The African Studies Association partnered with Michigan State University’s MATRIX Digital Lab at the 61st Annual Meeting of the ASA to continue our podcast series, ASAPOD, from the conference. The series includes “drop in” conversations, which were modeled to mimic the spur of the moment conversations and debates that happen in the hallways of the Annual Meeting, as well as more in depth interviews with keynote speakers and other ASA members. This year’s ASAPOD is hosted by Kathryn Mara, University of Wisconsin-Madison, and is produced by Andrew Zakerski, Matrix Digital Media Lab at Michigan State University.
If you have any questions about ASAPOD, please contact the ASA at kathryn@africanstudies.org.
ASAPOD host Kathryn Mara, University of Wisconsin-Madison, is joined by Jennie Burnet, Timothy Longman, and Scott Straus to discuss the Rwandan genocide after 25 years. They also discuss Lee Ann Fujii’s impact on research on Rwanda, current research on Rwanda, the role of academic research in policy, and more.
Jennie E. Burnet is an associate professor in the Global Studies Institute at Georgia State University, and the author of Genocide Lives in Us: Women, Memory & Silence in Rwanda (University of Wisconsin Press, 2012).
Timothy Longman is an associate professor of political science and international relations and is the director of the Institute on Culture, Religion, and World Affairs (CURA) in the Pardee School at Boston University. He is the author of Memory and Justice in Post-Genocide Rwanda (Cambridge University Press, 2017) and Christianity and Genocide in Rwanda (Cambridge University Press, 2010).
Scott Straus is Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor of Political Science and International Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His most recent books are Making and Unmaking Nations: War, Leadership, and Genocide in Modern Africa (Cornell University Press, 2015), and Fundamentals of Genocide and Mass Atrocity Prevention (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 2016).
ASAPOD host Kathryn Mara, University of Wisconsin-Madison, is joined by Rudolf Gaudio and Katrina Daly Thompson to discuss ethnographic approaches to language in an African context, the role of a scholar in shaping public discourse about Africa, and more.
Rudolf Gaudio is an associate professor of anthropology at Purchase College, State University of New York. He is the author of Allah Made Us: Sexual Outlaws in an Islamic African City (Wiley, 2009).
Katrina Daly Thompson is Professor and Chair, African Cultural Studies and Director of the Program in African Languages at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her most recent book is POPOBAWA: Tanzanian Talk, Global Misreadings (Indiana University Press, 2017).
ASAPOD Guest Host Carina Ray, Brandeis University is joined by Idrian N. Resnick to discuss the history of the African Studies Association, and his experience in African Studies in the 1960s. Idrian Resnick and Carina Ray participated in the ASA Board of Directors Sponsored Roundtables, Ruptures: African Studies and the Racial Politics of Knowledge Production, 1968 to 1998 and Futures: African Studies and the Racial Politics of Knowledge Production, 1998 to 2028 at the 2018 Annual Meeting.
Idrian Resnick founded and served as the director of the Economic Development Bureau, a non-profit consulting organization. He is the author of several titles, including Tanzania: Revolution by Education (1968), The Long Transition. Building Socialism in Tanzania (1981), and The Invisible Hand (2015).
ASAPOD guest host Samantha Lakin, Clark University, is joined by Patricia Agupusi, Brown University to discuss political economy, how she started studying development in Africa, her current research projects, and more.
Patricia Agupusi is a postdoctoral fellow at the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University. Her most recent publication is Homegrown Development in Africa. Reality or Illusion?, which she wrote with Chukwumerije Okereke (Routledge, 2015).
ASAPOD Guest Host Carina Ray, Brandeis University is joined by Akosua Adomako Ampofo, University of Ghana, Sandra Greene, Cornell University, Allen Isaacman, University of Minnesota, and Idrian Resnick, writer, to discuss the field of African Studies, and how power discrepancies have, or have not changed since the 1960s. All guests participated in the ASA Board of Directors Sponsored Roundtables, Ruptures: African Studies and the Racial Politics of Knowledge Production, 1968 to 1998 and Futures: African Studies and the Racial Politics of Knowledge Production, 1998 to 2028 at the 2018 Annual Meeting.
Jean Allman’s lecture, referenced in the podcast, can be found here.
Akosua Adomako Ampofo is Professor of African and Gender Studies at the University of Ghana, and is the President of the African Studies Association of Africa.
Sandra Greene is Stephen ’59 and Madeline ’60 Anbinder Professor of African History, Cornell University, and a Past President of the ASA.
Allen Isaacman is Regents Professor of History, University of Minnesota, and Extraordinary Professor, University of the Western Cape, and a Past President of the ASA.
Idrian Resnick is the author of several titles, including Tanzania: Revolution by Education (1968), The Long Transition. Building Socialism in Tanzania (1981), and The Invisible Hand (2015).
ASAPOD host Kathryn Mara, University of Wisconsin-Madison, is joined by Abosede George, Barnard College, Carina Ray, Brandeis University, Benjamin Talton, Temple University, and Meredith Terretta, University of Ottawa to discuss African studies, activism, and the ASA Board of Directors Sponsored Roundtables, Ruptures: African Studies and the Racial Politics of Knowledge Production, 1968 to 1998 and Futures: African Studies and the Racial Politics of Knowledge Production, 1998 to 2028 at the 2018 Annual Meeting.
Jean Allman’s lecture, referenced in the podcast, can be found here.
Carina Ray is associate professor of African and African American Studies, Brandeis University, and author of Crossing the Color Line: Race, Sex, and the Contested Politics of Colonialism in Ghana (Ohio University Press, 2015).
Abosede George is associate professor of history and Africana studies, Barnard College at Columbia University. Her recent works include Making Modern Girls: A history of girlhood, labor, and social development in 20th century colonial Lagos (Ohio University Press, 2014).
Benjamin Talton is associate professor of African history and Director of Undergraduate Studies, Temple University. He is the author of In this Land of Plenty: Mickey Leland and Africa in American Politics (University of Pennsylvania Press), which will be published in June 2019.
Meredith Terretta is associate professor of history at the University of Ottawa, and the author of Nation of Outlaws, State of Violence: Nationalism, Grassfields Tradition, and State-Building in Cameroon (Ohio University Press, 2014).
Ufahamu Africa
ASA members Kim Yi Dionne and Rachel Beatty Riedl, hosts of Ufahamu Africa, recorded several podcast episodes with ASAPOD at the 61st Annual Meeting in Atlanta. To access those episodes, please go to the Ufahamu Africa website: https://ufahamuafrica.com/tag/asapod