CALL FOR BOOK CHAPTERS Africa: A Globalizing World and the Challenges of Peace, Security, and Development

Sabella

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Sep 9, 2020, 9:18:11 AM9/9/20

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CALL FOR BOOK CHAPTERS

Africa: A Globalizing World and the Challenges of Peace, Security, and Development

Editors: Alem Hailu, Ph.D., Mohamed Camara, Ph.D., and Sabella Abidde, PhD

Africa, the second largest continent covering about one-fifth of the total land surface of the earth has been foundational to the development of the world. Its enormous array of wealth, ranging from its huge material reserves to its human and cultural resources, has enriched the nations and peoples of the earth. As John Reader put it, “Africa is the birthplace of humanity, the nursery where we learned to walk, to play and love. Our every day is founded upon a talent for innovation that was first used to make stone tools in East Africa nearly three million years ago. From these beginnings, we have colonized the globe, built modern civilizations, and traveled to the moon.”

The two-volume books hence proceed from the vantage point of framing the study of Africa in its development and contacts with the world across its historical trajectory and sociopolitical continuity. It is based on the belief that understanding the current and future challenges of the continent is only possible through a judicious insight into the ways the continent has adopted in addressing past and contemporary problems. A balanced view of Africa is indispensable for the stability, prosperity, and security of the world. Undoubtedly, and despite the many scholarships that failed to acknowledge its great role and contributions to world civilizations and global wealth, Africa has been at the center of humanity’s existence and advance.

The integration of nations and regions of the world under the historic process of globalization has intensified the shared forces of existence for Africa and the world. Economic interchanges as trade and investment, global policies as well as the cross-border flows of technology, populations, arms, and ideas have played central roles in the paces of socio-political changes sweeping across the nations of our interconnected world. The collective achievements of humanity as the capacity of the world’s productive forces to feed millions, cure diseases and improve the living conditions of populations have also come with the negative costs of the attendant technological changes. The unfettered flow of arms, drugs, pollutants, and violent electronic messages have fueled conflicts, crimes, and socio-economic break downs. The African World as the weakest link in this global chain of stability and prosperity has been particularly burdened by this global phenomenon. States, social institutions, and civic communities have, thus, had to tackle the dual challenges of embracing the positive developments as well as the imperatives of confronting the problems.

The goals of the volumes are to provide scholarly foundations for the complex socioeconomic and public policy issues in the broader framework of security, peacebuilding, and development. An interdisciplinary approach to understanding the issues of peace, security, and development is envisaged as a resource for education, civic discourse, and research. The roots of violence, conflict, ecological degradation, and sociopolitical dissolutions are no longer confined to nations or regions. The threats and consequences of the problems, likewise, are not fenced off by geographic or national boundaries.

The two-part book series aims to contribute to the task of assisting in laying the foundation for developing systems of knowledge, public conversation, and commitment. Such efforts at finding answers to the persisting challenges of the African World are, therefore, trusted to help in making a difference through research, education, and meaningful engagement of all academic, civic and governmental stakeholders in the continuing quest for a coordinated response to the key concerns of our age. Hence, we invite scholars and public intellectuals to submit abstracts that address some of the issues we raised or address any of the proposed topics listed below. Interested contributors may also write on topics that are not listed if the said topic falls within the overall theme of this project:

AFRICA: BACKGROUND

· History, civilization, contributions

· Society, Economy, Politics

· Culture, knowledge systems, Institutions

· Early contacts and connections to the outside world

· Kingdoms, empires, emirates, sultanates

· The Atlantic World and Africa in the Indian Ocean

AFRICA IN THE WORLD/GLOBALIZING WORLD

· International relations, Geopolitics,

· Africa in - world affairs, Regional alliances, Global initiatives

· Africa in – Global wars, national conflicts, International organizations

· Africa and the modernizing world- Growth, development policy, transformation

· Education, Technological change, The Information Revolution

· State and nonstate international interactions, partnerships, and cooperation

THE CHANGING REALITIES OF SECURITY, DEVELOPMENT, AND CHANGE

· Globalization, peacebuilding, Human Security

· Impact of external actors on Africa - The West, China, and international powers

· Understanding the historical and contemporary interconnections of Africa and its Diaspora

· Threats of environmental degradation, global warming, and climate change

· The new regional and global drivers of conflict, violence, and sociopolitical breakdown

· Promises and threats of the digital revolution, population growth, and globalization

Submission Procedure

Please submit a 300-350-word abstract clearly outlining the leading ideas, insights, and anticipated research findings by 30 September 2020. Your 1-2-page CV is also required.
You will be notified of acceptance or rejection of your abstract by 15 October 2020. Authors whose abstracts are accepted will be sent guidelines for completing their chapters.
Each chapter is set for a maximum of 30-double-spaced pages (including the notes, table, figures, and references). Completed chapters are due no later than 25 February 2021
Send your abstracts/inquiries to Prof. Alem Hailu (alem...@att.net) and please cc Prof. Mohamed Camara (ms...@bellsouth.net) and Prof. Sabella Abidde (Sab...@gmail.com)

About the Editors

Alem Hailu obtained holds a Ph.D. in Social Science and an MA in Public Administration from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. He has worked in various institutions and engaged in development and public policy, and human security initiatives in the Global South. Professor Hailu’s research interests include public policy, sustainability and development, African in a globalizing world, and the political economy of nations in transition. He is a member of the African Studies Association.

Mohamed S. Camara is a Professor and Chair of the African Studies program at Howard University. He holds a Ph.D. (1996) and an MA (1991) in history from Northwestern University, Illinois. He was, for many years, a Professor of International Affairs, History, and Communication at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Daytona Beach, Florida. He is the author, co-author, editor, and co-editor of several peer-reviewed publications. Professor Camara is a member of the African Studies Association.

S.O Abidde is a Professor of Political Science at Alabama State University. He holds a Ph.D. in African Studies from Howard, and an MA in political science from Minnesota State University. He is an interdisciplinary scholar with research/publication interest in Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean and Africa-China-Taiwan Relations. Dr. Abidde’s book on Migrants, Refugees, and the Internally Displaced is slated for a fall 2020 release by Springer. He is a member of the Association of Global South Studies.

Howard2 - Africa Globalizing World.pdf

Seun Bamidele

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Sep 12, 2020, 10:51:15 AM9/12/20

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OPINION

Professorships must be earned

JONATHAN JANSEN Columnist 17 May 2018

The contempt for standards in higher education is something one sees also in senior appointments in the Ministry and Department of Higher Education.

Image: 123RF/Christos Georghiou

There is a fraud we seldom talk about.

It concerns the way in which the title “professor” is attached to people without any claim on this highest achievement in the academic profession.

Yes, it is an achievement. It starts with the hard work of obtaining a research or professional degree called a doctorate (mainly a PhD).

That itself takes years of study, often combining field research in distant places and difficult theoretical labour with countless revisions and then a searching final examination involving four or more assessors from around the world.

You don’t just collect the PhD.

But that is only the start, for then you have to produce years of scholarship involving peer-reviewed articles in leading journals as well as books (in the non-science fields).

That is not enough, though, for you then have to successfully supervise masters and especially doctoral students as part of your portfolio of academic works.

That collection of scholarly works, including evidence of outstanding teaching and approval of your peers, qualifies you to be considered an associate professor and, with more research of international standard, you become a candidate for (full) professor.

Not in South Africa.

The number of people appointed to professorship these days amounts to academic fraud.

Sometimes it is an effort to increase the number of black professors because of political pressure; even some of our top universities are beginning to fold under this pressure.

By the way, the Afrikaans universities once did the same thing under the pressure of Afrikaner nationalism.

I know, because as dean and as vice-chancellor I had to deal with the consequences of such fraud perpetrated over many years.

Now, black nationalists (coloured, Indian, African) have been doing exactly the same thing for the same reasons.

Strangely, some of the main beneficiaries of this complete disregard for academic standards are white colleagues with honours and masters degrees but with activist credentials.

The field of education is one of the main disaster areas for such promotion.

In a strange way, this fraudulent practice reinforces the poor image of education as a profession and parallels the decline in scholastic standards in schools and universities.

Such contempt for standards in higher education is something one sees also in senior appointments in the ministry and Department of Higher Education.

Think in recent years of the people charged with senior responsibility for higher education – men and women with no experience of higher education as senior academics or high-level administrators.

These are the people who must talk to vice-chancellors about credentialling, quality assurance and academic planning.

But these are political operators with no understanding of the complexities of higher education.

It’s like appointing a minister of health with an engineering degree.

The message? Competence does not matter and standards are irrelevant.

Yes, there are honorary professorships, but these are almost always senior academics who have already attained the position of professor.

Then there is the visiting professor (which, personally, I disapprove of) for an accomplished professional from the corporate world who delivers teaching during a semester and then relinquishes the temporary title.

There is also something called adjunct professor, which applies to high accomplished scholars who meet some of the criteria above (such as the PhD and publications) but whose real achievements have been in a clinical field (such as surgery) or a professional vocation such as journalism or policy analysis; even then, in a good university there are strict peer review criteria for such appointments. Those are exceptions.

Most professorships are achievements at the pinnacle of a career, and we must defend that standard.

When somebody shows up on a stage or on television and is introduced as “professor”, somebody needs to ask: what exactly do you profess?

That would put the skids under these pretenders.

Strangely, we are less tolerant as a society of people who fraudulently use the title of “doctor”.

Lives have been ruined by fake doctors, but not by fake professors.

True, in America, a professor is usually an academic appointment at a university, but few get to that point at a serious institution without satisfying several of the criteria mentioned earlier.

But that is not a South African tradition, where a junior lecturer becomes a lecturer, then senior lecturer and then an “Aspro” (associate professor) and then “Prof”.

That said, people who insist on being called “professor” are usually insecure.

A true professor of any standing would allow her or his academic work to speak for itself; the considerable and substantive achievements of such a person would confirm the gravitas of the position.

But if we continue to hand out professorships like toffee apples, we should not expect society to value our universities and those who strive within them.

by NEWSROOM AI

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CALL FOR BOOK CHAPTERS Africa: A Globalizing World and the Challenges of Peace, Security, and Development

Sabella

Seun Bamidele

Gloria Emeagwali

Moses Ebe Ochonu

Okey Iheduru