Stef Coetzee studied at the University of Stellenbosch where he obtained the MA-degree in economics in 1974. He received the D. Phil.-degree, also in economics, from the University of the Free State in 1980. His fields of specialization are development economics; regional economics; urban economic development and strategic and change management in higher education. Dr. Coetzee was Vice-Chancellor of the University of the Orange Free State during its transformation to a non-racial university. He currently lectures on change management and organizational renewal at the Business School of the University of Stellenbosch and is the leader of the African Studies Group which acts as the major consultants/advisors to NEPAD on economic development policy issues.

Dr. Coetzee is the IAD Distinguished Africanist Scholar for the spring 2005 semester. He was housed in Johnson School of Management while he was at Cornell from January 24 - January 29, 2005.

Fall 2004

Gay Seidman, Professor of Sociology at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, was the fall 2004 Institute for African Development Distinguished Africanist Scholar. Dr. Seidman's areas of interest include the sociology of economic change and development, labor, gender, social movements, political sociology and demography. She has written numerous articles, book chapters, papers and textbooks on these issues. Her most recent book is Manufacturing Militance: Workers' Movements in Brazil and South Africa, 1970-1985 published by the University of California Press, 1994. Dr. Seidman received her PhD in Sociology from the University of California at Berkeley.

The scholar for the fall 2004 semester was housed in the School of Industrial and Labor Relations. For additional information on Dr. Seidman, please visit the University of Wisconsin at Madison Web site.

Spring 2004

Dennis Brutus, anti-Apartheid activist, poet and professor, came to Cornell as the IAD Distinguished Africanist Scholar, spring 2004. Dennis Brutus, a South African national, is a Professor Emeritus in the Departments of Africana Studies and English at the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Brutus was a crucial person in South Africa's and Rhodesia's exclusion from the Olympic Games in 1964 and 1970. Political campaigns led to his being banned from all political and social activity. In 1963 he was arrested and sentenced to 18 months of hard labor on Robben Island. His first collection of poetry, Sirens, Knuckles and Boots (1962), was published in Nigeria while he was in prison. Dr. Brutus is a prolific writer and has published twelve books of poetry. He was the recipient of the Langston Hughes Award in 1989, for "artistic excellence, political consciousness and integrity." He has taught at over six universities including Dartmouth College and the University of Durban (Westville).

The scholar for the spring 2004 semester was housed at the Department of Government. For additional information on Dr. Brutus, please visit the University of Pittsburgh Web site.

Fall 2003

Allen Isaacman is a Regents Professor of History, and the Director of the MacArthur Interdisciplinary Program on Global Change, Sustainability and Justice at the University of Minnesota. He was President of the African Studies Association from 2001 - 2002. Professor Isaacman is the author of numerous books and articles including the forthcoming Slaves, Soldiers and the Construction of Ethnic Identity: The Chikunda of South Central Africa, 1650-1920 (Heinemann, 2004). He is a leading scholar in the field of Lusophone Studies and was given the Award for Scholarly Excellence and Contributions to the field of Lusophonic Studies, presented at V Congresso Luso-Afro Brasiliero de Ciencias Sociais, Maputo, Mozambique, 1998. Professor Isaacman obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin (1970) in African History.

The scholar for the fall 2003 semester was housed at the Department of History. For additional information on Dr. Isaacman, please visit the University of Minnesota Web site.

Spring 2003

Sam Mchombo is an Associate Professor of Linguistics at the University of California, Berkeley. He obtained his BA in English and Philosophy from the University of Malawi (1970), the Post-graduate Diploma in General Linguistics (1972) and PhD in Linguistics (1978) from the University of London School of Oriental & African Studies. He has held teaching appointments at the University of Malawi, where he pioneered the then Department of Chichewa and Linguistics, now renamed the Department of African Languages & Linguistics (1972-1984) of which he was also the Chair; and at San Jose State University in CA (1985-88). Since 1988, he has been on the faculty of the Department of Linguistics at the University of California, Berkeley.

The scholar for the spring 2003 semester was housed at the Department of Linguistics. For additional information on Dr. Mchombo, please visit the University of California, Berkeley Web site.