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About
The Mid-America Alliance for African Studies (MAAAS) is an organization for the promotion of African Studies in mid-America, including in particular the region between the Mississippi River and the frontal range of the Rocky Mountains. Founded at the University of Kansas in 1995, MAAAS seeks to encourage scholarship and teaching in African Studies regionally and sub-regionally through conferences, seminars, workshops, consortia, faculty and student exchanges, cooperative relations between libraries, and promotion of African language teaching, among other endeavors. MAAAS is open to all with an interest in scholarship and teaching within an African Studies focus, and it seeks especially to provide a forum for far-flung Africanists in the middle of the U.S., where great distances exist between relatively small pockets of African Studies enthusiasts.
2021 - 2022 Executive Committee
Incoming President: Mary Mba (2021 - 2022)
Treasurer-Webmaster: Sterling Recker
Outgoing President: Professor Francis Y. Owusu, Iowa State University (2019-2020).
Board members:
Ashley Leinweber, Missouri State University
Chase Barney, University of Arkansas, Member-at-Large
Member and Conference Participant Profiles
Nashwa Ghoniem, BA from Faculty of Economics and Political Science, Cairo University. 1st year graduate in Masters of Global Studies program, MSU. Interested in readiness programs for high school students, helping out refugees, developmental programs in Africa and Non-Governmental Organizations in all its forms.
Dr. Jamaine M. Abidogun, Professor Emeritus, History, Missouri State University, holds a PhD in Curriculum and Instruction in Secondary Education, and a minor in African and African-American Studies, University of Kansas. As a diversity and inclusion expert, Professor Abidogun serves as consultant, researcher, author, and facilitator on gender, indigenous studies, and inclusive education in the United States and internationally. She is a two-time Fulbright Scholar recipient for her research “Strengthening Gender Research to Improve Girls’ and Women’s Education in Nigeria” (2013-2014) and “Gender Perspectives in Nigeria Secondary Education: A Case Study in Nsukka” (2004-2005). Her recent book, African Science Education: Gendering Indigenous Knowledge in Nigeria (Routledge, 2018), developed by a research team, interrogates and reviews historical and current cultural and indigenous knowledge combined with extensive curriculum and classroom analysis to identify how indigenous science gender roles may be utilized to provide a more gender balanced and indigenous centered learning experiences. Her co-edited books with Dr. Toyin Falola are: Issues in African Political Economies (Carolina Academic Press, 2016) and Education, Creativity and Economic Empowerment in Africa (Palgrave, 2014). Her publications also include several chapters and articles in Africa and Education Studies. She served as the editor-in-chief of the African Journal of Teacher Education (AJOTE), University of Guelph, Ontario from 2011 – 2017 and is a member of the Fulbright Academy and the Mid-America Alliance for African Studies (MAAAS).
Stephen Harmon is a professor of African and Middle Eastern history at Pittsburg State University. He completed his doctoral degree in West African Islamic history at the University of California at Los Angeles, writing his dissertation on Islamization in the colonial French Sudan. A specialist in Islamic history and culture, he is a two-time Fulbright scholar and has completed extensive field research in Senegal and Mali, most recently in 2012 and again in 2015-2016. His recent research has focused on the Sahara and Sahel regions of North and West Africa, especially the role of Islamic radicalism and insurgency. His book, Terrorism and Insurgency in the Sahara-Sahel Region: Corruption, Contraband, Jihad and the Mali War of 2012-2013 appeared in November of 2014, from Ashgate Publishing. Harmon is currently working on a second book under contract from Lynne Rienner that he is co-authoring along with a colleague with the working title of Arc of Terror. This work focuses on Sunni Islamist terrorist movements in the arc of territory stretching from Iraq/Syria to Mali/Algeria/Libya. It is expected to appear in late 2017. Harmon has been consulted as a regional expert by numerous domestic and international news agencies, and his research has been published in a variety of scholarly journals and anthologies. He is a frequent presenter at national and international conferences, notably a United Nations-sponsored workshop on terrorism in Turin, Italy, April, 2008 but more recently in May, 2015, as the principal presenter at a US Defense Department conference in Washington, DC on the Mali War.
Dr. Ashley E. Leinweber is an Associate Professor of Political Science at Missouri State University where she teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in African Politics, International Organizations, Model United Nations, and International Relations. She received her Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Florida in 2011. Her research focuses on the political engagement of the historically marginalized Muslim minority community of the Democratic Republic of Congo. She was also a Peace Corps Volunteer in Niger from 2002-2004.
Dr. Francis Y. Owusu is a Professor and Chair of the Department of Community and Regional Planning, Iowa State University, USA. He is also an affiliated faculty of the African and African American Studies program and the Graduate Program in Sustainable Agriculture. Before coming to ISU, he was an Assistant Professor of Geography and Political Science at Seattle Pacific University and a Research Analyst at the Environmental Quality Board of Minnesota Planning, St. Paul, Minnesota. Professor Owusu received a B.A. (Hons) in Geography and Archaeology and an MA in Population Studies from the University of Ghana, M.A. in Geography from Carleton University in Canada, and PhD in Geography from the University of Minnesota, USA.
Dr. Sterling Recker received his Ph.D in Political Science from the University of Missouri - St Louis in 2014. His research is focused on rural political economy in the Great Lakes Region of Africa and the impact that conflict has on rural development strategies. He taught at Southern Illinois University - Edwardsville from 2009 - 2016 and St Louis University from 2014 - 2016. He sits on the board of Microfinancing Partners in Africa, a St Louis-based organization with projects in Uganda, Tanzania, and Kenya. He has served as President of MAAAS since 2014. In January 2017 he began working with Mavuno, a rural development NGO in Beni, North-Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo, to design and evaluate a social development project in Beni Territory. He is now Assistant Professor at North Central Missouri College and remains engaged with various projects in Central and East Africa.
Philip W. Rudd, Ph.D. is Associate Professor in the Department of English and Modern Languages at Pittsburg State University, Kansas. He received his B.S. in Secondary Education and M.A. in Literature from Southeast Missouri State University. From 1987 to 1991, he was a Peace Corps volunteer in Kenya, where he taught in a rural secondary school. He worked as a private contract teacher in Saudi Arabia from 1994 to 1998 and taught at King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals from 1998 to 2000. In 2000, he began a doctoral program in Applied Linguistics in the Department of English at Ball State University. In 2005, Rudd won a Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad fellowship through which he returned to Kenya, where he collected data and began to write his dissertation on Sheng, Nairobi’s urban vernacular. His research covers Second Language Acquisition; Pragmatics; English Linguistics; Ecolinguistics; Contact Linguistics; and African Linguistics.
Incoming President: Mary Mba (2021 - 2022)
Treasurer-Webmaster: Sterling Recker
Outgoing President: Professor Francis Y. Owusu, Iowa State University (2019-2020).
Board members:
Ashley Leinweber, Missouri State University
Chase Barney, University of Arkansas, Member-at-Large
Member and Conference Participant Profiles
Nashwa Ghoniem, BA from Faculty of Economics and Political Science, Cairo University. 1st year graduate in Masters of Global Studies program, MSU. Interested in readiness programs for high school students, helping out refugees, developmental programs in Africa and Non-Governmental Organizations in all its forms.
Dr. Jamaine M. Abidogun, Professor Emeritus, History, Missouri State University, holds a PhD in Curriculum and Instruction in Secondary Education, and a minor in African and African-American Studies, University of Kansas. As a diversity and inclusion expert, Professor Abidogun serves as consultant, researcher, author, and facilitator on gender, indigenous studies, and inclusive education in the United States and internationally. She is a two-time Fulbright Scholar recipient for her research “Strengthening Gender Research to Improve Girls’ and Women’s Education in Nigeria” (2013-2014) and “Gender Perspectives in Nigeria Secondary Education: A Case Study in Nsukka” (2004-2005). Her recent book, African Science Education: Gendering Indigenous Knowledge in Nigeria (Routledge, 2018), developed by a research team, interrogates and reviews historical and current cultural and indigenous knowledge combined with extensive curriculum and classroom analysis to identify how indigenous science gender roles may be utilized to provide a more gender balanced and indigenous centered learning experiences. Her co-edited books with Dr. Toyin Falola are: Issues in African Political Economies (Carolina Academic Press, 2016) and Education, Creativity and Economic Empowerment in Africa (Palgrave, 2014). Her publications also include several chapters and articles in Africa and Education Studies. She served as the editor-in-chief of the African Journal of Teacher Education (AJOTE), University of Guelph, Ontario from 2011 – 2017 and is a member of the Fulbright Academy and the Mid-America Alliance for African Studies (MAAAS).
Stephen Harmon is a professor of African and Middle Eastern history at Pittsburg State University. He completed his doctoral degree in West African Islamic history at the University of California at Los Angeles, writing his dissertation on Islamization in the colonial French Sudan. A specialist in Islamic history and culture, he is a two-time Fulbright scholar and has completed extensive field research in Senegal and Mali, most recently in 2012 and again in 2015-2016. His recent research has focused on the Sahara and Sahel regions of North and West Africa, especially the role of Islamic radicalism and insurgency. His book, Terrorism and Insurgency in the Sahara-Sahel Region: Corruption, Contraband, Jihad and the Mali War of 2012-2013 appeared in November of 2014, from Ashgate Publishing. Harmon is currently working on a second book under contract from Lynne Rienner that he is co-authoring along with a colleague with the working title of Arc of Terror. This work focuses on Sunni Islamist terrorist movements in the arc of territory stretching from Iraq/Syria to Mali/Algeria/Libya. It is expected to appear in late 2017. Harmon has been consulted as a regional expert by numerous domestic and international news agencies, and his research has been published in a variety of scholarly journals and anthologies. He is a frequent presenter at national and international conferences, notably a United Nations-sponsored workshop on terrorism in Turin, Italy, April, 2008 but more recently in May, 2015, as the principal presenter at a US Defense Department conference in Washington, DC on the Mali War.
Dr. Ashley E. Leinweber is an Associate Professor of Political Science at Missouri State University where she teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in African Politics, International Organizations, Model United Nations, and International Relations. She received her Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Florida in 2011. Her research focuses on the political engagement of the historically marginalized Muslim minority community of the Democratic Republic of Congo. She was also a Peace Corps Volunteer in Niger from 2002-2004.
Dr. Francis Y. Owusu is a Professor and Chair of the Department of Community and Regional Planning, Iowa State University, USA. He is also an affiliated faculty of the African and African American Studies program and the Graduate Program in Sustainable Agriculture. Before coming to ISU, he was an Assistant Professor of Geography and Political Science at Seattle Pacific University and a Research Analyst at the Environmental Quality Board of Minnesota Planning, St. Paul, Minnesota. Professor Owusu received a B.A. (Hons) in Geography and Archaeology and an MA in Population Studies from the University of Ghana, M.A. in Geography from Carleton University in Canada, and PhD in Geography from the University of Minnesota, USA.
Dr. Sterling Recker received his Ph.D in Political Science from the University of Missouri - St Louis in 2014. His research is focused on rural political economy in the Great Lakes Region of Africa and the impact that conflict has on rural development strategies. He taught at Southern Illinois University - Edwardsville from 2009 - 2016 and St Louis University from 2014 - 2016. He sits on the board of Microfinancing Partners in Africa, a St Louis-based organization with projects in Uganda, Tanzania, and Kenya. He has served as President of MAAAS since 2014. In January 2017 he began working with Mavuno, a rural development NGO in Beni, North-Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo, to design and evaluate a social development project in Beni Territory. He is now Assistant Professor at North Central Missouri College and remains engaged with various projects in Central and East Africa.
Philip W. Rudd, Ph.D. is Associate Professor in the Department of English and Modern Languages at Pittsburg State University, Kansas. He received his B.S. in Secondary Education and M.A. in Literature from Southeast Missouri State University. From 1987 to 1991, he was a Peace Corps volunteer in Kenya, where he taught in a rural secondary school. He worked as a private contract teacher in Saudi Arabia from 1994 to 1998 and taught at King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals from 1998 to 2000. In 2000, he began a doctoral program in Applied Linguistics in the Department of English at Ball State University. In 2005, Rudd won a Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad fellowship through which he returned to Kenya, where he collected data and began to write his dissertation on Sheng, Nairobi’s urban vernacular. His research covers Second Language Acquisition; Pragmatics; English Linguistics; Ecolinguistics; Contact Linguistics; and African Linguistics.
