AUM celebrating International Education Week this week

CALL FOR PAPERS

Conference on Development and Democracy in Africa

Dear Colleagues,

You are warmly invited to participate in the Department of Political Science Master’s in International Relations Conference on Development and Democracy in Africa: Shared Innovations scheduled for next September and generously funded by the Khalid Global Initiative. The conference is offered in collaboration with the Alabama World Affairs Council and the Office of International Relations at AUM.

Conference content is widely interdisciplinary. We are depending on the diversity of thought and expertise of participants to generate new ideas with which to meet the many challenges of democratization.

The specific subject matter is listed below in the call for papers section. If I can answer any questions, please email me. The conference website will be active by November 5 and will be updated frequently. The website address will be posted to Sharepoint in the coming weeks. I look forward to your participation.

Cheers!

Linda Dennard ldennard@aum.edu
Professor
Public Policy and International Relations
Department of Political Science and Public Administration

Sub-Sahara Africa and the New South: Collaborating on Innovations in Democracy and Sustainable Economic Development
Auburn University at Montgomery, Alabama
September 9 - 11, 2013

Innovation and collaboration across disciplines and continents becomes both a necessity and a norm in an age when the rise of democracy is empirically linked to the ability of individuals to sustain themselves economically, protect natural resources, and activate citizenship.

The South in the United States historically has struggled with many of the issues facing Sub-Sahara Africa today. Yet both have developed ways of moving their populations forward. Like the American South, Africa is much more than merely a collection of intractable problems, but rather an increasingly robust environment for ideas and innovations in technology, citizenship, sustainable economic development and the stewardship of environmental resources.

Further, the foreground of increasing social unrest in Africa is both hopeful and challenging as Africans struggle to take control of their own futures and resources. The ability to sustain social reforms also may be informed by the Civil Rights history of the American South. Likewise NGOs and political leaders in the South may encounter new ways of tackling old problems of citizen vitality and economic development that are emerging in the robust dialogue now evident in many areas of Sub-Sahara Africa.

The conference at Auburn University at Montgomery brings together leaders, innovators and visionaries from Sub-Sahara Africa and from the New South in the spirit of advancing the collaboration of ideas by  sharing the cutting edge in advancing the well-being of citizens and improving democratic governance in a remarkable age of social change. The conference is offered in collaboration with the Khalid Global Initiative and with the Alabama World Affairs Council.

Thanks to a generous grant from the Khalid Global Initiative, the conference is free of charge to participants and attendees.

For more information please contact Professor Linda Dennard at ldennard@aum.edu.

Call for Papers
Sub-Sahara Africa and the New South: Collaborating on Innovations in Democracy and Sustainable Economic Development
Auburn University at Montgomery, Alabama
September 9 - 11, 2013

Abstracts of no more than 500 words for papers are being accepted through April 15, 2013. Papers should fall into the areas covered by the following panels: (1) Sustainable development; (2) Civil rights and development; (3) Sustainable technology; (4) Social media and citizenship; (5) Security, democracy and sustainable development; (6) The role of INGOs in promoting democracy and democratic conditions; and (7) Emerging democratic theory. Papers addressing the general themes of collaboration and innovation will be considered that have a New South perspective, a Sub-Sahara perspective or both. The conference is broadly interdisciplinary. Please indicate in the abstract which area your proposed paper addresses.

The conference proceedings will be published online; an edited volume of select chapters and a dedicated journal symposium are also planned. The conference is structured to allow time for collaborations, networking and work sessions devoted to the development of book chapters, journal articles and joint projects.

Please send abstracts by April 15 to ldennard@aum.edu  and include a short bio of the author or authors. Final chapters will be due August 15, 2013.
More information will be available as the conference develops.

Thank you for your interest. 

Oct. 29, 2012