UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Kidane Mengisteab, Penn State professor of African studies and political science, has been awarded a fellowship by the Carnegie African Diaspora Fellowship Program.
Mengisteab’s fellowship will allow him to travel to Tanzania to work with young faculty and graduate students in the social sciences programs at Moshi Cooperative University on postgraduate student training and mentoring in research methodology and scholarly writing, as well as cooperate in research on mining in the country.
The Carnegie African Diaspora Fellowship Program facilitates engagement between scholars born in Africa who are now based in the United States or Canada and scholars in Africa on mutually beneficial academic activities. The program is managed by the Institute of International Education in collaboration with United States International University-Africa in Nairobi and funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York.
Mengisteab is one of 59 African diaspora scholars to receive fellowships that will enable them to travel to higher education institutions in Africa beginning in May 2016 to collaborate on curriculum co-development, research, graduate teaching, training and mentoring activities. The program has now selected and approved a total of 169 Fellows since its inception in 2013.
Mengisteab has been a member of the Penn State faculty since 2000. His current research focuses on two areas: the relevance of Africa’s “traditional” institutions of governance, particularly its judicial systems, in conflict resolution and institution building in contemporary Africa, and the socioeconomic implications of the expansion of extractive industries and commercial farming in Africa.
Mengisteab is author or editor of several books, including "The Horn of Africa: A Hot Spot in the Global System" by Polity Press. He is currently finishing editing two books: one which focuses on the relevance of Africa’s traditional institutions of governance, and another that explores Africa’s extractive industries.
Contact Sharon Witherell at IIE to learn more about the Carnegie African Diaspora Fellowship Program.