Welcome to OPIRG Kingston

On Thursday February 28, Queen’s Engaging Africa Initiative welcomes Dr. Paul Tiyambe Zeleza to campus to speak on “The Pasts and Futures of African Studies” in the Biosciences Complex, Lecture Hall 1102 at 7:00 pm. The event is free and open to the public. A reception for Dr. Zeleza will follow in the Biosciences Atrium.

Dr. Paul Tiyambe Zeleza is an internationally renowned authority on African economic history and Africa’s global diasporas. His expertise in areas as wide-ranging as economic, social and intellectual history, development studies, gender studies, diaspora studies and human rights, is highly sought by academic institutions and international organizations. In 2003, he was appointed by the United Nations to an advisory board researching global progress toward gender equality in the wake of the Beijing World Conference on Women.

A prolific scholar, Dr. Zeleza has authored more than 20 books, in addition to numerous articles and book chapters, which have been published in Africa, the Caribbean, Europe and North America. He is also acclaimed author of the novel, Smouldering Charcoal (1992), and two collections of short stories, Night of Darkness (1976) and The Joys of Exile (1994).

Presently, Dr. Zeleza is Professor and Head of the Department of African American Studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and President of the African Studies Association.

The Queen’s Engaging Africa Initiative is a collaboration of staff, faculty and students working to promote and expand academic and cultural engagement with the continent of Africa and its diasporas. It has been supported by the Queen’s University Principal’s Fund for Support of Conferences and Discussions of International Issues.