NEWS & ANNOUNCEMENTS

MAY 18: Africana Studies Program Honors Graduating Concentrators

Graduate Reception Photo Gallery

On Monday, May 18, 2009, graduating Africana Studies concentrators were honored at a reception in the Class of 1958 Lounge, Paresky. Congratulations to the Class of 2009: Joshua Adeyemi, Rashid A. Duroseau, David L. Edwards, Emily B. Fowler-Cornfeld, Kaveh Liam Ilyich Landsverk, Bryant J. Lewis, Naya-Joi Martin, Darran Moore, Stella Nkemdelim Onochie, Annette N. K. Quarcoopome, Morgan Anne Simpson, Anisha Nakisha Warner, and Shayla S. Williams.

The Gaius C. Bolin 1889 Prize in Africana Studies, awarded for the best scholarly work by a Williams undergraduate in the field of Africana Studies, was established in honor of the first black graduate of Williams, who went on to become a prominent Poughkeepsie lawyer. The Gaius C. Bolin Prize for 2009 was awarded jointly to Annette N. K. Quarcoopome and Anisha Nakisha Warner.

The Sterling A. Brown 1922 Citizenship Prize, awarded to the graduating senior whose undergraduate experience reflects outstanding leadership and involvement in campus affairs, academic achievement, and communication of new ideas, was initially established in 1974 by members of the Class of 1974 and has been carried on by the Africana Studies Program in honor of this retired Professor of English at Howard University. The Sterling A. Brown Prize for 2009 was awarded to Shayla S. Williams.

NOVEMBER 17: Williams College Hosts Governor Patrick
and Congressional Black Caucus

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CBC Photo Gallery

Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick and members of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) came to the Williams College campus to join in a discussion of "Race and the New Congress" on November 17, 2008. The event was moderated by 60 Minutes correspondent Lesley Stahl.

"What an enormous honor it is for Williams to host the largest number of Congress members ever to gather on our campus," Williams President Morton Owen Schapiro said, "and what a great privilege for students, faculty, staff, and local residents to hear first-hand from caucus members so soon after the historic presidential election."

The gathering was the first of CBC members since Congress recessed for the election.

"I'm excited to take part in such an important discussion at a particularly auspicious time for Congress and the country to advance issues of race," Stahl said. "It's especially newsworthy to assemble so many of the CBC members who hold leadership positions."

The caucus members included:

• James E. Clyburn (S.C.), Democratic Leadership Majority Whip
• John Conyers Jr. (Mich.), Chairman, House Committee on Judiciary
• Robert. C. Scott (Va.), Chairman, Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security
• Bennie G. Thompson (Miss.), Chairman, House Committee on Homeland Security
• Shelia Jackson Lee (Texas), Chairwoman, House Subcommittee on Transportation and Infrastructure Protection
• Danny K. Davis (Ill.), Chairman, House Subcommittee on the District of Columbia
• John Lewis (Ga.), Member of the House Committee on Ways and Means
• Chaka Fattah (Pa.), Member of the House Committee on Appropriations
• Diane E. Watson (Calif.), Member of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs
• Hank Johnson (Ga.), Member of the House Committee on Armed Services
• Donna M. Christensen (V.I.), Member of the House Homeland Security
• Yvette Clarke (N.Y.), Member of the House Committee on Education and Labor

The event was initiated by Visiting Lecturer in Political Science Bernard Moore. Executive Director of the non-profit think tank Second Chance for Social Justice, Moore is a policy advisor to caucus member Danny Davis.

In January 1969, newly elected African American representatives of the 77th Congress joined six incumbents to form the Democratic Select Committee to address legislative concerns of black and minority citizens. The Committee was renamed the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) in 1971. The vision of the founding members of the CBC, to "promote the public welfare through legislation designed to meet the needs of millions of neglected citizens," continues today. Its members have been at the forefront of legislative campaigns for human and civil rights for all citizens.

The CBC's visit to Williams College was sponsored by the W. Ford Schumann '50 Program in Democratic Studies. the Office of the President, the Africana Studies Program, the Multicultural Center, and the Claiming Williams initiative.

NOVEMBER 14: African Studies Association Honors Kenda Mutongi

The African Studies Association held its Presidential Lecture and Awards Ceremony during the 50th anniversary of the ASA’s first Annual Meeting in Chicago, IL, on November 14, 2008. The Presidential Lecture was followed by the ASA Awards Ceremony, which honored the recipients and honorable mentions for the 2008 Melville J. Herskovits Award. The ASA annually presents the Melville J. Herskovits Award to the author of an outstanding original scholarly work published on Africa in the previous year.

Kenda Mutongi - Worries of the Heart: Widows, Family, and Community in Kenya (University of Chicago Press, 2007). According to the ASA Award Committee: "Mutongi surveys a century of Kenyan history from the perspective of ordinary people in western Kenya. She uses the condition of widowhood as a lens through which to observe the history of colonialism, Christianity, independence movements, gender relations, urban migration, proletarianization, corruption, domesticity, nation-building, and much else besides, even memories of the slave trade. The book is a critical and sympathetic inquiry into an extraordinary range of topics as they impinge on the lives of ordinary people in Maragoli, Kenya. The author never loses sight of the realities of the lives of the people about whom she writes, and she writes about them with an intimacy and sense of connection coupled with an admirable analytical detachment. She weaves into her elegantly written text both the content of her diverse sources as well as accounts of how she came by them. The book is an exemplary work of historical ethnography."

The African Studies Association was founded in 1957 to bring together people with a scholarly and professional interest in Africa.

African Studies Association website

New faculty 2008-2009

Travis L. Gosa received his Ph.D. in Sociology from The Johns Hopkins University in 2008 with a specialization in education and social inequality. 

Neil Roberts received his Ph.D. in Political Science from The University of Chicago in 2007 with a specialization in political theory.

Gaius Charles Bolin Dissertation Fellowship

Devyn Spence Benson is in the process of completing her dissertation, titled “Not Blacks, but Citizens:  Racial Politics in Revolutionary Cuba, 1959-1961.” She will be the Gaius Charles Bolin Dissertation Fellow in 2008-09. After the fellowship and her dissertation defense, Benson will begin a tenure-track Assistant Professor appointment in African Studies and History at Williams College.

Sterling Brown Visiting Professor, Fall 2008: Creative Writing

Binyavanga Wainaina is a writer, cultural activist, and publicist.  He was born in Nakuru town in the Rift Valley Province of Kenya and attended high school in Nairobi.  He later studied commerce at the University of Transkei in South Africa, after which he worked in Cape Town for some years as a freelance food and travel writer.  He was the founding editor and publisher of Kwani?, the leading literary magazine in eastern Africa.  His work has been featured in many magazines and journals, including Harpers, Vanity Fair, National Geographic, Granta, New York Times Magazine, Virginia Quarterly Review, Paris Review, and Bidoun.  He is a regular contributor to Cape Argus,  (South Africa); Guardian (UK);  East African (Nairobi); Ecoforu (Nairobi); Tank Magazine (London); Chimurenga (Cape Town); Mail and Guardian (South Africa.).  He is the recipient of many writing awards,  including the prestigious Caine Prize for African Writing, Virginia Quarterly Review’s Emily Clark Balch Prize for Short Fiction, Chevening Scholarship, and Lannan Foundation Fellowship.  He is the author of Discovering Home (2009). Outside of his literary career, Wainaina is a leading authority on African cuisine.