Three events from the Institute of African Studies at Columbia University (which continues to give awfully short notice for awfully awesome events, alas).
Today! Election Series: DRC – “A Farewell to Arms?”
Time: 4:00pm – 6:00pm
Location: Jerome Greene Annex, Columbia Law School, 435 West 116th Street
The last presidential election in DRC, a massive UN-funded exercise in a post-conflict fragmented country with a strong legacy of both authoritarian rule and armed dissent, ended with heavy weapon fire in the capital city Kinshasa. This year’s election, the second free election since independence, is a major test for nothing less than the viability of Congo as a state.
With the following panelists:
Severine Autesserre (Political Science, Barnard College)
Peter Rosenblum (Human Rights Law, Columbia University)
Tatiana Carayannis (Social Science Research Council)
Mehdi Belaid (Political Science, Universite Paris 1)
Gisele Sangua (Human Rights Advocate, Columbia University Institute for the Study of Human Rights)
Moderated by Jack Snyder (Political Science, Columbia University)
This event is sponsored by the Institute of African Studies, the School of International and Public Affairs, the Alliance Program, and the Human Rights Institute at Columbia Law School.
Directions to Jerome Greene Annex:
Follow College Walk (116th St.) across Amsterdam Ave towards Morningside Dr. After passing Jerome Greene Hall on the left, enter Wien courtyard through gates. Follow courtyard around to the right. Jerome Greene Annex will be the first building on the right.
Today! The Practice of the Outsider: Guban in the tradition of literary resistance
Time: 9:00pm – 10:30pm
Location: Hamilton 703
Food will be served
Guban (Panafriklit 2012) is a kaleidoscopic tale of the Somali revolution. The novel deftly interlocks stories of all strata of society-interlopers, interlocutors, diplomats, camel herders, revolutionaries, military personnel, and clan leaders, to name but a few. Join PhD candidate Abdi Ega as he explores the pedagogy of literary resistance that underlies his novel, Guban. Ega will discuss the influences of literary resistance found in the works of W.E.B. DuBois, Richard Wright, Ralph Ellison, and James Baldwin, among others. Explore the letters of resistance with Ega, a Somali novelist perturbed by the current state of media and global power.
A brown bag conversation with Mehdi Belaid and discussant Etienne Smith:”Rebel Governance: Guerrilla movements, rural militias and their relations with civilians. A comparative approach of the Mouvement de Libération du Congo (MLC) and the Maï-Maï militias in the Democratic Republic of Congo”
Date: Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Time: 12:00pm – 2:00pm
Location: 208 Knox Hall
Mehdi Belaid is a PhD student in political science at Universite Paris 1. He studies the conversion of guerrilla movements into political parties in DRC, and is the author of Le movement de libération du Congo: De la guérilla au parti politique.
Etienne Smith is a post-doc Fellow at the the Committee on Global Thought at Columbia University. He earned his Ph.D in Political Science from Sciences Po Paris in 2010. His research interests include intellectual history in francophone West Africa, and he has published a number of articles on ethnicities and politics in West Africa.
