USA Africa Dialogue Series - Call for Papers

Reevaluating the Black Experience in Higher Education in Africa and the United States:  Struggles, Survival, and Successes

 

Edited by Ogechi E. Anyanwu and Timothy Forde

 

 INTRODUCTION

Reevaluating the Black Experience in Higher Education is a multidisciplinary and comparative study of higher education in post-colonial Africa and post-civil rights United States. It is edited by experts in the field of higher education and will be published by Eastern Kentucky University Libraries as an open access book. It seeks to capture the often forgotten educational challenges that continue to shape the educational experience of blacks in Africa and the United States. The 1960s was a period of hopes and expectations in Africa and the United States. It was a period of decolonization and civil rights movements and thus there was a revolution of rising expectations on the part of Africans and African Americans. Nowhere was this anticipation more evident and pronounced than in the people's desire to obtain higher education degrees. Access to education was elitist during the colonial period in Africa and pre-civil rights era in the United States. In Africa, due to cost considerations and the desire to maintain 'high academic standards,' European colonial governments made little investments in expanding educational facilities and curriculum in their colonies to accommodate rising demand. In the United States, discriminatory laws and practices limited entrance and retention of blacks in many colleges and universities.  The goal of this book is to capture the remarkable efforts by blacks in both areas to overcome the limitations imposed on them by the prevailing exploitative system, the resilience they displayed, the successes recorded, and the possibilities that lie ahead.

In response to social demand—and eager to train the critically needed human resources to champion economic development and social transformation—leaders in post-colonial African countries engaged higher education as a vehicle for social, political, and economic development. To postcolonial African people, education, as shown in Education and Nation Building in Africa, held "the key that will open the door to a better life and the higher living standards they were promised as the reward of the struggle for nation liberation." Julius Nyerere, the president of Tanzania, declared that universities must "join with the people of East Africa in the struggle to build a nation worthy of the opportunity we have won." Félix Houphouët-Boigny, the president of Côte d'Ivoire, sought to engage universities in realizing the expectations of modern economy. As he rightly stated, the "problems of political, economic, and cultural development of our societies, and rising of the standard of living constitute immediate objectives [and] require us to enlist the help of all the institutions of our states." In his address at the inauguration of Haile Selassie 1 University in 1961, Emperor Haile Selassie, the president of Ethiopia stressed that "universities today stand as the most promising hope for constructive solutions to the problems that beset the modern world … and the money spent in coordinating, strengthening, and expanding higher education in Ethiopia is well invested."

In the United States, the enactment of affirmative action and the popularization of many historical black colleges have aided educational experience of blacks in the United States. After more than five decades since independence in Africa and civil rights movement in the United States, has higher education experiments fulfilled the hopes and expectations of blacks? This book seeks to answer that question. The editors would like to invite you to contribute a chapter in this edited book intended to give both students and instructors of Africa and African American studies a comprehensive and up-to-date account of the centrality of education in understanding the experience of black in the United States and Africa. The book will highlight the interconnectedness of race, religion, politics, economy, and society. Each manuscript should explore any of the themes below using one or two countries in Africa, states or higher educational institutions in the United States as a case study. We have designed the themes to guide scholars but authors are free to develop topics within the broad themes suggested. Each chapter should discuss the higher educational traditions upheld by the chosen country or state during the colonial period or pre-civil right movement, the changes that occurred afterwards, and an comprehensive assessment of higher education policy outcomes in recent years. The editors welcome scholarly submissions from academics and researchers in the field.

Instructions:

Please consult the list of themes below and submit a 300-word abstract of your proposed paper to ogechi.anyanwu@eku.edu on December 30, 2016. You will receive notifications of acceptance of abstracts on January 5, 2017. If your proposal is accepted for publication, you will be requested to submit a complete essay on May 30, 2017 not more than 12,000 words. Papers must be original and should not be previously published or simultaneously been reviewed elsewhere for publication. All articles will be peer-reviewed before they are accepted for publication. For any further inquiries, do not hesitate to contact the editors.

POSSIBLE THEMES TO EXPLORE

1. Affirmative Action and Access to Higher education'
2. Education and the Legacy of Civil Rights
3. Black Colleges, educational quantity and quality
4. Admissions and the Politics of Entrance to Higher Education
5. Internationalization of Higher Education in Africa
6. Cultism and Social Life in Higher Educational Institutions
7. Curriculum Expansion in African Universities
8. Brain Drain, Brain Gain and Quality Enhancement in Higher Education  
9. Military Regimes and Higher Education in Africa
10. The World Bank, IMF, and Higher Education Financing
11. Academic Freedom and Political Interference in University Administration
12. Private Providers of Higher Education
13. The impact of Terrorism and War against it on Africa's Higher Education
14. The Fate of Women in Africa's Higher Education
15. Mother Tongue and the Politics of Language
16. Corruption and Management of Universities
17. Innovation and Success Stories in African Universities
18. Publish or Perish: Promotion and Academic Standards in Africa
19. African Americans in the STEM fields
20. Lack of African American Teachers
21. Alternative Educational Strategies for K – 12 African American Students
22. Effective Strategies for Improving the Retention and Graduation Rate of African American College Male Students
23. Culturally Competent Instructional Strategies in Higher Education
24. Financial Literacy and Economic Empowerment as part of the college curriculum
25. Service Learning Study Abroad programs
26. Teaching Entrepreneurship and Leadership skills in college curriculum
27. Character Development
28. Higher-order Thinking Skills
29. Emerging Technologies that promote the academic achievement of students of color

 

Dr. Ogechi Emmanuel Anyanwu
Professor of  History & African Studies 
Director of  African/African-American Studies Program 

Eastern Kentucky University
Keith 124

521 Lancaster Avenue 
Richmond, KY, USA, 40475-3102   
Phone: 859-248-1394. 

Email: ogechi.anyanwu@eku.edu

 

Dr. Timothy Forde

Assistant Professor of Education
Chief Diversity Officer & Special Assistant to the Executive Vice President

Eastern Kentucky University

Jones 407

521 Lancaster Avenue

Richmond, KY 40475-3102

Phone: (859)200-2893
Email: Timothy.forde@eku.edu