Unisa 2021 Founders Lecture entitled: Explorations in “Reclaiming Africa’s futures”: The Sources of African Humanities

The Principal and Vice Chancellor of the University of South Africa, Prof Puleng LenkaBula, invites you to the Unisa 2021 Founders Lecture entitled: Explorations in “Reclaiming Africa’s futures”: The Sources of African Humanities to be delivered by Prof Mamadou Diouf of the Columbia University

RSVP by 5 December 2021 | To join the event please CLICK HERE 

UNISA FOUNDERS LECTURE

The idea of a Founders Lecture was introduced at the University of South Africa (Unisa) in 2003, its aim is to encourage the University and its stakeholders to focus on critical issues in higher education at both the national and global levels. Over the years a variety of topics, presented by eminent and renowned scholars from across the Continent and the globe, have established the Founders Lecture as a premium forum for intellectual engagement of the highest order. Unisa is honoured to continue this tradition in the person of Prof Mamadou Diouf who will deliver the 2021 Founders Lecture.

KEYNOTE SPEAKER - Prof Mamadou Diouf

Professor Mamadou DIOUF obtained his PhD in 1981 in History from the University of Paris-Sorbonne. He is the Leitner Family Professor of African Studies and History, Middle East and South Asian and African Studies (MESAAS) in the History Department at the Columbia University, in New York, USA. Prior to teaching at Columbia University, he taught at the University of Michigan as well as at Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar, Senegal.

Globally, one of the African leading scholars in the Humanities, the "literature and debate of ideas" sectoral expert for the Africa2020 Season, Prof DIOUF specialises in major historical, social, political and cultural African issues.

Professor DIOUF belongs to and has led a myriad of organizations in his field of specialization among them having being the President of the Scientific Committee of CODESRIA between 2016 – 2019. He was a Member of the Committee on Global Thought, Chair, Steering Committee, Tunis Columbia Global Center and was Chair of MESAAS between 2017 and 2020. He has served in several professional boards, including being a member of the Editorial Boards of the following journals among others: the Humanities, Social Dynamics and Comparative Studies as well as South Asia, Africa and the Middle East (2014 to date).
Professor DIOUF has published widely with more than 90 articles and 23 monographs and books to his credit.

His several monographs include the following among others:

• Diagnosis of urban poverty in Senegal (Diagnostic de la pauvreté urbaine au Sénégal): Studies of some districts of the communes of Dakar, Pikine, Diourbel and Tambacounda (coordination), Dakar, UNDP, Democratic Transitions or Political liberalizations? (Etudes de quelques quartiers des communes de Dakar, Pikine, Diourbel et Tambacounda (coordination), Dakar, PNUD, Transitions Démocratiques ou libéralisations Politiques? 
• African Perspectives. Dakar, Codesria, / Political Liberalisation or Democratic Transition. African Perspectives. Dakar, Codesria, Democratic Transitions or Political Liberalizations? (Perspectives Africaines. Dakar, Codesria, / Political Liberalisation or Democratic Transition. African Perspectives. Dakar, Codesria, Transitions Démocratiques ou libéralisations Politiques?
• Perspectives Africaines. Dakar, Codesria, Historians and Histories: What for? African Historiography between the State and the Communities. (Calcutta) Center for Studies in Social Sciences and Sepsis, Amsterdam. (Perspectives Africaines. Dakar, Codesria, Historians and Histories: What for? African Historiography between the State and the Communities. (Calcutta) Center for Studies in Social Sciences and Sephis, Amsterdam.)

Professor DIOUF has authored several books including the following among others: Deborder the Negritude. Arts politics and society in Dakar (under the supervision of Mamadou Diouf and Maureen Murphy [Deborder la Negritude. Arts, politique et societe à Dakar (sous la direction de Mamadou Diouf et Maureen Murphy).] Paris, Les Presses du reel. The Arts of Citizenship in African Cities. Infrastructures and Spaces of Belonging (Edited with Rosalind Fredericks), The arts of citizenship in Senegal. Contested spaces and urban civilities [Les arts de la citoyennété au Sénégal. Espaces contestés et civilités urbaines] (Edited with Rosalind Fredericks).

His most recent books are La Construction de l’Etat au Sénégal, co-authored with M. C. Diop & D. Cruise O’Brien and Histoire du Sénégal: Le modèle islamo-wolof et ses périphéries. He is currently editing Rhythms of the Atlantic World with Ifeoma Nwanko and New Perspectives on Islam in Senegal. His research interests include the urban, political, social and intellectual history of colonial and postcolonial Africa.

Professor DIOUF writes in French, English and Wolof.