Welcome Message from our Faculty Director
Dear friends and colleagues,
Welcome to a new academic year at Harvard's Center for African Studies! We hope you’ve had a restorative summer and are excited for the many programs, events, and research and learning opportunities in the months ahead. Africa’s diverse countries, societies, economies, and environments continue their trajectory of rapid growth, dazzling innovation, and remarkable complexity. That pace of transformation underpins our commitment to strengthening Africa-focused research, teaching, and learning at Harvard and globally.
We are proud to amplify the research and impact of more than 80 Faculty Affiliates, representing every corner of the University, and to support dozens of fellows and affiliates, and hundreds of students through our funding and programming. Last year, we hosted nearly 100 events, featuring over 20 high level leaders, and bringing more than 3,500 people through our doors to engage deeply with issues and insights from the continent. We provided more than 40 student research and travel grants, and supported dozens of Africa-focused student organizations. CAS stewards the President’s annual $1 million investment in new Africa-focused STEAM research through the Motsepe Accelerator, which last year supported dozens of Harvard faculty collaborating with 20+ African institutions and academics. Our Africa Office in Johannesburg launched a new Innovation into Impact initiative linking new faculty research with industry leaders and practitioners across Africa in partnership with our alumni clubs. We are excited to build on these connections and be in community with you — at Harvard and across Africa.
This year, we will be bringing African heads of state, as well as thought-leaders from across the region for our Distinguished Lectures on health, business and entrepreneurship, and religion and public life. We look forward to supporting faculty by hosting workshops, conferences, book launches, and writing retreats. And, we hope you will continue to join us for the lively and rigorous African Studies Workshop, featuring internationally renowned and emerging scholars sharing their latest research over lunch on Mondays at noon.
In addition to our academic events and seminars, CAS supports students by offering travel and independent research grants for transformative learning opportunities in Africa. We also invest in student organizations’ ability to host educational events and convenings that bring African issues to life in new ways across campus. Our beloved Buna Breaks for students will be returning, bringing African coffee and conversation to the CAS lounge every other Tuesday.
We look forward to learning from and working with you in the year ahead, collaborating on CAS priorities:
- Serving as the Harvard-wide hub for Africa-related research discourse, learning, and teaching that increases access to issues and ideas from the region;
- Strengthening connections among faculty and between scholars at all levels to accelerate scholarship and catalyze innovation for Africa in the 21st Century; and
- Sharing Africa-focused knowledge and research from Harvard with the rest of the world.
I am also particularly delighted to welcome Chidi Blyden, our new Executive Director at CAS – please see the full announcement linked below. Chidi joins a brilliant team of staff whose leadership, passion, and expertise help us deliver on CAS’s important mandate and grow to meet the opportunities and challenges facing us today.
Please join us at our kick-off events and follow along as other opportunities are announced in our weekly newsletter!
Very best wishes,
Dr. Zoe Marks
Oppenheimer Faculty Director
Harvard University Center for African Studies