Past Events
Wed. April 13, 12:00-1:00 pm
Online Event: Please register here.
Zoom link and links to papers sent to registrants.
21st Century African Leaders: Youth Leadership for Development Participants' Views on Current and Future Leaders
Rehana Odendaal (Penn Sociology and GSE)
THE LAST TWO DECADES HAVE SEEN A NOTABLE INCREASE IN THE PREVALENCE OF YOUTH LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMS targeting young Africans. While these programs differ along a range of dimensions – geographic location, definitions of youth, program format to name a few – an apparent shared focus is their view of youth leadership education as a developmental solution for the African continent. By framing youth as “the next generation” of African leaders, and these programs both implicitly and explicitly seek to find solutions to a perceived crisis of leadership, which some argue is responsible for the continents continued socio-economic instability. REHANA ODENDAAL uses discourse and thematic analysis to identify how approximately 200 Youth Leadership for Development (YLFD) programs operating in Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa frame concepts of social responsibility, citizenship, and democratic participation. These three democratic nation states are useful case studies because of their economic and political regional influence as well as the prevalence of Youth Leadership for Development Programs in each state. By providing a framework through which to better understand the types of “future African leaders” being imagined by various state and non-state actors in the Youth Leadership for Development landscape, Odendaal seeks to understand contemporary discourses and practices related to democracy and citizenship in the African context.
GRAD WORKSHOP - Negotiating Democracy and Race in Africa
Wed. April 13, 12:00-1:00 pm
Online Event: Please register here.
Zoom link and links to papers sent to registrants.
21st Century African Leaders: Youth Leadership for Development Participants' Views on Current and Future Leaders
Rehana Odendaal (Penn Sociology and GSE)
THE LAST TWO DECADES HAVE SEEN A NOTABLE INCREASE IN THE PREVALENCE OF YOUTH LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMS targeting young Africans. While these programs differ along a range of dimensions – geographic location, definitions of youth, program format to name a few – an apparent shared focus is their view of youth leadership education as a developmental solution for the African continent. By framing youth as “the next generation” of African leaders, and these programs both implicitly and explicitly seek to find solutions to a perceived crisis of leadership, which some argue is responsible for the continents continued socio-economic instability. REHANA ODENDAAL uses discourse and thematic analysis to identify how approximately 200 Youth Leadership for Development (YLFD) programs operating in Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa frame concepts of social responsibility, citizenship, and democratic participation. These three democratic nation states are useful case studies because of their economic and political regional influence as well as the prevalence of Youth Leadership for Development Programs in each state. By providing a framework through which to better understand the types of “future African leaders” being imagined by various state and non-state actors in the Youth Leadership for Development landscape, Odendaal seeks to understand contemporary discourses and practices related to democracy and citizenship in the African context.
Up Against the Wall: Migration in the Biden Era
Internet for the People?
Irvine Auditorium, 3401 Spruce Street
In-person Event: Please register here.
Co-sponsored by the SNF Paideia Program Red & Blue Exchange
THE PENN POLITICAL UNION welcmes former U.N. Ambassador JOHN BOLTON. Bolton has managed to make himself controversial across the political spectrum with his advocacy of foreign intervention at a time when both parties, for different reasons, lean toward scaling back America's military engagements. A member of the Trump White House who had a very public falling out with the former president, he also has an important vantage point on upcoming elections. Join the five parties of the PPU in a lively discussion about a wide array of topics concerning both foreign policy and domestic politics.
PPU - A Conversation with John Bolton
Irvine Auditorium, 3401 Spruce Street
In-person Event: Please register here.
Co-sponsored by the SNF Paideia Program Red & Blue Exchange
THE PENN POLITICAL UNION welcmes former U.N. Ambassador JOHN BOLTON. Bolton has managed to make himself controversial across the political spectrum with his advocacy of foreign intervention at a time when both parties, for different reasons, lean toward scaling back America's military engagements. A member of the Trump White House who had a very public falling out with the former president, he also has an important vantage point on upcoming elections. Join the five parties of the PPU in a lively discussion about a wide array of topics concerning both foreign policy and domestic politics.
Online Event: Please register here.
THE ARAB SPRING PROTESTS that erupted in Egypt in 2011 and their aftermath were part of longer term trends in Egyptian religious and political life, trends which were in turn affected by the tumultuous period that followed. Dr. HISHAM A. HELLYER will discuss the rise and fall of popular support for political Islam from 2005 to 2015, especially that of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. Dr. AMIRA MITTERMAIER will discuss trends of interiorized faith and societal change among Muslim Egyptian youth in the wake of the 2011 uprising. The discussion will be moderated by Mitchell Center Postdoctoral Fellow NAREMAN AMIN.
Dr. Hisham A Hellyer is a fellow at Cambridge University, a senior associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute in London, and a nonresident scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. His research focuses on international relations, security, and belief in the Middle East, the West, and Southeast Asia. His books include Muslims of Europe: the ‘Other’ Europeans, A Revolution Undone: Egypt’s Road Beyond Revolt, A Sublime Path: the Sufi Way of the Makkan Sages (co-author), and The Islamic Tradition and the Human Rights Discourse (editor).
Dr. Amira Mittermaier is Professor of Religion and Anthropology at the University of Toronto. Her research focuses on modern Islam in Egypt. Her books include Dreams that Matter: Egyptian Landscapes of the Imagination and Giving to God: Islamic Charity in Revolutionary Times. Her current research works toward what she calls an “ethnography of God.”
Religious Change and Political Trends in Contemporary Egypt
Online Event: Please register here.
THE ARAB SPRING PROTESTS that erupted in Egypt in 2011 and their aftermath were part of longer term trends in Egyptian religious and political life, trends which were in turn affected by the tumultuous period that followed. Dr. HISHAM A. HELLYER will discuss the rise and fall of popular support for political Islam from 2005 to 2015, especially that of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. Dr. AMIRA MITTERMAIER will discuss trends of interiorized faith and societal change among Muslim Egyptian youth in the wake of the 2011 uprising. The discussion will be moderated by Mitchell Center Postdoctoral Fellow NAREMAN AMIN.
Dr. Hisham A Hellyer is a fellow at Cambridge University, a senior associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute in London, and a nonresident scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. His research focuses on international relations, security, and belief in the Middle East, the West, and Southeast Asia. His books include Muslims of Europe: the ‘Other’ Europeans, A Revolution Undone: Egypt’s Road Beyond Revolt, A Sublime Path: the Sufi Way of the Makkan Sages (co-author), and The Islamic Tradition and the Human Rights Discourse (editor).
Dr. Amira Mittermaier is Professor of Religion and Anthropology at the University of Toronto. Her research focuses on modern Islam in Egypt. Her books include Dreams that Matter: Egyptian Landscapes of the Imagination and Giving to God: Islamic Charity in Revolutionary Times. Her current research works toward what she calls an “ethnography of God.”