Dear Shad,--
Congratulations on your promotion to full professor at Rhodes College. The many achievements that have brought you to this stage demonstrate that you are a pacesetter.
Elias Kifon Bongmba
On Wednesday, April 25, 2018 at 8:12:43 PM UTC-5, Toyin Falola wrote:Shadrack Wanjala Nasong'o – promoted to Full Professor of International Studies at Rhodes College, Memphis.
The big news arrived last week when I was mid-air. Our friend, Shad, is now a full professor at Rhodes College, probably the first black person to attain this rank in the history of the college, which dates back to 1848 when it was founded.
We all know him, but to those who do not, Nasong'o was born and raised in Nandolia village of Bungoma County in Western Kenya. He went to Kongoli Primary School where he emerged the second best student in the Certificate of Primary Education exams. He proceeded to Chesamisi High School for both his 'O' and 'A' Level education, again emerging among the top ten students at both levels.
Nasong'o went on to study at the University of Nairobi, Kenya where he obtained his BA degree in Political Science and Linguistics and an MA degree in International Relations. He worked for four years in the Kenyan Government as Assistant Secretary for Information and Broadcasting before resigning to take up a teaching position at the University of Nairobi as Tutorial Fellow, rising to the position of Lecturer before departing to the US for his doctoral studies in the fall of 2000. He obtained his Ph.D. in Public and International Affairs from Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts, which he completed in a record three-and-a-half years following which he was employed as Lecturer in Political Science at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. He taught at UT Knoxville for one year before joining the Department of International Studies as Assistant Professor in the fall of 2005. He received his tenure and promotion to Associate Professor in the fall of 2011 and, beginning fall of 2012, he was appointed Chair of the Department of International Studies. He remained Chair for five years, stepping down in fall 2017 to undergo review for promotion to full professor. I was gracious to have invited me to give their distinguished university lecture.
Nasong'o's research interest lies in the areas of the politics of democratization, identity conflict, and the political economy of development with particular focus on Eastern Africa. His first book, Contending Political Paradigms in Africa, is a comparative study of democratization in Kenya and Zambia. It focuses on the rational calculations and strategic choices of the political elite, both incumbent and oppositional, within the context of transitional politics. His second book, a coedited volume entitled Kenya: The Struggle for Democracy. evaluates the struggle for democracy in Kenya since independence in 1963.
Nasong'o's singly-edited volume, The African Search for Stable Forms of Statehood, examines, from a critical perspective, the quest for stable forms of statehood in nine African countries. In, a small monograph entitled The Human Rights Sector in Kenya: Key Issues and Challenges, Nasong'o undertakes a theoretical and conceptual problematization of the human rights sector in Kenya and attempt an empirical survey of the methodological, strategic, and training needs of key actors in the sector. His fifth book, a coedited volume entitled Regime Change and Succession Politics in Africa, examines the dynamics of regime change and succession politics in ten African countries from multiple interdisciplinary perspectives.
The Roots of Ethnic Conflict in Africa: From Grievance to Violence, Nasong'o's sixth book, examines the root causes of ethnic conflict in Africa. The main thesis of the book is that ethnic political mobilization results from deeply-felt grievances on the part of the group so mobilized. Such grievances revolve around political and socio-economic marginalization, including perceived skewed distribution of both material and symbolic resources. However, the recourse to violence stems from the nature of government's response to the mobilized - whether the government responds positively and thus seeks to redress the grievances of the mobilized group or whether the government responds negatively and seeks to suppress such groups, thereby radicalizing them. Nasong'o's final two volumes, both co-edited with Toyin Falola and both published in 2016 are entitled Gendering African Social Spaces: Women, Power, and Artistic Expressions, and Contentious Politics in Africa: Identity, Conflict, and Social Change.
Nasong'o has been recognized and awarded for his prolific research and scholarship on Africa. In 2012, he received Rhodes College's Clarence Day Award for Excellence in Research and Creative Activities. In 2016, he received the Ali Mazrui Award for Research and Scholarly Excellence from the University of Texas at Austin.
Shad, we love you!
TF
Toyin Falola
Department of History
The University of Texas at Austin
104 Inner Campus Drive
Austin, TX 78712-0220
USA
512 475 7224
512 475 7222 (fax)
http://groups.google.com/group
/USAAfricaDialogue
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@googlegroups.com
Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index. html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com .
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout .
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@googlegroups.com
Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
No comments:
Post a Comment