Africa Globalization in the News

• WHO: New quick TB test rolled out in Africa (07/01/08)
  

• Why South Africa's Mbeki won't rein in Mugabe (07/01/08)
  

• Congo peacekeepers helped heal bitter divisions at home (07/01/08)
  

• South Sudan tells Ugandan troops to leave (07/01/08)
  

• EU extends mandate of mission in DR Congo (07/01/08)
  

• AU Commends Kenya's grand coalition (07/01/08)
  

• U.S. pledges to increase health funding to Kenya (07/01/08)
  

• Australia opens up airspace to SA, Kenya (07/01/08)
  

• Rwanda: Anger over failure to hold genocide fugitive (07/01/08)
  

• Zimbabwe an issue for UN, not just Africa: US Secretary of State (06/30/08)
  

Africa-China Relations

• China's Presence Increasingly Important in Cooling the World’s Hot Spots (06/21/08)
  

• Angola: President Receives Chinese Businessman Interested in Investing (06/21/08)
  

• Oil prices hit $137 after fresh Nigeria outage (06/21/08)
  

• Africa Looks for Silver Lining in Food Crisis (06/21/08)
  

• In South Africa, Chinese is the New Black (06/19/08)
  

• Africa: Chasing China (06/19/08)
  

• Nigeria: Russian, Chinese Oil Firms Jostle for Ogoni (06/17/08)
  

• West Africa: Ecowas Positions for $10bn Chinese Aid (06/17/08)
  

• Africa: Concerns Over Chinese Investment And Working Conditions (06/17/08)
  

• Into Africa: China's Grab for Influence and Oil (06/12/08)
  

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Perspectives

• Globalization fueling arms trade in Africa contends an activist
  

• "Globalization without ethics impoverishes," says Philip Emeagwali in this keynote lecture at Michig
  

• Obama: 'Globalization and technology and automation all weaken the position of workers.'
  

• "Indians love globalization"
  

• Globalization Fuels Brave New World
  

• Globalization: A Panacea for World Economic Development?
  

• Religious Perspectives on Globalization
  

• The Challenges of Globalization for Africa
  

• African dictators and the forces of globalization
  

• Why Globalization is Older than We Think
  

• Obamamania
  

• Martin LeFevre: The End of Nationalism?
  

• What Comes After The U.S. Empire?
  

• THE PLACE OF THE DEVELOPING COUNTRIES IN GLOBALIZATION: UNCTAD PRESENTS THE LATEST FIGURES
  

• In Africa, One Step Forward and Two Back
  

• Globalisation Should Benefit the Least Developed Countries
  

• US Treasury Secretary Says Globalization Creates Wealth, But Unevenly
  

• China Challenges U.S., Europe in African Push
  

• Chinese And the Abuse of Nigerians
  

• The power of the Navy
  

Faculty and Student Research Awards

2005 - 2006

• Laura Russ. Graduate Student, Urban Planning. The Influence of Global Slum Dweller’s Networks on the South African Homeless People’s Federation Project Abstract: Federated housing movements have become an alternative, non-hierarchical, grassroots approach to government or NGO sponsored slum redevelopment projects. This model, promoted by the transnational organization Slum Dwellers International, encourages low-income residents to participate at many levels, from establishing local micro-credit chapters to participating in national and global political action. This project will use the recent organizational upheaval within the South African Homeless People’s Federation and its allies as a case study in order to more fully understand the limitations of and challenges to federated housing movements relying primarily on interviews with participants and key stakeholders.



• Professor Dominic Thomas. Chair, French and Francophone. Equatorial Guinea in Global Contexts: Political Institutions, Security, and Human Rights. Project Abstract: The recent discovery of large oil reserves in Equatorial Guinea has dramatically altered this country’s status as a global player, and in turn Equatorial Guinea has received enormous interest from the American, British, and French governments. This project will address the discrepancy between international official discourse on this country concerning human rights abuses, the absence of an open and civil society, constitutional abuses, etc., and the tremendous interest and willingness by these same parties to ignore these crucial questions in order to set up favorable trading partnerships.



• Nimmi Gowrinathan. PhD Student, Political Science. The Liberation of Female Fighters? The Impact of International NGOs on Gender Roles in Post-Revolutionary Societies. Project Abstract: This project seeks to understand the role of international non-governmental organizations on the status of women in post-conflict societies, specifically in those societies where women constitute more than twenty percent of the armed forces. This study looks at the cases of Eritrea and Sri Lanka, to identify patterns that travel across a variety of case studies. This project highlights the impact of globalization on the status of women. Globalization and gender intersect in the framework of inequalities produced by globalization, the role of globalization in undermining cultural norms, and the role of globalization in perpetuating aid dependency in many parts of the third world. This project specifically looks at whether international NGOs overshadow local civil society in the degree to which each defines gender roles, and to what degree these roles are incorporated and reinforced in the state-building process of a post-revolution society.



• Galia Boneh. PhD candidate, World Arts and Cultures. Using popular culture to stop HIV/AIDS: The Bo Bra Pa concert party project for Ghana. Project Abstract: This project will investigate the meanings attached to AIDS and people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) in Ghana, and how these are manifested in popular culture. This research will serve as the preliminary stage of my dissertation fieldwork, which will involve a performance project engaging local PLWHA and local popular artists in a collaborative process to create a “Concert Party” performance based on the experiences of the participating PLWHA. The dissertation will explore the prospects and challenges of using popular arts to stop the spread of AIDS and discrimination against PLWHA. The research questions for the preliminary research will be: What are the meanings assigned to HIV/AIDS and PLWHA in Ghana? How are AIDS and PLWHA addressed in popular discourse and popular culture?



• Professor Dan Posner. Political Science. GSR: Tyson Roberts. Political and FDI-Policy Liberalization in West Africa. Project Abstract: The project will examine how governments in states dependent upon international finance flows make decisions regarding political and economic reform. Questions the current project will help answer inclue: (1) How do changes in the preferences of foreign donors, lenders and investors influence domestic policy makers decisions of whether or not to liveralize their foreign direct investment-related policies and their political systems? (2) How do policy makers make decisions on liberalization when the preferences of domestic actors conflict with the preferences of foreign actors? (3) How do decisions regarding FDI and political liberalization interact?.



• Associate Professor Vinay Lal. History. Being Indian in South Africa: The Politics of Race, Multiculturalism, and Transnationalism in an Emerging Democracy. Project Abstract: Through an exploratory trip to South Africa, this project will research a number of questions that emerge from the recent history of its Indian communities, which account for some 2.5 percent of the country’s population of 43 million. Though prominent voices spoke glowingly of the “new South Africa” at the end of apartheid, how have minority communities, and in this case the Indians, fared under the changed political dispensation? Has the political participation of Indians become more enhanced, and have Indians entered into new coalitions, or do they persist with predictable forms of identity politics? What are the semiotic registers under which race now operates?



• Katrina Thompson. Lecturer/Professor in Residence, Linguistics. Maasai Hip-hop: Globalizing Local Stereotypes and Localizing Global Hip-Hop. Project Abstract: The project will examine representations of Maasai ethnicity in the work of Tanzanian hip-hop artists, Mr. Ebbo and X-Plastaz. While Mr. Ebbo gives the Maasai a more positive image within Tanzania and has achieved great populatrity locally, X-plastaz draws on global stereotypes of the Maasai as one of the last “tribes” untouched by globalization, ironically commodifying that stereotype to present themselves as a unique reconstitution of an increasingly global musical genre. How do these groups draw on and revised global and local images and stereotypes of the Maasai? How does a global music genre impact local conceptions of ethnicity and being Maasai?



• Professor Charlotte Neumann, Duncan Ngare, DrPH. Public Health. Impact of Animal Source Food versus Plant Source Foods in Feeding Interventions on Activities of Daily Living, Childcare, and Physical Work in HIV Positive, Drug Naïve Rural Kenyan Women: Time Allocation Study. Project Abstract: Sub-Saharan Africa has the highest HIV prevalence rate among women globally with the highest percent of orphans. HIV infection imposes a severe decline in nutritional status. Particularly affected is the ability to carry out daily tasks of living, especially childcare and food production and preparation. Using time allocation methodology to quantitatively measure activities of daily living, childcare, and physical work of HIV infected women would serve as a measurable, functional outcome for measuring the impact of two types of nutrition interventions compared to a control group. HIV positive drug naïve women will be randomized to one of the three intervention groups. This pilot study, in collaboration with Moi University, Kenya, will determine if a Time Allocation study can capture differences, if any, by intervention feeding assignment.



• Professor Merrick Posnansky, History. Confronting and Interacting with Imperilais, in Northern Uganda 1874-89. Project Abstract: The Madi of norther Uganda were impacted by outside forces from AD 1850, first by Arab slavers and later by the Imperial Egyptian Government in the form of military stations under the overall control of European generals controlling Equatoria. This research focuses on Dufile, a military station with 1100 Sudanese and Egyptians, and endeavors to evaluate firstly the impact and then the interactions between the Imperial forces and the Madi and to evaluate the process of acculturation as seen through archaeological, oral historical, material cultural and linguistic evidence. The research further studies transformations of the transplanted Madi population that became the nucleus of the still existing Uganda minority Muslim Nubian community in the Kampala-Jinja area.

2004 - 2005

• Professor Judith Carney, Department of Geography. The Shea Butter Industry in the Gambia. Project Abstract: A focus on the commodity chains that link women in Beverly Hills with those in Gamiba. The aim is to reveal the capability of development projects to effect gender equity and fair trade in this period of contemporary globalization.



• Dr. Raymond Omwami. International Development Studies. Population Momentum, Public Investment and the Goal of Universal Access to Basic Education in Kenya. Project Abstract: The government of Kenya has committed to meeting the global goal of universal access to basic education. This project offers a model for examining how population momentum will mediate to determine public investment levels at both current and projection for the future.



• Professor Randall Crane, Department of Public Affairs. GSR: Charisma Acey. Urban Paradox: Lagos Water Supply and Sanitation from 1845-2004. Project Abstract: The project analyzes how and why there is a lack of access to clean and sufficient water, which reveals how the political economic history of African cities plays a critical role in the design and implementation of water and sanitation policies and programs.



• Professor Daniel Posner, Department of Political Science. GSR: John McCauley. Religion and Globalization in Africa. Project Abstract: The aim of this project is to collect survey data on how Africans identify themselves, given their religions and political interests. It will address the conditions under which people identify themselves along religious lines, as opposed to ethnic, national, occupational, or political party lines.



• Professor Edward Alpers, Department of History. GSR: Awet Weldemichael. The Eritrean and East Timorese Liberation Movements: Towards a Comparative Study of their Grand Strategies. 2005 Project Abstract: This project focuses on the U.S. as a leading precursor of globalization in our time. The author will examine how the U.S.'s role was played out in the Eritrean and East Timorese liberation struggles during the Cold War.



• Professor Andrew Apter, Department of History. GSR: Susan Marx Serjak. I See that I am Black: Black Female Executives in Global South Africa. Project Abstract: The research will focus on those individual black women who have achieved top-level positions in many sectors of the economy. The aim will be to identify common key success factors influencing career successes in black women to determine potential future leaders and to assess the broader issues of the construction of identity in South Africa.



• Associate Professor Pearl T. Robinson, Department of Political Science. An Intellectual Biography of Ralph Bunche, the Africanist. Project Abstract: The project will explore how Ralph Bunche's scholarship on Africa contributes toward a reframing of African Studies from a field defined by paradigms embedded in dichotomized oppositions to a globalizing framework viewed through the lenses of imperialism, colonialism and proto-nationalist movements.

2003 - 2004

• Professor Paula Tavrow, School of Public Health. The Youth for Youth (Y4Y) Program: Reducing Adolescent HIV/STD and Pregnancies in Western Kenya. Project Abstract: The goal of the Youth for Youth (Y4Y) program is to test the impact of an innovative, comprehensive education and service model to improve the sexual and reproductive health of Kenyan adolescents. The model uses secondary schools as the hub of activities and involves the assistance of a local non-governmental organization (NGO), KMET, based in Kisumu, Kenya. ( PowerPoint Presentation)



• Professor Charlotte Neumann, School of Public Health. Malnutrition & Poor Health: Articulating the Impact of Deficits on the Education for all Agenda.



• Professor Alfred Neumann, School of Public Health. Comparative Study of HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control in Kenya and a Portion of North East Hunan Province, the Republic of China. Project Abstract: Survey of best practices of HIV prevention and control in Kenya for presentation to members of the National AIDS/STI Committee in Human Province, China to enable HIV prevention experts there to benefit from the experience of their Kenyan counterparts.



• Professor Mark Sawyer, Department of Political Science. Globalization and the Production of Political Power in African Countries. Project Abstract: Research project to examine how the African state is able to reproduce itself when faced with political or military attacks through its interactions with the global community.



• Professor Michael Lofchie, Department of Political Science.Globalization and Democratization in Tanzania. Project Abstract: Field research on Tanzanian political life and on the radical transformation of the country's coffee production and marketing systems.



• Professor Donald Morisky, Public Health and Community Health Sciences.Evaluation of HIV/AIDS Secondary Education Programmes in Uganda. Project Abstract: This study on HIV/AIDS will be conducted jointly by the Uganda Ministry of Education and Sports (MOES) and the University of California, Los Angeles in secondary schools in Uganda. The purpose of this study is to provide the Ministry of Education and Sports with an evaluation of the national curriculum of education programs for prevention and control of HIV/AIDS in secondary schools and to produce scholarly journal articles in the HIV/AIDS education literature.



• Professor Dominic Thomas, Department of French and Francophone Studies.Globalization and the African Diaspora. Project Abstract: Explore globalization and those transnational constituencies that have emerged from colonialism and immigration, offering new ways of thinking about population flows between Africa and the Diaspora.

2002 - 2003

• Professor Daniel Posner, Department of Political Science. African Political Economy Working Group. Founded in 2002, the Working Group brings together a group west coast-based of faculty and graduate students who combine extensive field research experience in Africa with training in modern political economy techniques.



• Professor Folu F. Ogundimu, GRCA Research Associate. Democratic Accountability, Press Freedom, and Political Stability in Nigeria. Project Abstract: Research to examine how the Nigerian press sees its role in the run-up to the 2003 presidential elections, for exploratory insight on how notions of press freedom and press performance have implications for democratic accountability and political stability.

2001 - 2002

• Professor Eugene Grigsby, School of Public Policy and Social Research.The Impacts of Globalization on the Small Business Environment in South Africa.



• Professor Judith Carney, Department of Geology. African Shea Butter in Global Integration.



• Professor Susanne Lohmann, Department of Political Science. The Public Issue Life Cycle of Humanitarian Crisis in Africa.