Media Contact:  Dolores Davies, (858) 534-5994

UCSD TO HOLD MAR. 8 CONFERENCE ON TRANSITIONS TO DEMOCRACY, STATE FORMATION, AND IDENTITY IN AFRICA

An all-day conference examining transitions to democracy, state formation, and identity in Africa will be held Mar. 8 at the University of California, San Diego.  The event is free and open to the public and will take place from 11 a.m to 6 p.m in the San Francisco/Santa Cruz Room of the UCSD Price Center.

The conference will examine responses to Africa’s political and economic crisis by analyzing state control and post-colonial nation building in the context of transitions to democracy.  Case studies will be drawn from Botswana, Congo (RDC), Rwanda, Senegal, and South Africa, with comparative examples from the Andean states and Argentina. The movement from authoritarian to democratic government in Africa over the last decade has been characterized by problems of violence, economic collapse, and intercultural conflict, activities that have impeded the democratization process.  Panelists from UCSD and numerous other universities will cover the topics of violence, communications and human rights, and the challenges of globalization.

The conference is being sponsored by UCSD’s African and African-American Studies Research Project and the newly formed Institute for International, Comparative, and Area Studies.  For more information about the conference please call (858) 822-0265.