As a Coordinate organization of the ASA, the
West African Research Association (WARA) sponsors two events
at the ASA, a roundtable and a panel. At this year’s
ASA, WARA sponsored a panel, “Migration, Identity, and
Collaboration: West African Musicians in the U.S.” and
a roundtable entitled “West African Migration to North
America: Fostering New Research.” Both were well-attended
and provided important venues for exchange on issues related
to migration and the new diaspora. WARA presence was not limited
to these two however; nearly 50 WARA members presented on a
range of panels and roundtables throughout the meetings.
The WARA membership meeting, held on the evening
of November 13, drew about 40 people. Members heard from the
new West African Research Center (WARC) director, Professor
Ousmane Sene, and from Dr. Wendy Wilson-Fall, the outgoing
WARC director (who is now on the faculty in Pan African Studies
at Kent State University), and about developments over the
past year at WARC. An exciting piece of news is that WARC has
been granted the status of an official regional organization
by the government of Senegal. Both Drs. Sene and Wilson-Fall
spoke of programs and events at WARC, about various improvements
currently underway, and about upcoming programs. WARA President,
Professor Leonardo Villalon and US Director, Dr. Jennifer Yanco
also spoke. Four of the six candidates for open board positions
(Jemadari Kamara of the University of Massachusetts, Patricia
Tang of MIT, Dennis Laumann of the University of Memphis, and
John Hutchison of Boston University) were present a the meeting
and introduced themselves, sharing some of their hopes and
plans for WARA. Members heard about research conducted by WARA
fellows over the past year, with a report presented by one
of the pre-doctoral fellows who was present at the meeting.
A brief report on the African Language Materials Archive (ALMA)
was followed by a discussion of directions that may be followed
for this project. Ghislaine Lydon of UCLA gave a brief report
on the Sahara Crossroads initiative, which had an international
meeting in October.
WARA also held its annual Board of Directors
meeting in conjunction with the ASA.
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