Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Awards Smith College $1 Million to Launch Five College African Studies Residencies

NORTHAMPTON, MASS -- Citing a need to strengthen African universities while transforming the field of African studies in the United States, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has awarded Smith College a five-year, $1 million grant to support a Five College residency program for African scholars in the early stages of their academic careers.

 

Through the program as many as five junior faculty members each year from universities across the African continent will take up residency at Amherst, Hampshire, Mount Holyoke and Smith colleges, as well as the University of Massachusetts; each will spend from four to nine months on one of the campuses engaged in a "learning sabbatical." The residencies, which are expected to begin in the spring of 2003, will allow the scholars time and resources to complete a significant research and writing project, develop contacts with other colleagues in related fields, participate in national conferences, and explore other areas of possible interest, including the use of technology in research and teaching.

 

"Just when Africa needs better educated citizens to fully engage the challenges of globalization, its higher education system is in crisis," observed Elliot Fratkin, associate professor of anthropology at Smith and the current chair of the Five College African Studies Council. Fratkin pointed to declining government support, rising student populations, and political and economic upheaval as factors contributing to the post-Cold War "brain drain" in African universities, particularly among young faculty members embarking on scholarly careers.
 
At the same time, U.S. scholars say, there is significant room within the field of African studies for new ideas, new research approaches and informed, indigenous voices to make U.S.-based scholarship on Africa stronger and more reflective of contemporary realities.

 

"There is an immediate need to build stable bridges to Africa, across which new scholarship can be shared -- and created jointly," explained Nate Therien, director for academic programs at Five Colleges, Inc. Therien pointed out that students at the participating institutions will benefit from exposure to a range of scholars and new research on Africa, while faculty will have a chance to "rethink their own research and teaching in light of new perspectives brought by the visiting scholars."
      
Each year the program will seek to assemble a cross-disciplinary, cross-regional groups of scholars with shared interest in a broad theme, such as youth in Africa, globalization, or gender, health and the environment. A key element of the program is the development of the visiting scholars as potential leaders in the revival of Africa's higher education system. It is expected that they will return to their home institutions as published scholars with links to a larger scholarly community within Africa and outside it.
     
One goal of the program is to sustain continuing connection among residents -- and among residents and Five College colleagues -- once the residents return to Africa. These connections will be fostered through access to Internet connections, publication of a virtual newsletter, and support for attendance at conferences in Africa and the United States. The grant also includes support for sharing technical expertise at the five colleges with the residents' home institutions. "Through the residencies and ongoing connections, the visiting scholars will return to their universities strengthened as scholars," noted John Connolly, acting president of Smith College, which has pledged $200,000 in additional start-up funds for the residencies.
      
"In the context of African higher education, this program will contribute to the creation of a cohort of young African scholars who return to their institutions better prepared to pursue their research and teaching and better able to contribute to the improvement of their universities," he said.
      
The Five College community is an apt place to gain such experience, observed Lorna Peterson, executive director of Five Colleges, Inc. For more than 15 years, the Five College African Studies Council has collaborated on research projects and teaching and has hosted numerous distinguished visitors from Africa in short-term residencies. The African Studies Review, the publication of the African Studies Association and the premier African Studies journal in the United States, is edited collaboratively by faculty members from the five colleges.
      
Peterson described the members of the council as "dedicated and committed scholars with strong ties to a number of institutions from all areas of the African continent," making the Five College community "an ideal place to host young scholars from Africa and to help them upon their return." 

Five Colleges, Inc., is a nonprofit educational consortium generally regarded as one of the oldest and most extensive in higher education. The consortium administers cooperative programs and agreements among the member institutions: Amherst, Hampshire, Mount Holyoke, and Smith Colleges, and the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
      
Smith College is consistently ranked among the nation's foremost liberal arts colleges. Enrolling 2,800 students from every state and 50 other countries, Smith is the largest undergraduate women's college in the country.

 

On the Internet:
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, www.gatesfoundation.org
Five Colleges, Inc., www.fivecolleges.edu
Smith College, www.smith.edu