Welcome to the Abstracts and Bios section!

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Evelyn Yusuf Hauwau is a lecturer in the Department of Sociology, Kaduna State University, Kaduna, Nigeria. She is a PhD student in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife. Her academic interest borders on issues of domestic violence and feminism, She is involved in counseling on issues of human existence. She is currently the Acting Head of Department of the Department of Sociology and the Deputy Dean of Student Affairs, Kaduna State University.

Gabrielle Hecht is an Associate Professor of History at the University of Michigan. Her first book, The Radiance of France: Nuclear Power and National Identity after World War II (MIT, 1998), won awards from the American Historical Association and the Society for the History of Technology. Her current project, entitled Uranium from Africa and the Power of Nuclear Things, draws on archival and field work conducted in Africa, Europe, and North America. Focusing especially on Gabon, Madagascar, South Africa, Namibia, and Niger, this project examines uranium mining in these places and the flow of uranium from these places. It shows how Africans (from mineworkers to political leaders) positioned themselves in global technological circuits, and argues that the view from Africa transforms our understanding of the “nuclear” as a political, technological, and occupational category, as well as our perspective on the transnational power of nuclear things. Hecht has published several articles from this work the most recent in Chimurenga 14 (March 2009, forthcoming).

Bessie House-Soremekun is the Public Scholar in African American Studies, Civic Engagement and Entrepreneurship and Professor of Political Science and Africana Studies at Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Denver and her B.A. from Huntingdon College. She has published numerous peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters, and several books, such as Class Development and Gender Inequality in Kenya, 1963-1990; African Market Women and Economic Power: The Role of Women in African Economic Development, and the award-winning book, Confronting the Odds: African American Entrepreneurship in Cleveland, Ohio, 1 st Edition. Her research interests are women and development, international political economy, globalization, as well as entrepreneurship and economic development in Africa and the United States.

Samson OluwatopeIjaola a Baptist Reverend, a motivational speaker, and stock analyst, is a PhD candidate at Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye, Ogun State, Nigeria. His academic interests revolve around the fields of agriculture; education; theology; business administration; philosophy of religion; religion and science; and African traditional religion. He is presently carrying out academic research in religion and science. He has co-authored and authored chapters in books and articles for publication in the Association of Study of Interplay between Religion and Science and National Association of Biblical Scholars.

Nancy Jacobs is an Associate Professor in the Department of Africana Studies and the Department of History at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. She is the author of Environment, Power, and Injustice, a South African History (2003). She is currently working on a book project “Birders of a Feather: Stories of People, Birds, and Other People in Africa.” The common theme between her first book and her current research on people and birds is that both probe the nexus between environment, social division, and power.

Kathryn H. Jacobsen is an assistant professor of epidemiology in the Department of Global & Community Health at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. She earned an M.P.H. in international health and a Ph.D. in epidemiology from the University of Michigan. Her research has been published in journals including, among others, the International Journal of Epidemiology; Epidemiology & Infection; the Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene; and the Journal of Women’s Health. She is the author of Introduction to Global Health (Jones & Bartlett, 2008).

Ariwayo Bolaji Johnson is a social researcher for the Bright Foundation, a Nigerian based research organization that focuses on African thoughts and practices. He studied both Sociology and Public Administration and is currently pursuing his PhD. He is a social crusader and human rights activist.

Jennifer Lee Johnson is a Ph.D Pre-Candidate at the University of Michigan's School of Natural Resources and Environment. Before and during graduate school Jennifer worked on fisheries science, policy and management for the Marine Fish Conservation Network, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Blue Ocean Institute. Motivated by her passion for equity, empowerment, and ecological sustainability in fishing dependent communities in East Africa, her graduate work combines methodological and theoretical approaches from anthropology, political ecology, and fisheries science to analyze the socio-economic and ecological impacts of fisheries globalization in Lake Victoria. In the summers of 2007 and 2008, Jennifer conducted her M.S. and preliminary doctoral field research in Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania on the local and global commodity chains for illegal and legal Nile perch. She also lead an interdisciplinary team of scholars and professionals addressing the socio-economic and ecological determinants of water born diseases in Mwanza, Tanzania in the summer of 2007. In June 2008 she published several news features with the Ugandan Daily Monitor on the human dimensions of fisheries collapse in Lake Victoria. Publications with the Journal of Aquatic Ecosystem Health and Management and the Lake Victoria Fisheries Organization are forthcoming.

Emmanuel Etuk Justus , Redeemers University ( Nigeria)

Abdullrauf Kamardeen , NTA Ibadan Network Center ( Nigeria)

Stephen Kandeh , University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma

Baruti Katembo is an Assistant Professor of Mathematics at Edward Waters College (EWC) in Jacksonville, FL. He is also the founder and director of the Ujuzi Group, an EWC think tank, which includes a component lecture series, the Wakaguzi Forum. Prof. Katembo’s academic background includes an undergraduate degree in Industrial Engineering (B.S., North Carolina A&T Univ.) and graduate degrees in Applied Mathematics (M.S., North Carolina A&T Univ.) and Landscape Architecture ( MLArch, North Carolina State Univ.). He has participated in numerous seminars, conferences, and panel discussions. His scholarship efforts include a book (Elephants in a Bamboo Cage, 2001) and numerous papers (e.g. Africa, Jatropha Seeds, and Biofuel (co-authored with Pearl Gray); Development, Pan-Africanism, and the EAC Model) connecting aspects of technology, culture, and economics. His research interests include sociotechnology, applied geometry, green energy/fuels, and the use of human/natural resources.

Kairn Klieman is an Associate Professor of History at the University of Houston, TX. She received her Ph.D. in African History from UCLA in 1997, specializing in pre-colonial west-central Africa. Her first book, “The Pygmies Were Our Compass”: Bantu and Batwa in the History of West Central Africa, Early Times to c. 1900 C.E. (Heinemann, 2003) was a finalist for the Melville J. Herskovits Award and named a CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title (2004). Due to living in Houston, the oil capital of the world, her recent work has taken a more modern turn, focusing on the issues of oil production and its impact in Africa. Her current book project, entitled Before the Curse: Petroleum, Politics, and Transnational Oil Companies in the Gulf of Guinea, Africa, 1960-1982, provides a detailed history of relations between transnational oil companies, their home governments, and the early governments of three “Gulf of Guinea” States - the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, and Angola. By reconstructing and examining the nature of political and economic interactions between these three sets of actors, the book the book elucidates how a number of the foundations for the “Oil Curse” were put in place. An article derived from this research, entitled “Oil, Politics, and Development in the Formation of a State: The Congolese Petroleum Wars, 1963-68” appeared in International Journal of African Historical Studies in August 2008.

Hilary C. Kowino is an Assistant Professor in the Department of English at the University of Minnesota Duluth. He teaches African Literature, African Diaspora Literature, Postcolonial Literature, World Literature, Cultural Studies, Critical Race Theory, and Gender Studies.

Alexander Kure (PhD) was educated at Government Secondary School, Kagoro; Katsina Collge of Arts, Science, and Technology, Zaria; and the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, all in Nigeria. He is presently a Senior Lecturer in the Department of English and Drama and Director of the General Studies Unit of Kaduna State University, Kaduna. His research interests are in the areas of Comparative Literature; Applied Linguistics; Gender, Conflict, and Environmental issues as reflected in Literature; Creative Writing; and Literature and Curriculum Development. He is a member of the Linguistics Association of Nigeria (LAN); Nigerian English Studies Association (NESA); English Language Teachers Association of Nigeria (ELTAN); and National Association of Remedial English Teachers (NARET).

Peter D. Little is a Professor of Anthropology and Director of the Center for Development Studies, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia. During the past 27 years, Dr. Little has researched and directed interdisciplinary programs on development and globalization, the political economy of agrarian change, pastoralism, and food insecurity in several African countries, but with primary emphasis on eastern Africa, including the African Horn. Among his recent books are S omalia: Economy Without State (2003; Talbot Book Prize and Choice Academic Book Award) and Understanding and Reducing Persistent Poverty in Africa (with C. Barrett and M. Carter, 2008). Currently Dr. Little is completing a book on the “anthropology of neo-liberalism in Africa” with support from the Guggenheim Foundation.

Isidore Lobnibe is a PhD candidate in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His research interests include labor migration, social organization, the environment, and the historiography and the history of Anthropology. He is currently writing his doctoral dissertation based on field work he conducted in southern Ghana among migrant farm workers of northern Ghana. He has published book chapters and has articles in The American Anthropologist, and AFRICA.

Emmanuel M. Mbah is an Assistant Professor of History at the City University of New York, College of Staten Island. His research focuses on conflict and ethnicity in colonial and postcolonial Africa, and he is the author of Land/Boundary Conflict in Africa: The Case of Former British Colonial Bamenda, Present-Day North-West Province of the Republic of Cameroon, 1916-1996.

Belay Tizazu Mengistie is a senior lecturer with the department of Geography and Environmental Studies, Adama University, Ethiopia. She received her M.A. in Geography and Environmental Studies and secured her second M.A. in Development Studies (Rural Livelihood and Development) from Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia. She has taught courses and researched into Environment and Development issues. She has conducted different research on Socio Economic and Institutional Factors of Adoption of Agricultural Technologies with livelihood approach, and Challenges of Globalization, Governance and Development. Her present research interest is on “The Environmental impacts of Refugees in Ethiopia.”

Teshager Mersha is a research officer at the Center for Educational Improvement, Research and Quality Assurance(CEIRQA), and lecturer with the Department of Social Science at St. Mary’s University College. He received his second degree in Population and Development study from Addis Ababa University. He has taught courses Environment and Development; Gender and Development; Cultural Heritage; and Traditional Practices. His research interests include quality of education, urban poverty, labor migration, and urban environment. His research articles cover urban poverty; coping with environmental stress labor migration in Africa; remedial/developmental education; and educational policy.

Laura J. Mitchell teaches African History and World History at the University of California, Irvine. Her research explores the creation of communities and dynamics of power rooted in questions of land tenure, labor control, family formation, and natural resource allocation. She is particularly concerned with situating the development of colonial society at the Cape of Good Hope within the broader context of Dutch East India Company exchange networks. This research has been supported by fellowships from Fulbright, the American Council for Learned Societies, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the UC Office of the President. She has published papers in the Journal of African History; Frontiers: A Journal of Women’s Studies; South Africa Historical Journal; and the collection Sources and Methods in African History. Her first book, Belongings: Property, Family, and Identity in Colonial South Africa, appeared in the American Historical Society Gutenberg-e prize series. She is currently working on a book that examines the production of art as a site of contested knowledge production about the natural world in southern Africa, funded by a Mellon Foundation New Directions Fellowship.

JolandaMorkel is a qualified architect who has been teaching in the department of Architectural Technology at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology since January 2001, prior to which she held a research and lecturing position in the masters program in Urban Design and Town and Regional Planning at the University of Stellenbosch. Her teaching foci revolve around the history and theory of architecture, architectural design, and landscaping. She has acted as head of department (2003) and faculty manager (2004 – 2006). She currently holds the portfolio of coordinator for the design stream and service learning components of the program. Jolanda’s areas of research are design teaching methodology; local distinctiveness (urban design); the design requirements for educational facilities for young learners; and sustainable community projects. She coordinates a service-learning project for the disadvantaged community of Philadelphia, near Cape Town. The project has already culminated in the completed first phase of a multi-functional training facility at the Meulenhof Primary school precinct, with the second phase currently underway. In both 2002 and 2005, she was invited as visiting academic at the Department of Architecture at the University of Hasselt in Belgium.

Monsuru Olalekan Muritala , an Assistant lecturer in the department of History, University of Ibadan and currently in the M.phil/P.hD program. My research interests include: the economic history of Africa, urban history, migration and environment history. I worked for a period of five years in the financial sector of Nigeria before returning to academics.

Sridhar K. C. Mynepalli isProfessor of Environmental Health Sciences at the Faculty of Public Health, College of Medicine, University of Ibadan. For over thirty years in Ibadan, he carried out several ‘Waste to Wealth’ projects at community and institutional levels particularly on the conversion of organic wastes into fertilizers, recycling of plastic and metal scrap wastes, remediation of contaminated soils, pollution control and water quality. Currently he is associated with Niger Delta University as Professor in the Community Medicine Department, College of Health Sciences. He is an active member of various NGOs and participated in various projects on Water, Wastes, Sanitation and Health. He has trained several postgraduate students at Masters and PhD levels. He is also a consultant to UNICEF, UNDP, WHO, World Bank and other Development Partners. He has nearly 200 scientific publications and two patents.

Shadrack W. Nasong’o is an Assistant Professor of International Studies and a J.S. Seidman Research Fellow at Rhodes College, Memphis. He teaches courses in Comparative Politics, International Relations, African Politics, and Research Methods. His research interests are in the politics of democratization, conflict studies, and political economy. Dr. Nasong’o is the author of Contending Political Paradigms in Africa: Rationality and the Politics of Democratization in Kenya and Zambia (Routlegde, 2005); co-editor of Kenya: The Struggle for Democracy (Zed Books, 2007); and editor of The African Search for Stable Forms of Statehood: Essays in Political Criticism (Edwin Mellen, 2008). He has published over twenty peer-reviewed chapters and refereed journal articles as well as three encyclopedia entries. His scholarly articles have appeared in the African Studies Review; Journal of Third World Studies; Journal of Contemporary African Studies; African and Asian Studies; Nigerian Journal of International Affairs; Taiwan Journal of Democracy; and Estudios de Asia y Africa; among others.

Gilbert M. Nduru , Moi University (Kenya)

Marie Chantale Mofin Noussi is a PhD student and a French instructor in the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures at the University of New Mexico. She received her Master's Degree in African Literature at the University of Yaoundé 1, Cameroon, where she worked on Southern African literature. Her interests are African literature with emphasis on Francophone literature and eco-criticism, gender, and animal and cultural studies.

Hannington Ochwada teaches History at the Missouri State University in Springfield. He has published articles in Africa Development, Afrika Zamani, Transafrican Journal of History, Discovery and Innovation, and Journal of Eastern African Research and Development. His current research focuses on Sex Tourism in Kenya and South Africa.

Mike Odugbo Odey is Associate Professor of Economic History. Current Head of Department, Department of History, Benue State University, Makurdi, Nigeria. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Jos, Nigeria (2001), M.A (1994) PGDE (1987) B.A (Hons) History (1980). His teaching and research interests include Development Studies, Poverty and Food security System, Analysis of poverty Reduction Policies and Inter- Group Relations and Nigerian / African Historiography. He has several publications in the areas of Poverty Reduction, Comparative Economic Development, and Inter- Group Relations.

Adewale Adeniyi Odulate , Redeemer's University ( Nigeria)

Bolawale Odunaike , Redeemers University ( Nigeria)

Kayode Omoniyi Ogunfolabi is an Assistant Professor in the department of English, West Virginia University. He focuses on African, Caribbean, Latin American and South Indian literatures, through which he explores the intersections of history, memory and the marvelous.

Segun Ogungbemi got his Ph.D in Philosophy and Humanities at the University of Texas at Dallas Richardson Texas in 1984. He has taught in several Universities. His University teaching career began at Bishop College Dallas, Texas, Ogun State University now Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye, Moi University Eldoret, Kenya, Lagos State University, Lagos Nigeria, and currently at Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba, Ondo State Nigeria. He has taught various courses in philosophy namely, Ethics, Metaphysics, Epistemology, Philosophy of Religion, Existentialism, African Philosophy, Social and Political Philosophy, Philosophy and Development, Environmental Ethics, etc. He has attended several local and international conferences in Nigeria, Kenya, Lesotho, America etc. He has also given public lectures in Nigeria and at Makerere University, Kampala Uganda. He has several publications among which are, “An African Perspective on the Environmental Crisis” in Environmental Ethics: Readings in Theory and Application” ed. Louis Pojman, Boston: Jones and Battlett, 1994, A Critique of African Cultural Beliefs, Lagos: Pumark Educational Publishers, 1997, Philosophy and Development, Ibadan: Hope Publications, 2007, God, Reason and Death: Issues in Philosophy of Religion, ed., 2008 and many journal articles in local international journals.

Olatubosun Ogunnaike , Redeemer's University ( Nigeria)

Sade Olubukunola Ogunyakinu , Redeemer's University ( Nigeria)

Okpeh Okpeh ,

Cecilia Abiodun Olarewaju is a lecturer in the Department of Home Economics, Adeyemi College of Education, Ondo. She is also a PhD student in the Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, University of Agriculture, Abeokuta. She obtained her first and second degrees from Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife. She has her publications in local and international journals. Her research interest is diet in the treatment of common ailments. Her PhD research work is on meeting the nutritional needs of the elderly.

Mustapha S. Olatunji is a lecturer at Lagos State University. Born on September 3, 1967, in Lagos, Nigeria, Olatunji was educated at Kings College, University of Lagos, and he received a Master of Guidance and Counseling from Lagos State University in 1991. He taught for many years at Osogbo Grammar School, Osogbo. “I was popular with the students, many of whom saw me more as a brother, father or mentor than as a teacher.” Presently, he is a Lecturer in Lagos State University, Ojo, Lagos. Olatunji’s academic background and research interests include studies in human relations where he has done some publications to his credit. These publications are based on tips on guidance and counseling for nomadic students in Nigeria.

Mrs. Omolade Olomola is a lecturer and sub- dean in the Faculty of Law, University of Ibadan, Nigeria, and currently teaches Family Law, Law of Contract, Land Law, and Comparative Criminal Law and Procedure. She is a PhD candidate in the Faculty of Law, University of Ibadan with specific research interests in Reproductive Rights. She was a resource person for the Oyo State of Nigeria Law Review in November 2008. She worked particularly on married women’s property rights and widows’ rights. Mrs. Olomola is a member of the Nigerian Bar Association, the Nigerian Association of Law Teachers, and the International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA). She has special interests in gender matters and has some publications in the area. She received both her Bachelor of Laws (with honors) and her Master of Laws from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria.

Samuel Oloruntoba is a Phd student in the Department of Political Science at the University of Lagos where he also teaches as an Assistant Lecturer and an Associate Member of the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators, UK.  His research interest is in the areas of Political Economy, State and Governance of Third World Countries, Foreign Policy, Migration and Development Studies. He has previously worked as Consultant to international organizations like the International Trade Centre in Geneva and the World Bank Group on Trade and Economic Development. He has presented papers in local and international conferences in his areas of research interest.

Lai Olurode was trained at the University of Lagos for his first and master's degrees and obtained his doctorate degree in political sociology from the University of Sussex in Britain in 1984. He was a recipient of the Commonwealth scholarship for his doctorate, and was a Fulbright senior fellow. In 2003, he was a visiting professor at the University of California at Irvine and has given lectures at the Kennesaw State University, Armstrong Atlantic University, and Savannah State University, among others. In 2008, he was a visiting fellow at the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies. He has enjoyed generous research funding from the Ford Foundation and from the Friedrich Ebert Foundation. His research works have appeared in Rural Africana, Africa Development, and the Journal of Enterprising Societies, among others. He has authored and edited several books. He specializes in gender, social inequality, and social change.

Donald Omagu , Donald Omagu is an Adjunct Assistant Professor with the Department of History, College of Staten Island( CUNY). He received his Ph. D in African History from the University of Calabar, Calabar, Nigeria. He has taught courses on and researched contemporary African history. His scholarly works include: Regional Peace and Security: A Historical Perspective of the role of ECOWAS in Liberia and Sierra Leone. A History of Bekwarra People of the Upper Cross River Region of Nigeria both published in Nigeria in 2001 and 1997 respectively. His present research interest is on West Africa.

J. Shola Omotola , Redeemer’s University ( Nigeria)

Osarhieme Benson Osadolor is the Fulbright Scholar-in-Residence in the Department of History and Geography, Morgan State University, Baltimore, Maryland, USA for the 2008/2009 academic year. He is a Laureate of the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) Governance Institute (1994), and the German Academic Exchange (DAAD) Visiting Scholar at the University of Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany in 1995. He earned a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Benin, Nigeria, a Master of Arts in History from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, and, in 2001, a doctorate in African History from the University of Hamburg, Germany. He has international experience and is currently a Lecturer in the Department of History and International Studies, University of Benin, Benin City, Nigeria. He previously taught in the Department of History at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria from 1988 to 1996. His works include articles in scholarly journals and books published in Africa, Europe, and the United States, and his research interests are African history and historiography, as well as Africa’s international relations with emphasis on conflict and security.

Emmanuel Chibogu Oseji , Redeemer’s University ( Nigeria)

Oyelola Morenike Oyekoya , Redeemer's University ( Nigeria)

Bukola Adeyemi Oyeniyi teaches History and International Relations in the Department of History and International Relations, Redeemer's University, Nigeria. He studied Classical Studies for his Bachelor's degree at the prestigious University of Ibadan, where he graduated as third best student in 1998. He later enrolled for a Master's degree in History and is currently at the threshold of completing his doctoral thesis on "Mobility and Social Conflicts in Yorubaland, 1893 to 1983" in the same university. He was the pioneer Acting Head, Department of History and International Relations, Redeemer's University, Nigeria. Nothing attests to his academic and administrative abilities, career-focus, and dedication to duty as the fact that, twice, he was a laureate of the Nordiska Afrika Institutet, Upssala, Sweden; three times a laureate of the Institute for Security Studies, Pretoria, South Africa; once a scholarship recipient of the Omohundro Institute for Early American Slavery; and he won the prestigious Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) and South-South Exchange Programme (SEPHIS) competition for PhD students in Social History. He was the only Nigerian and one of 14 scholarship recipients from all over the world. Oyeniyi was recently appointed as a member of the Board of Directors for the International Association for Comparative Mythology (IACM). He is the only African on the Board of this age-old international association. As pioneer Acting Head, a few weeks after handing over as Head of Department, the Nigerian University Commission (NUC) gave the Department a “Full Accreditation.” The NUC is the highest regulatory body in charge of university education in Nigeria. His department was the sole department in the university to be so awarded.

Soji Oyeranmi is currently a Lecturer in the Department of History and Diplomatic Studies, Olabisi Onabanjo University (formerly Ogun State University), Ago Iwoye, Ogun State, Nigeria, and is also a PhD candidate in the Department of History, University of Ibadan, Nigeria. His research interests include, environmental history; urban history; economic history; African history; diplomatic history; American history; historiography; development studies; and peace and conflict studies. Mr Oyeranmi's PhD thesis is on, "Environmental Management and Development in Ibadan, 1900-2000.” He has attended a number of international conferences and has a number of local and international publications.

Rubin Patterson is a professor of Sociology and director of the Africana Studies Program at the University of Toledo. He is a student of our newly emerging global society. Patterson researches and writes frequently on migration and diaspora issues as they relate to development in the South, as well as on the environment and society. In 2007, he published an edited book entitled: The African Brain Circulation: Beyond the Drain-Gain Debate. His most recent article, "Preparing Sub-Saharan Africa for a Pioneering Role in Eco-Industrial Development," was published at the end of 2008 in the Journal of Industrial Ecology. He is presently writing a book on Africa’s role in the emerging green global economy. Patterson is the founding chief editor of the international peer-reviewed journal, Perspectives on Global Development and Technology. Patterson is a former professional engineer who worked in the semiconductor and satellite industries before earning a PhD in Sociology. He completed his graduate work at the George Washington University and Howard University in Washington, DC.

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Africa Conference 2009: Science, Technology and Environment

Convened by Dr. Toyin Falola and Coordinated by Emily Brownell for the Center for African and African American Studies

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