April 1, 2016

9:00 AM - 2:00 PMCentennial Room,

Kansas Union

Kansas African Studies Center’s 6th Annual

Graduate ResearchWORKSHOP

Engage. Network. Converse.

Central Highlands, Madagascar. Photo by Bernard Gagnon.

ProgramCentennial Room, Kansas Union

MORNING SESSION (Dr. Abel Chikanda, Chair):

9:00-9:10 Light Breakfast and Welcome

9:10-9:50 The Intersection of Ethnicity and Politics in the 2007/2008 Post-Election Violence and the Categorization of Genocide: Lindsay Harroff, Communication Studies

9:50-10:30 The Syntax and Semantics of Pulaar Causatives; Ibrahima Ba, Linguistics

10:30-11:10 Dying Just to be a Man: Normative Beliefs and Cancer Screening among Nigerian Men; Darlingtina Atakere, Psychology and Gerontology (co-author Tamara Baker, Psychology)

11:10-11:50 Participatory Monitoring and Evaluation of Ebola Response Activities and Associated Disease Outcomes in Lofa County, Liberia Ithar Hassaballa, Applied Behavioral Science (Community Health & Development) (co-authors listed with abstract)

11:50-12:40 Lunch and Further ConversationYou may purchase lunch from The Market (3rd Floor) and bring it to the Centennial Room

AFTERNOON SESSION (Dr. Stacey Vanderhurst, Chair):

12:40-1:20 Islamic and African Feminists Negotiating Polygamy in Senegal; Aminata Seck, Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

1:20-2:00 Re-Membering the Dismembered: Armah’s Disabling Pan-African Masculinity; Sarah Ngoh, English

www.kasc.ku.edu

Abstract

The Intersection of Ethnicity and Politics in the 2007/2008 Post-Election Violence and the Categorization of Genocide

Lindsay HarroffDepartment of Communication Studies

In the midst of the 2007/2008 Post-Election Violence in Kenya, the burning alive of approximately 30 Kikuyu women and children inside a church just outside of Eldoret provoked competing discourses of violence. More than simply an atrocity representing the horrific extent of the violence, the burning church illuminated the ethnic lines along which the electoral violence unfolded. For some, the violence was ethnic and an example of genocide or ethnic cleansing. The burning church was a central symbol in these discourses. For others, the violence was political and therefore disassociated from genocide. In these discourses, the burning church was virtually absent. For all, however, the distinction was important. The importance, this paper argues, was born from the fact that both discourses were bound to entailments associated with the term “genocide” and, even more fundamentally, to assumptions about the relationship between ethnicity and politics. Each discourse also shaped a different approach to resolving the conflict. With the differential circulation of the burning church as the entry point, this paper makes this argument through a comparative rhetorical analysis of key texts in deliberations about the post-election violence, including news articles on the post-election violence, official and press statements by Kenyan and U.S. politicians, two U.S. Congressional hearings, and speeches and statements made in the opening session of the Kenya National Assembly. The implications of this project suggest labeling a conflict genocide or ethnic cleansing is a function of international commitments, strategic political and material motivations, and fundamental assumptions about the proper domain of ethnic identity.

Abstract

The Syntax and Semantics of Pulaar Causatives

Ibrahima BaDepartment of Linguistics

This paper examines the causatives constructions in Pulaar, a language that belongs to the West-Atlantic branch of the Niger-Congo family and spoken in Senegal. It will be looking at the structural properties of Pulaar causatives under the assumption of the presence of little-v, following Larson’s (1988) analysis of VP-shells. The paper will consider causative constructions like the following:

The paper will analyze the syntax of each of these causative structures. The constructions in (1b-c) are causative constructions that are (morpho)-syntactically different with semantic nuances. In the similar constructions in (1b) and (1c), an auxiliary ‘do’ is used to encode causativity. In (1d), however, a causative morpheme is attached to the verb root. It will also show the semantic nuances that exist between (1b) and (1c) on the one hand, but also between (1b-c) and (1d) on the other hand. Such nuances in meaning are based on whether there is direct or indirect causation, intentionality of the causer, the amount of causing activity on the part of the causer, etc.

Abstract

Dying Just to be a Man: Normative Beliefs and Cancer Screening among Nigerian Men

Darlingtina AtakereDepartment of Psychology and Gerontology

Co-author: Tamara Baker, Psychology

There is national recognition of the increasing morbidity and mortality rates among Nigerian males. Black males, for example have higher death rates of diabetes mellitus, stroke, and kidney disease than White males. Males, in general, are often socialized to project masculinity, and avoid any expression of vulnerability, which could be interpreted as weakness. Beliefs in these socially contrived messages are embedded in the life expectancy of African men. This study examined the rapidly increasing problem of cancer diagnoses and misconceptions of cancer screening, with a focus on understanding the normative beliefs, perceptions, and expectations, among a sample of Nigerian males 21+ years of age. Although ongoing, preliminary analyses show that perceptions of masculine beliefs affect Black males in their willingness to be screened for cancer. Participants similarly responded that they agreed that cancer screening was beneficial and that “early detection and early prevention of cancer can save your life”. Others responded that there is “better treatment options with early detection”. Furthermore, Nigerian males believe that they are less likely to be diagnosed with cancer than their White counterparts, even with a family history of cancer. Data from this study holds promise in informing health messages that may reduce deleterious health behaviors and outcomes among this gendered population, by underscoring factors that may impact the health needs of diverse race and gendered populations.

Abstract

Participatory Monitoring and Evaluation of Ebola Response Activities and Associated Disease Outcomes in Lofa County,

Liberia

Ithar Hassaballa Department of Applied Behavioral Science (Community Health &

Development)

Co-Authors: Stephen Fawcett, Charles Sepers, Florence DiGennaro Reed, Jerry Schultz, Davison Munodawafa, Peter

Malekele Phori, Ephraim Chiriseri, Koffi Isidore Kouadio

Background: The Ebola outbreak was particularly serious in some affected counties in Liberia, especially Lofa County. A challenge faced by the World Health Organization African Region (WHO-AFRO) was how to capture and communicate the Ebola response effort being implemented in affected areas. As a WHO Collaborating Center, the University of Kansas Work Group for Community Health and Development developed a Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) System to help capture the activities that were being implemented within two counties in Liberia.

Implementation: The WHO-AFRO team engaged an M&E specialist and deployed him to Liberia to help capture Ebola response activities (i.e., services provided; community/system changes such as programs, policies, and practices). The University of Kansas team provided training for WHO-AFRO colleagues in using the M&E system to: a) capture the activities, b) code them (e.g., as services provided), c) characterize them (e.g., by objective, strategy used, sectors engaged), and d) communicate the findings through visual displays and shared sensemaking. This M&E system provided context-specific measures of Ebola response activities and their association with indicators of success (i.e., incidence of Ebola).

Results: There was an association between activities implemented and decreased cases of Ebola.

Conclusion: These results suggest that an M&E system can help document and communicate Ebola response activities and their association with bending the curve of Ebola in affected areas. The M&E system can also be used in Africa to track other public health efforts being implemented to assure data-driven decisions and timely adjustments and communications.

Abstract

Islamic and African Feminists Negotiating Polygamy in Senegal

Aminata SeckDepartment of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

Polygamy is common in Africa. There are both negative and positive outcomes for people who choose to practice polygamy. This research is looking at the ways in which polygamy is practiced in Senegal. The majority of the Senegalese population are Muslim. The Senegalese society lives in a triangle of African, French and Islamic cultures. Each of these cultures tries to dominate the other based on legal, governmental, religious and cultural practices. The French and the Islamic cultures struggle to dominate the multiple cultures that exist within Senegal. What is the difference between the practice of polygamy as a Senegalese culture and as an Islamic practice? In the novel So Long a Letter, polygamy is a central topic, but the way Ramatoulaye, a teacher, accepts polygamy will be used to look at the engagement of Senegalese women intellectuals in the practice of polygamy. How is polygamy a tool for mobility to women leaders that are engaged in community development? Does being a polygamist remove a woman’s feminist identity? Both Islamic and African feminists embrace western feminism with a limit that does not remove their cultural and religious identity. Can feminists use the practice of polygamy as a symbol of womanism? How can we shift from viewing polygamy as oppressing women to viewing it as part of a cultural identity in the Senegalese society that has not oppressed women before colonialism?

Abstract

Re-Membering the Dismembered: Armah’s Disabling Pan-African Masculinity

Sarah NgohDepartment of English

Published in 1968, two years after the coup that overthrew Nkrumah, Ayi Kwei Armah’s The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born is generally understood as a scathing, satirical critique of Ghana’s post-independence nation. This project seeks to explore the gendered implications of Armah’s critique of the new nation by focusing on depictions of various forms of masculinity and masculine corporeality in five of the novel’s male characters. Not only does such an approach highlight what Armah seems to suggest about the relationships among specific forms of masculinity and the nation, but it also reveals what Armah seems to propose as the solution to Africa’s problems: Pan-African Nationalism. This project demonstrates that a close reading of Armah’s male characters reveals a Pan-African, masculinist, nationalist discourse that relies heavily on a language of disability and disability metaphor to invalidate the masculinities of four of his characters, thereby highlighting what he understands to be the problems of the nation, and to affirm the masculinity of one of his characters, thereby suggesting an “ideal” national masculinity. This paper argues that Armah’s reliance on a language of disability essentially works to undo the emancipatory and revolutionary Pan-Africanist nationalism he hopes to invoke as a solution. Not only does Armah’s discourse of disability reinforce a national hegemony of normalcy that is closely associated with impossible-to-fulfill gender expectations, notions of only-able-bodied national citizenship, and the colonial and Western discourses that worked to “dismember” Africa in the first place, but it is, in itself, inherently exclusionary. The paper contends that Armah’s reliance on a language of disability challenges reader to interrogate what he seems to suggest about “ideal” national masculinity, and, thus, to consider how it follows that this particular notion of masculinity necessarily challenges the legitimacy of his proposed nationalism.