Event

The Scholar for a Day is a day-long seminar, organized by Penn graduate students of all disciplines, designed to provide students and faculty with exposure to a leading scholar in African Studies. The event allows for intensive engagement with authors of significant theoretical approaches to Africanist scholarship as well as providing an opportunity to gain insight into the professional process--the evolution of new empirical and theoretical interests, the methodologies of research and writing, and the process of collaboration between scholars. This year's keynote speaker is Moses E. Ochonu.

Moses E. Ochonu is Cornelius Vanderbilt Chair in History and Professor of African History at Vanderbilt University. He holds a PhD in African History from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and a Graduate Certificate in Conflict Management from Lipscomb University, Nashville. He is the author/editor of five books, most recently, Emirs in London: Subaltern Travel and Nigeria’s Modernity (Indiana University Press, 2022). His op-eds and essays on African affairs have been published in TIME magazine, Maple Tree Literary Supplement, Chronicle of Higher Education, Logos, Global Post, The Tennessean, Pambazuka.com, African Arguments, Africasacountry.com, The Conversation, The Mail & Guardian, and other publications. He is a two-time recipient of the fellowship of the American Council for Learned Societies (ACLS) and his research has also been funded by the NEH, Ford Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, the British Library, and the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation.