Dear UW African Studies Community:
I hope this finds you well! As the curtains closes on our academic year and a beautiful Seattle summer beckons, I want to thank all of you for making African Studies Program’s 2024-2025 year truly rewarding. I am grateful to Jackson School Director Dr. Danny Hoffman, Associate Director of Division 2 Nick Gottschall, Program Operations Specialist Sameera Ibrahim, and Conference Coordinator Katie Sandler for their unwavering support.
This year, the African Studies Program sponsored and co-sponsored several in-person and online events. During the Fall Quarter, we co-sponsored a lecture by Dr. David Schönholzer, an Assistant Professor of Economics at the University of California Santa Cruz. Co-sponsored with the Joint Seminar in Development Economics, Dr. Schönholzer’s presentation focused on experiments in Kenya to reduce traffic accidents. The Program also co-sponsored a “LACS on Dangerous Subjects” series featuring Assistant Professor of Dance (and former Assistant Director of African Studies) Dr. Monica Rojas-Stewart. During the Winter Quarter 2025, we sponsored two webinars by non-UW affiliated African Studies scholars. Dr. Andrew Denning, an Associate Professor of History at the University of Kansas, discussed his new book Automotive Empire: How Cars and Roads Fueled European Colonialism in Africa (Cornell University Press, 2024). Dr. Bright Gyamfi, an Assistant Professor of History at the University of California San Diego, discussed his in-progress book manuscript “Embers of Pan-Africanism: Nkrumahist Intellectuals and Decolonization, 1960-1980.”
In the spring, the African Studies Program was pleased to be involved in two on-campus events. On Saturday, April 12th, we marked the second anniversary of the ongoing Sudanese civil war by hosting a hybrid event entitled “From Sudan to Seattle: A Glocal forum on the Sudanese Civil War.” Panelists included Mubarak Elamin (a Sudanese community organizer and member of the Muslim Association of Puget Sound), Dr. Ushari Khalil (human rights advocate and former Visiting Scholar at the UW School of Law), Dr. Khidir Haroun (former Sudanese Ambassador to the United States), Samira Mohamed (Sudanese pharmacy student and mother who escaped from Khartoum to Port Sudan when the war began) Dr. Christopher Tounsel (Associate Professor of History), and Yasir Zaidan (PhD Candidate in the Jackson School of International Studies). The one-day event provided space for local Sudanese to share their stories of survival and migration, acknowledge the conflict’s connections to local African and Sudanese populations, and offer insights on the current state of US-Sudan relations. We are grateful for the generous financial support we received from the UW Center for Human Rights, Walter Chapin Simpson Center for the Humanities, Center for the Study of the Pacific Northwest, Department of Geography, Department of Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies, Center for American Politics and Public Policy, Middle Eastern Languages & Cultures Program, and the Law, Societies and Justice Department.
On May 21, 2025, the Program was pleased to co-sponsor a UW Public Lecture by former African Studies Program Chair Judge Joel Ngugi. A former Assistant and Associate Professor in the UW School of Law, Ngugi is now a member of the judiciary in his home country of Kenya. He spoke about pressing contemporary political issues in Kenya and the United States, discussed how we can ensure an equitable and wise judiciary, and offered thoughts on how we might imagine justice beyond limited legal frameworks. Sylvia Kang’ara, an important Kenyan legal scholar and former Assistant Professor of International Studies in the Jackson School, also participated in the visit. Judge Ngugi’s visit was spearheaded by Professor of History Dr. Lynn Thomas.
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We acknowledge and celebrate new Africa and Africana-related scholarship published by UW faculty in the past year. Assistant Professor of Education Dr. Lakeya Afolalu’s chapter “Opening Space to Participate: One Nigerian Girl’s Use of Visual Arts to Navigate School-Based Linguistic Discrimination” was published in the edited volume Educating African Immigrant Youth: Schooling and Civil Engagement in K-12 Schools (Teaching College Press, Columbia University). Professor of Political Science Dr. James D. Long’s co-authored article “Covering the Campaign: Computational Tools for Measuring Differences in Candidate and Party News Coverage with Application to an Emerging Democracy” was published in Social Science Computer Review. Dr. Maya Smith (Professor of French)’s book Reclaiming Venus: The Many Lives of Alvenia Bridges was published with Rising Action, an imprint of Simon & Schuster. Professor of Gender, Women & Sexuality Dr. Amanda Lock Swarr’s article “The Unacknowledged Presence of Intersex: Citational Chains and the Stakes of Fights Over Sex” was published in Feminist Formations. Associate Professor of History Dr. Christopher Tounsel’s article “A Tale of Two Divestments: South Africa, Sudan, and Howard University” was published in African Studies Review. The African Studies Program celebrates faculty whose scholarship has been recognized in the past year. Dr. Amanda Lock Swarr’s book Envisioning African Intersex: Challenging Colonial and Racist Legacies in South African Medicine (Duke University Press, 2024) was named a Finalist for the African Studies Association’s Best Book Award. Dr. Christopher Tounsel’s book Bounds of Blackness: African Americans, Sudan, and the Politics of Solidarity (Cornell University Press, 2024) was awarded Honourable Mention for the International Studies Association’s Book Award (Diplomatic Studies Section).
Several African Studies community members also contributed public-facing scholarship. Dr. James D. Long’s co-authored an article “‘Inflation is radioactive’: Trump’s victory is part of a global populist wave of voters throwing out incumbents” appeared in The Conversation. Dr. Christopher Tounsel’s “Sudan’s civil war: What military advances mean, and where the country could be heading next” for The Conversation. Yasir Zaidan authored several pieces concerning the Sudanese Civil War, including “The U.S. Should Protect Sudan’s Christian Minority from the RSF” (published in World Politics Review) and multiple pieces for Foreign Policy.
We were also excited to welcome new members to our faculty community. After completing their Predoctoral Fellowship at the University of Virginia’s Carter G. Woodson Institute, Dr. Chrystel Oloukoï joined the UW faculty in July 2024 as an Assistant Professor of Urban Geography and Black Political Economy in the Department of Geography. We were also joined this Fall by Dr. Mehari Worku, who began their Assistant Teaching Professor position in the Department of Middle East Languages and Cultures. A specialist in Horn of Africa languages and cultures, Dr. Worku’s Autumn 2024 Elementary Amharic class was listed among the College of Arts & Science’s “Cool Courses for Autumn Quarter.”
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At the graduate level, we were thrilled to continue our tradition of supporting undergraduate and graduate students in their Africa-focused work through the Ottenberg-Winans fund. The Ottenberg-Winans Fund honors anthropologists Edgar “Bud” Winans and Simon Ottenberg, two founders of the UW African Studies Program. The Ottenberg-Winans Fund is the University of Washington’s only resource committed to supporting research in Africa and supporting African UW students. The Fund has received generous support from donors including Lynn Thomas, Abdullahi A. Nur, Kimberly Lucas, and you can learn more about details about the Fund’s history, details, and recipients at this link.
We were excited to award funds to five graduate students and two undergraduate students. Shabazz Abdulkadir (MA student, Infrastructure Planning and Management) will use their award to explore visual reinterpretations of cultural identity in postwar Mogadishu, Somalia. Donalda Brantley (second-year undergraduate student) will use their award to support their participation in a study abroad program in Rwanda. Mapenzi Kinege (MPH Candidate, Global Health) will use their award to work on a project in Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of the Congo focused on improving water, sanitation, and hygiene services for women. Judy Machuka (MPH student, Global Health) will use their award to conduct research in Kenya. Sikose Mjali (MA/PhD student, English) will use their award to collect dissertation research in South Africa and attend the African Literature Association Conference in Nairobi, Kenya. Simone Ngogi-Lukula (PhD student, Education) will use the award to conduct research with African migrant mothers. Mariam Salem (second-year undergraduate) will use their award to support their participation in a study abroad program in Morocco. We congratulate each recipient of the 2025 Ottenberg-Winans funding cycle and extend best wishes as they embark upon their respective projects!
TThis year, the African Studies Program was honored to award Mandela Machel scholarships to several students participating in a new study abroad program. Established in 2000, the Nelson Mandela and Graca Machel Endowment Scholarship Fund was created to support students who demonstrate academic and career interests in the educational, social and economic development of Africa and its people. Preference is given to UW undergraduates participating in a University-sponsored study abroad program, and this year we are blessed to support students who are participating in JSIS/UWB Rwanda: Leadership and Nation Building in Rwanda. Led by Associate Professor in UW Bothell’s School of Interdisciplinary Arts & Sciences Dr. Ben Gardner and Professor in UW Bothell’s School of Interdisciplinary Arts & Sciences Dr. Ron Krabill, JSIS/UWB Rwanda will run this August and September in Rwanda. This year, we were pleased to award the Mandela Machel to Donalda Brantley, Selome Girma, and Trevon Mitchell.
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In closing, I was to reiterate my gratitude to the African Studies Program’s faculty, students, staff, and community members during this 2024-25 year. Thank you for making the African Studies Program one of the UW’s brightest gems, and I look forward to the exciting work that lies ahead for us!
Have a blessed summer,
Christopher Tounsel
Director, African Studies Program