Friday, January 27, 2012

Introductions and Schedule for February

African Activists Association

Hey guys, I hope you all enjoyed The First Grader I know I did.
There are some terrific upcoming events in the next month, that I believe everyone would enjoy.

The James S Coleman African Studies Center was founded in 1959, and has been dedicated to the production and dissemenation of information about Africa. For the month of February the African Studies Center has several excellent upcoming events, below is the schedule:

Date: Monday, February 6th, 2012
Time: 4 PM- 6 PM
Location: 10367 Bunche Hall
Speaker: Sheila Petty (Dean of Fine Arts and Professor of Media Studies at University of Regina)
Title: Site of Memory in Sub-Saharan African Cinema

Date: Tuesday, February 7th, 2012
Time: 12 PM-2 PM
Location: 10383 Bunche Hall
Speaker: Jonathan Jansen (Vice-Chancellor and Rector University of the Free State, South Africa)
Title: Second Generation Knowledge and Politics of Reconciliation in South Africa

Date: Tuesday, Feburary 21st, 2012
Time: 4 PM- 6 PM
Location: 10383 Bunche Hall
Speaker: Jude G. Akudinobi (UC Santa Barbara)
Topic: Expanding Horizons: Pumzi, Science Fiction and African Cinema

Date: Thursday, February 23rd, 2012
Time: TBA
Location: 6275 Bunche Hall
Speaker: Manthia Diawara (NYU)

Date: Monday, February 27th, 2012
Time: 4 PM- 6 PM
Location: 10383 Bunche Hall
Speaker: Akinwumi Adesokan (University
Topic: Framing Biopolitics Joe Ramaka's Cinema of Power

Human Rights Heroes:
The Law School has several speakers schedulued for their spring semester (unlike the rest of UCLA they operate on the Semester System) below is a link to the schedule. (Special thanks to Danielle for pointing this out):

http://www.law.ucla.edu/workshops-colloquia/Pages/Human-Rights-Heroes-Speaker-Series-2012.aspx

Hope you guys have an excellent weekend kwa heri!

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

AAA First Meeting for Winter Quarter

Hey Guys,

So by the time you read this you will all have hopefully gone to our terrific screening of:
The First Grader:




The blog will be updated weekly, but if I come across a particularly interesting story, blog, or event I will of course post that as well. The blog will cover upcoming events for AAA, as well as our upcoming conference. I will also post about interesting news or events that I come across throughout the week. Because my interests are primarily focused in politics I will be posting about those issues a great deal. Therefore, I will need all of your help to make sure that this is as well rounded a blog as possible. Please feel free to email me at either africanactivists@gmail.com or rushperez@gmail.com if you come across anything you think should go up. Below are a a few blogs that I have run across when I should have been doing my course work enjoy!

This is a great blog about issues facing the continent with scholarly contributions from all around the world:

http://africanarguments.org/

Also here are a few region specific blogs

this one focuses on the ongoing conflict in the Eastern DRC:

http://congosiasa.blogspot.com/

these two newspapers are both from East Africa and are always excellent if you want to keep up with the politics in that area (I was introduced to both of these by Ben):

http://www.monitor.co.ug/

http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/

Here is another blog about African films it's a bit gossipy, but definitely a place to go if you want to keep up with African film trends be they in Nollywood, Ghana, Kenya, or South Africa:

http://myafricanmoviereviews.blogspot.com/

This is a podcast that posts about an hour worth of music from the continent every month, the music ranges from High Life to Bonga Flava:

http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/radio-africa-online-mixes/id347670695

And finally here is a link to Aljazeera's terrific program Africa Investigates:

http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/africainvestigates/2011/10/20111030104118185817.html

Again if anyone thinks there is something missing, and I am sure there is, please do not hesitate to email me and let me know I am more than happy to post anything related to the continent.