Overview
Type: Vanderbilt Initiative Award (ViA)
This project seeks to build – for the first time at Vanderbilt – an interdisciplinary community of Africanists to explore the topic “Africa at a Crossroads.” Investigators will explore the widespread notion that contemporary socio-economic, cultural and political indicators demonstrate that Africa now stands at a pivotal point – marked by both infinite possibilities and lingering challenges. Those who engage the region from scholarly, policy or mercantile perspectives are compelled to reckon with a plethora of positive trends – growing economies, slowing rates of HIV infections, declining infant mortality rates, a rising middle class, democratic consolidation, entrepreneurial innovations in the physical and virtual worlds and the reverse migration of Africa’s best brains. This project draws from multiple disciplinary perspectives, including history, medicine, sociology, ethnomusicology, economics, political science and anthropology, to analyze the extent to which the current state of affairs indicates that Africa stands at a crossroads ripe with challenges and prospects. This collaboration also provides opportunities for students to study Africa through immersive experiences.
Faculty Participants
Lead Faculty in bold
College of Arts & Science
- Moses Ochonu, Professor of History
- Dianna Bell, Mellon Assistant Professor
of Religion,
Indigenous Religious Traditions of Sub-Saharan Africa - Amanda Clayton, Assistant Professor, Dept. of Political Science
- Frank Dobson, Associate Dean of Students
- Jane Landers, Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Professor of History
- Clive Mentzel, Director, Office of Active Citizenship and Service
- Kristin Michelitch, Assistant Professor, Dept. of Political Science
- Frank Robinson, Assistant Professor of History
- Tara McKay, Assistant Professor of Medicine, Health and Society
School of Medicine (Clinical)
- Muktar Aliyu, Associate Professor of Health Policy and Medicine
Blair School of Music
- Gregory Barz, Professor of Musicology (Ethnomusicology)
Peabody College
- Carolyn Heinrich, Professor of Public Policy and Education, Dept. of Leadership, Policy & Organizations