Repositioning Africa's Place in the Classroom
Knowledge, Communication, and Innovation
A Workshop for University and Community College Educators
The 2025 Repositioning Africa's Place in the Classroom virtual workshop was held on Friday, June 6, from 9:45am-3:30pm. Instructors across disciplines were invited to this day-long workshop to gain frames and strategies to engage their students with Africa’s central role in a rapidly changing global context. Presentations highlighted the importance of creative knowledge production, the use of alternative media to speak back to dominant perspectives, inventive ways to rewrite Africa’s rich history of freedom and resistance, and the innovative contributions of African youth in reshaping the world. The themes addressed repositioned Africa in a dynamic classroom where student learning is transformed. Each session provided practical tips to empower instructors to bring African perspectives and resources to their own disciplinary teaching.
Workshop Agenda
9:45am | Welcome and Program Overview
9:50am | Overview of African Studies National Resource Centers
10:00am | Reimagining Africa: Alternative Media in an Age of Fragmentation
Will Shoki
Editor, Africa is a Country
William Shoki is a South African writer and editor-in-chief at Africa Is a Country, a publication that offers critical perspectives on Africa’s place in the world. His writing has appeared in outlets such as The New York Times, Jacobin, and elsewhere. He is based in Cape Town.
11:00am | Session 2: The Role of African Universities in Advancing Innovation
Bob Wekesa
Director for the African Center for the Study of the United States at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg
Dr. Bob Wekesa is the Director of the African Centre for the Study of the United States at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), South Africa. He has a Masters and Ph.D. from the Communication University of China. He is an interdisciplinary scholar of international media and communications, foreign policy, and diplomacy. His areas of specialization include Africa-China, Africa-US, Africa-Gulf States, and Africa in the world topics. Dr. Wekesa has published thought leadership articles, newspaper opinion and commentary articles, peer-reviewed academic journal papers, book chapters, books, policy papers, discussion and position papers. He is a frequent commentator on current affairs on radio, podcasts, and television shows globally. His latest publication is: China’s Footprint in East Africa: Pessimism and Optimism (Palgrave Macmillan, 2023).
12:00pm | Lunch Break
1:00pm | Session 3: Using Primary Sources and Found Verse in the Collegiate Classroom: Exploring with Olaudah Equiano
Lesley Younge
Author and English Teacher
Lesley Younge is an educator and writer from Silver Spring, Maryland. She currently teaches middle school English in Washington D.C at Maret (Mah-ray) School. This is her 19th year in the classroom. Lesley debuted as an author in 2023 with two books for young people. Nearer My Freedom (co-authored with her mentor Monica Edinger) is an award-winning YA verse novel remix of British abolitionist Olaudah Equiano’s seminal autobiography. A-Train Allen, her first picture book, was an inaugural Own Voices, Own Stories Grand Prize Winner awarded by Sleeping Bear Press. Also, a poet, Lesley’s work has appeared in Michigan Quarterly Review, Midnight & Indigo, Full Bleed, and others, including Poetry magazine’s newest issue featuring poems for young people. Lesley blogs and shares resources at teacherlesley.com.
2:00pm | Session 4: African Youth Tackling Challenges through Sport, Music, Art and Fun
Martha Saavedra
Associate Director, Center for African Studies, University of California, Berkeley
Dr. Martha Saavedra is associate director of the Center for African Studies, University of California, Berkeley. Trained in International Studies and Political Science, Dr. Saavedra has taught in California, Ohio, and Madrid. Her research has focused on agrarian politics in Sudan, gender and development and sport in Africa. She is a board member of Sports Africa and Soccer Without Borders. A veteran of Title IX battles in the US, she has been involved with soccer/football most of her life as a player, coach, scholar, and fan.
3:00pm | Concluding Remarks
