ASC Announces Spring 2018 Rodney Seminar Schedule
The African Studies Center, an affiliated center of the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University, have released the spring 2018 schedule for the Walter Rodney Seminar lecture series. The Walter Rodney Seminar lecture series is held every Monday from 12:15 pm to 2:00 pm at the African Studies Center.
Over the past 35 years, the Walter Rodney Seminar has brought more than 500 guest speakers to BU’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.
“Over the past three decades, the series have been recognized nationally as the venue for thought-provoking discussions on critical issues on Africa,” said African Studies Center Director Fallou Ngom. “This spring semester’s Rodney lecture series includes twelve fascinating presentations on Africa from scholars who straddle humanities and social sciences. We invite you to join us!”
The first installment of the Walter Rodney Seminar lecture series took place on January 22, 2018 and featured Daivi Rodima-Taylor, Senior Researcher at the African Studies Center, on “The African Fin-Tech Revolution: Mobile Money, Crypto-Currencies and Culture.” The next lecture will be held on January 29, 2018 and will feature Michael D. Jackson on “Words and Weeds.” You can view the full schedule for the spring 2018 semester here.
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 murdered in his native country in 1980, whose best-remembered book, How Europe Underdeveloped Africa (1972), has long been considered a classic in African studies. Learn more about the series here.