North Carolina A&T State University News December 2014 Faculty Members Selected as Carnegie African Diaspora Fellows Two N.C A&T faculty members have been selected as Carnegie African Diaspora Fellows and will travel to African universities to conduct joint projects. Dr. Joshua Idassi of the Cooperative Extension Program will work with the Nelson Mandela African Institution of Science and Technology in Tanzania. Their project is titled, "Collaborative Research on Community Based Small Scale Irrigation Technologies in Agroforestry and Co-development of Agroforestry Curriculum for New Master Concentration in Sustainable Agriculture." Idassi is a natural resources specialist with Cooperative Extension. He develops outreach and applied research in agroforestry to assist underserved and limited resources farmers and woodland owners in North Carolina to establish sustainable farming practices to enhance their livelihoods. Dr. Paul Ankomah of the Department of Human Performance and Leisure Studies will work with the University of Energy and Natural Resources in Ghana. Their project is titled, "Curriculum Development for Distance Learning Program in Ecotourism and Mentoring of Young Lecturers and Students." He teaches courses in leisure studies in the department. His research interests include diaspora tourism, eco-tourism, sustainable tourism development and tourism development in Sub-Saharan Africa. The two faculty members will be among 60 scholars selected to travel to the African host institutions to collaborate on projects that include a wide range of areas designed to foster collaboration and build capacity at the host campuses. Now in its second year, the Carnegie African Diaspora Fellowship Program is a scholar fellowship program for educational projects at African higher education institutions. It is offered by the Institute of International Education in partnership with Quinnipiac University. The program is funded by a two-year grant from Carnegie Corporation of New York to support 100 short-term faculty fellowships for African-born academics. "The program contributes to brain circulation and global networking of ideas creating new knowledge in a non-hierarchical empirical manner-the exchanges are grounded in equality," said Toyin Falola, a member of the Advisory Council. He is a Nigerian historian and professor of African Studies and the Jacob and Frances Sanger Mossiker Chair in the Humanities at the University of Texas at Austin. "The pool represents the future of the U.S. and Africa with new talents who represent their fields and the future of their disciplines. Creating large constituencies across the Atlantic reinforces collaboration instead of domination, strategic partnership instead of academic distancing, and the various projects contribute to rethinking the epistemologies of knowledge." The first round of grants is supporting project collaborations with 33 fellows, including Dr. Bankole K. Fasanya of the A&T Department of Applied Engineering Technology. He is working with the University of Ibadan in Nigeria on a project titled, "Curriculum Co-Development in Ergonomics and Human Factors Engineering; Research Collaboration on Effects of Noise on Auditory Performance of Small Scale Industrialists and Study of Musculoskeletal Disorders Among Local Construction Workers and Garment Designers." Scholars born in Africa who live in the United States or Canada and work at an accredited college or university in either country can apply to be on the roster of available candidates. Candidates must have a terminal degree in their field and can hold any academic rank. Public and private higher education institutions in Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda can submit a project request to host a scholar for 14 to 90 days. African institutions and prospective fellows can collaborate on ideas for a project that the institution submits. IIE maintains the scholar roster to facilitate matches, according to the discipline specializations, expertise, activities and objectives described in a project request. SANDRA M. PHOENIX Executive Director HBCU Library Alliance sphoenix@hbculibraries.org<mailto:sphoenix@hbculibraries.org> www.hbculibraries.org<http://www.hbculibraries.org/> 800-999-8558, ext. 4820 404-702-5854 Skype: sandra.phoenix1 1438 West Peachtree NW Suite 200 Atlanta,GA 30309 Toll Free: 1.800.999.8558 (LYRASIS) Fax: 404.892.7879 www.lyrasis.org<http://www.lyrasis.org/> Honor the ancestors, honor the children.