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  2003 East Africa Travel Grants

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  2001 Seminar in Nairobi

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Global Partners in East Africa
2004 Travel Grant Recipients

The Global Partners Project East Africa awarded 18 travel grants, representing 17 institutions and 24 faculty members. Seven recipients were from GLCA member schools, five were from ACM member schools, and six were from ACS member schools.:

African Studies Conference, Colorado College and Knox College
Mary Bruce, Monmouth College
Sonja Darlington, Beloit College
Fred L. Johnson, III, Hope College
Joseph Mbele, St. Olaf College
Kenneth Menkhaus, Davidson College
Patricia Mitsche, Antioch College
Julian M. Murchison, Millsaps College
Thomasina Neely-Chandler, Spelman College
Bradley Nystrom, Centre College
James Pletcher, Denison University
Randolph Quay,e College of Wooster
John L.S. Simpkins, Furman University
Ali Skandor, Ohio Wesleyan University
Neal Sobania, Hope College
Carol Summers, University of Richmond
Susan Swanson, Beloit College
Emmanuel Twesigye, Ohio Wesleyan University


Mary Bruce, Professor of English, Monmouth College
Dr. Bruce will travel to Tanzania to serve as a visiting writer in residence at the University of Dar es Salaam. While she is in Tanzania, she hopes to hold workshops in creative writing and work on two publishing projects. One is a collaborative project with Dr. Hamza Njozi and Dr. Lillian Osaki to cull, edit, and compile Tanzanian folklore. The second is a collaborative project with Dr. Osaki and Dr. Sonja Darlington to incorporate unpublished Tanzanian women into a publishable volume.

Colorado College and Knox College, African Studies Conference at Colorado College
Colorado College and Knox College received funding from Global Partners to supplement the cost of an African Studies Conference to be held at Colorado College September 24-26, 2004. The conference will focus on the teaching of African Studies at liberal arts colleges and issues in contemporary Africa. The Global Partners funding will be used to cover part of the travel costs for faculty members from the 42 participating institutions of the Global Partners Project who attend.

Sonja Darlington, Professor of Education, Beloit College
Dr. Darlington proposes to bring Dr. Lilian Osaki from the Department of Literature at the University of Dar es Salaam to collaborate with her in the teaching of a Tanzanian literature course in the Women Studies Department at Beloit in the fall of 2004. She also hopes to collaborate with Dr. Bruce (see above) on the publication of Tanzanian women writers.

Fred L. Johnson, III, Assistant Professor of History, Hope College
Dr. Johnson plans to travel to Tanzania in order to expand his research area for a book examining U.S. foreign policy in East Africa since 1945. He will gather primary source information from both Tanzanian and American sources for compilation into a balanced work highlighting the successes, failures, challenges, pitfalls, and future implications of American foreign policy in the region.

Joseph Mbele, Associate Professor of English, St. Olaf College
Dr. Mbele will travel to Tanzania to continue his work on the oral tradition of Osale Otango an outlaw hero in the 1950s, during the days of British rule. This research will build on previously funded work by Global Partners and will continue his work on African and world epics.

Kenneth Menkhaus, Associate Professor of Political Science, Davidson College
Dr. Menkhaus will conduct fieldwork in four East African countries (Uganda, Sudan, Ethiopia, and rural Kenya) to assess the continuing conflicts in these countries. This fieldwork with allow him to finish the research necessary to complete his book, Protracted Conflict in the Horn of Africa.

Patricia Mische, Professor of Peace Studies, Antioch College
Dr. Mische will travel to Maseno University in western Kenya to undertake six weeks of collaborative research and curriculum development with faculty members there. Her research will focus on traditional and newly emerging approaches to peace and conflict resolution and will contribute to the development and enrichment of peace and conflict studies at both Antioch and Maseno.

Julian Murchison, Assistant Professor of Sociology and Anthropology, Millsaps College
Dr. Murchison will travel to Tanzania to explore the possibilities of establishing a summer study program for undergraduates. He will travel to the northern, southern, and coastal areas of Tanzania to make contact with key people whose assistance and expertise will be crucial to the success of a program.

Thomasina Neely-Chandler, Assistant Professor of Music, Spelman College
Dr. Neely-Chandler will travel to Tanzania this summer to continue her ethnomusicological fieldwork with former church affiliates with rich tradition in "kwaya" or gospel music. She hopes that this research will help her understand the manner in which AIDS is confronted through music. She will also lecture at the University of Dar es Salaam on ethnomusicology.

Bradley Nystrom, Professor of Education, Centre College and faculty from four other Global Partners participating institutions
Dr. Nystrom and his collaborators have invited Dr. Peter Chonjo from the Curriculum and Teaching Department at the University of Dar es Salaam to visit the U.S. in January of 2005. Dr. Chonjo will co-teach a short course on East Africa with Dr. Nystrom at Centre College. He will also visit Knox College, Beloit College, and Furman University during his time in the U.S.

James Pletcher, Associate Professor of Political Science, Denison University
Dr. Pletcher will explore the ways in which producers, processors, and traders in Uganda respond to the organizational and informational demands placed on them by evolving standards in their actual or potential export markets. He intends to study export standards in three or four of the agricultural industries which have the greatest export potential, but which produce standard challenges, including: coffee, fish, fresh cut flowers, vegetables, cotton, and honey.

Randolph Quaye, Assistant Professor of Sociology, College of Wooster
Dr. Quaye plans to study the nature of health care financing in East Africa. In particular, he will attempt a feasibility analysis of social insurance in Tanzania by conducting in-depth interviews with health care planners and scholars in the country. He hopes that he will be able to share the information gleaned with his Comparative Health Care Systems course and design a new course on health care financing in the developing world.

John L.S. Simpkins, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Furman University
Dr. Simpkins will travel to Kenya to meet with scholars, community leaders, members of parliament, and non-governmental organization officials who are considering changes to the country's constitution.

Ali Skandor, Assistant Professor of Black World Studies, Ohio Wesleyan University
Dr. Skandor will continue with his previously-funded work of creating Swahili learning DVDs and videos. He will travel to East Africa to document language and cultural functions in places such as markets, transportation, and schools, as well as gender issues, political discussions, geographical panorama, and history. Dr. Skandor is interested in sharing his Swahili course with other participating institutions.

Neal Sobania, Professor of History, Hope College
Dr. Sobania will collaborate with Dr. Godfrey Muriuki, Professor of History at the University of Nairobi, to examine the communication of ideas and the politics of representation found in historical stereoscopic slides taken among the Kikuyu on Mt. Kenya in the first decade of the twentieth century.

Carol Summers, Associate Professor of History, University of Richmond
Dr. Summers will travel to Uganda to collect oral histories of graduates and former staff of elite schools who were alive during the turbulent 1940's. She hopes that gathering oral histories will enable her to enrich her already expansive research on the complicated political alliances and feuds of the country during that time.

Susan Swanson, Assistant Professor of Geology, Beloit College
Dr. Swanson will travel to the Kilimanjaro region of Tanzania to begin the work necessary to characterize spring systems that feed irrigation ditches in the region. She and her colleagues are interested in whether differing beliefs about springs contribute to the growing problem of conflict between water users. Conflict resolution requires not only an understanding of these differences, but also an understanding of the physical system under dispute.

Emmanuel Twesigye, Professor of Religion, Ohio Wesleyan University
Dr. Twesigye will travel to Uganda to continue his previously-funded research on the religious events and practices associated with the Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God. He will also conduct research and assess the Church and Uganda's reaction to the death of Idi Amin, the former president and murderous dictator of Uganda.

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