Bradford Morse Distinguished Lecturers & Topics

The Bradford Morse Distinguished Lectureship at Boston University has been 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.

Year	Speaker	Affiliation	Topic
1989	Maurice Strong	President, World Federation of United Nations Associations	Africa Beyond the Famine: The Case For Hope
1990	No speaker
1991	Michael Glanrz	National Center for Atmospheric Research	Global Warming and Environmental Change: Winners and Losers in Africa
1992	Gibson Kamou Kuria	Lawyer and human rights activist	Human Rights in Africa
1993	Richard Joseph	Carter Center of Emory University	The Responsibility of Intellectuals in the Time of African Crisis
1994	Tayeb Saleh	Novelist	The Writer and National Identity
1995	Paul Lovejoy	York University Toronto	Africans in Diaspora: Revisionist Interpretations of Ethnicity
1996	Lamin Sanneh	Religion and history scholar	Translation and the Rebirth of Culture: Christianity and the African Response
1997	Adam Kuper	University of Uxbridge, England	Social Anthropology and South Africa: An Inside Job
1998	Paul Berliner	Northwestern University	Musical Imagination and Meaning in Zimbabwe’s Mbira Music: Ever-Changing Patterns of Performance and Reception
1999	Carolyn Brown	Rutgers University	Cowboys, Letterwriters, and Dancing Women: Identity and Struggles over Space Leisure and Time in Enugu, Nigeria 1914–1955
2000	Robert Harms	Yale University	Worlds of the Slave Trade: The Voyage of the Diligent in 1731–1732
2001	Calestous Juma	Harvard University	Africa in the Age of Technology: In Search of New Sources of Economy Renewal
2002	Joe Lugala	University of New Hampshire	AIDS, Orphans and Development in Sub-Saharan Africa
2003	Kenneth Kaunda	First President, Republic of Zambia	Africa and the New Food Technology: Threat or Bright Promise
2004	Wande Abimbola	Obafemi Awolowo University	Youth and Generational Change in the Ifa Oral Tradition
2005	Ahmad Sikainga	Ohio State University	Local Perspectives on the Sudanese Conflict
2006	Lansine Kaba	University of Illinois, Chicago	Islam Beyond the Myth: A West African Perspective
2007	No speaker
2008	Célestin Monga	The World Bank	Is Africa Really at a Turning Point?: The Economics and Politics of Hope
2009	Burt Singer Calestous Juma James Webb	Princeton University Harvard University Colby College	Africa 2060 AD: What We Don’t Know About Malaria in Africa and When Didn’t We Know It
2010	No speaker
2011	Suliman Baldo	Africa Director, International Center for Transitional Justice	Post-Referendum Challenges in Sudan and South Sudan