News release from IPFW:
IPFW Professor Selected for Carnegie African Diaspora Fellowship Program
(May 19, 2015) — Professor Jospeter Mbuba in the Department of Public Policy at Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne (IPFW) was awarded a fellowship by the Carnegie African Diaspora Fellowship Program (CADFP). Mbuba will travel to Kenya to work with Embu College University, Kenya, and Professor Simon Thuranira will develop a baccalaureate degree in Criminology and Security Studies and work on collaborative research.
“I am excited not only at the opportunity to explore the criminal justice system in the African context, but also the prospects of establishing faculty linkages for collaborative research and the potential for student exchange, including the possible creation of a study abroad destination for our students to the continent of Africa,” said Mbuba.
The IPFW project is one of 17 projects that will pair African Diaspora scholars with higher education institutions in Africa to collaborate on curriculum co-development, research, graduate teaching, training, and mentoring activities. Mbuba is one of 17 African Diaspora scholars who have been awarded fellowships to travel to Africa beginning in spring 2015 to conduct a wide range of projects, including developing an MBA program, staging a musical based on South African themes, and Africa-sensitive research in cognitive psychology.
The program has now selected and approved a total of 110 Fellows since its inception, ten more than originally anticipated when the program was launched in February 2014. In addition to the 17 Fellows announced this month, the program had previously announced awards to 33 Fellows in June 2014 and 60 Fellows in November 2014. All of the Fellows and Host Institutions are listed on the program website, along with highlights of projects and comments from the first round of Fellows and Hosts.
The winning projects in this third round of awards were submitted by 16 institutions in Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa. Host universities include:
- Ghana—University of Education, Winneba, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, University of Ghana
- Kenya—Aga Khan University, East Africa; Embu University College
- Nigeria—University of Port Harcourt, Delta State University, Abraka, Niger Delta University, Amassoma, Federal University of Technology, Akure, University of Jos, Babcock University, Covenant University
- South Africa—University of Pretoria, University of the Western Cape, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Rhodes University
This innovative Fellowship program facilitates engagement between scholars born in Africa who are now based in the United States or Canada and scholars in Africa on mutually beneficial academic activities. The program is managed by the Institute of International Education (IIE) in collaboration with Quinnipiac University, through Dr. Paul Tiyambe Zeleza, who chairs the Advisory Council, and is funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York.
According to Dr. Zeleza, vice president for academic affairs and professor of history at Quinnipiac University, “Diaspora knowledge networks that bring together academics across disciplines and help to facilitate scholarly collaboration, faculty and student exchanges, and networking opportunities are an important component of brain circulation. Diaspora academics constitute a critical facet of higher education internationalization. The connections fostered through them ultimately support capacity building and innovation in home and host countries. Unique in its organization, CADFP offers opportunities for truly collaborative, innovative, and transformative engagements between African Diaspora academics in Canada and the United States and African higher education institutions in six countries.”
Many Fellows have returned to their home campus and continued the work resulting from their academic collaborations, extending the impact of the fellowship on both their home campus in North America and their host campus in Africa.
“The Carnegie African Diaspora Fellows Program exemplifies Carnegie Corporation’s enduring commitment to higher education in Africa,” said IIE’s president and CEO, Allan E. Goodman. It brings together Dr. Paul Zeleza’s expertise and vision with IIE’s long history of managing global scholarships and our ongoing work to develop talent and help build capacity to address the challenges and harness the opportunities emerging on the African continent.”
Zeleza’s vision for the mobilization was recently cited in the draft declaration of the first African Higher Education Summit: Revitalizing Higher Education for Africa’s Future held in Dakar, Senegal, in March. The declaration mandated a “10/10 Initiative,” which would send 10,000 Africans in Diaspora to aid in projects across the continent over the next ten years.
About the Fellows and Hosts
Public and private higher education institutions in Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, and Uganda were eligible to submit project requests to host a scholar for 14 to 90 days; prospective hosts were invited but not required to name a proposed scholar in a project request. The proposed scholar and project request were each evaluated by a review committee and were subject to approval by the Advisory Council. Scholars born in Africa who live in the United States or Canada and work in an accredited college or university in either of those two countries were eligible to apply to be on a roster of available candidates. IIE maintains a scholar roster to facilitate matches according to the discipline specializations, expertise, activities, and objectives described in a project request. The Fellowship for the project visit includes a daily stipend, transportation and visa funds, and health insurance coverage.For more information about the IPFW project, contact Mbuba at 260-481-6345 or mbubaj@ipfw.edu.
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