The Walter Rodney Seminar lectures occur every Monday at noon in Room 505 of the African Studies Center, excluding holidays or with advance exception. Visit the Events calendar on our homepage for the latest listing of lectures.

The Walter Rodney Seminar lecture series was inaugurated in the fall of 1977, at the initiative of two doctoral candidates in Boston University’s Political Science department. It was named after Walter Rodney, the Guyanese scholar and political activist who was murdered in his native country in 1980, and whose best-remembered book, How Europe Underdeveloped Africa (1972), has long been considered a classic in African studies. Over the past 33 years, the Walter Rodney Seminar has brought approximately 500 guest speakers to Boston University’s African Studies Center. The lecture series is interdisciplinary and has included presentations by established and incipient scholars in all Africa-related disciplines, including history, anthropology, political science, economics, sociology, public health, literature, visual arts, musicology, religion, Islamic studies, international relations, and public diplomacy.

Some seminars are available via podcast in iTunes. For a list of available seminars, visit this page.

The Bradford Morse Distinguished Lectureship at Boston University was established through the generous support of the Industry Council for Development and in recognition of the contribution of the Honorable Bradford Morse to international peace through development. Mr. Morse, an alumnus of BU and BU School of Law, joined the United Nations in 1972. From 1976 to 1986, he served as the administrator of the United Nations Development Program, the major source of United Nations development assistance to developing countries, including those of sub-Saharan Africa. The lectureship also acknowledges Mr. Morse’s role as founder of the United Nations Office for Emergency Operations, which organized the successful international relief effort to combat the severe droughts ravaging Ethiopia and the Sudan in the mid-1980s.

The first annual Bradford Morse lecture, “Africa Beyond the Famine: The Case for Hope,” was delivered by Maurice F. Strong, president of the World Federation of United Nations Associations. Mr. Strong had a long and distinguished career in private and public affairs, served as founding president of the Canadian International Development Research Commission, and was the founding executive director of the United National Environment Program. First appointed undersecretary-general of the United Nations in 1970, Mr. Strong also served as executive coordinator of the United National Office for Emergency Operations in Africa from 1985 to 1986. During this period he worked closely with Bradford Morse.

Bradford Morse Distinguished Lecturers & Topics

The Graduate Research Conference in African Studies is an interdisciplinary forum intended for graduate students at all levels of study. The conference provides an informal setting in which students can exchange ideas, share research, and expand collegial networks. In past years, participants have presented course research, dissertation proposals, thesis chapters, methodological models, and other works in progress. While there are no strict thematic guidelines, special consideration is given to papers with multidisciplinary application and/or cross-regional appeal.

Go to the Annual Graduate Student Conference site

Questions can be addressed to the conference organizers at ascgrcon@bu.edu.

Past conference progams

• 18th Conference Program and website www.ascgradconference.webs.com.

African Language Theater Night is held twice yearly, at the end of each semester, as a celebration of students’ new language abilities and of the community of African language learners. For more information about Language Night and to see videos of performances, see this page.