Programs
Folorunso Alakija Distinguished Lecture on Religion and Public Life in Africa
In 2018, the Center for African Studies launched the Folorunso Alakija Distinguished Lecture on Religion and Public Life in Africa. This annual lecture is sponsored by the Harvard Center for African Studies and generously supported by the Center for African Studies’ Africa Advisory Board Member, Folorunso Alakija.
This lecture provides a platform for the Harvard University Center for African Studies to connect faith leaders with the Harvard community and beyond in a conversation about the constantly shifting and contested boundary between the secular and the sacred, the public and the private.
Mrs. Folorunso Alakija is Executive Vice-Chairman of Famfa Oil Limited. She is a businesswoman and philanthropist with a sincere desire to help the needy, a fashion icon with an infallible sense of style, a loving wife, a caring mother, and a doting grandmother.
Joseph Ageypong Distinguished Lecture on Public Health in Africa
In 2018, the Center for African Studies launched the Joseph Agyepong Distinguished Lecture on Public Health in Africa. This annual lecture is sponsored by the Harvard Center for African Studies and generously supported by the Center for African Studies’ Advisory Board Member Joseph Agyepong.
The Joseph S. Agyepong Distinguished Lecture on Public Health in Africa was generously endowed by Joseph S. Agyepong, founder and executive chairman of JOSPONG group of companies in Accra, Ghana. Established in 1995, Jospong is one of Ghana’s leading diversified holdings companies. Its holdings include companies active in building and construction, printing and publishing, information and communications technology, waste management, mining and quarrying, oil and gas, automobiles and equipment, skill development, financial services, public health and safety, logistics and supply chain, transportation and haulage, manufacturing, and business facilitation.
This lecture provides a platform for the Harvard University Center for African Studies to explore topics related to public health in Africa, engage leaders, policy makers, researchers, and academics on tackling Africa's health and development goals. The Harvard Center for African Studies sought to endow a lecture on the theme of Public Health in Africa to continue, in perpetuity, contributions to a global repository of knowledge, development of actionable solutions for policymaking, and inspiration for new directions in academic research. The lecture series builds upon an existing CAS research initiative in Climate Change, Agriculture, and Health, which convenes scholars from across Africa and Harvard University to evaluate current data and policy interventions, develop innovative collaborative research projects, and convene working groups in recognition of the ongoing changes in global climate that threaten agriculture across the globe and threaten human health.
Hakeem and Myma Belo-Osagie Distinguished Lecture on African Business and Entrepreneurship
In 2015, the Center for African Studies launched the Hakeem and Myma Belo-Osagie Distinguished Lecture on African Business and Entrepreneurship. This annual lecture is hosted by the Harvard Center for African Studies and is generously supported by Hakeem and Myma Belo-Osagie.
Both loyal alumni and strong supporters of the Center, the Belo-Osagies serve on the Global Advisory Council of the Office of President of Harvard University. Professor Hakeem Belo Osagie is a Faculty Affiliate of the Center for African Studies, and Dr. Myma Belo-Osagie serves as Chair of the Center's Africa Advisory Board. Professor Hakeem Belo-Osagie (MBA ’80) is the Chair of Metis Capital Partners and Senior Lecturer of Business Administration at Harvard Business School. Dr. Myma Belo-Osagie (LLM '78 and SJD '85) serves Of Counsel at Udo Udoma & Belo-Osagie, a full-service law firm headquartered in Lagos.
African Studies Workshops
The African Studies Workshop at Harvard offers a dynamic and diverse scholarly community for exploring Africa’s changing place in the world - and the new opportunities, challenges, insights, and innovations arising through cutting-edge scholarship on the region. The workshop also serves to interrogate the ways African realities foreshadow processes beginning to unfold elsewhere around the world. As such, the African Studies Workshop is always a productive source of theory and analysis about historical and current conditions globally.