Description

This China-Africa program will build upon prior HLF support to the Social Science Research Council for the China-Africa Knowledge Project, which included incubation of the virtual Chinese in Africa/Africans in China Research Network (CA/AC), a transnational group of scholars, journalists and practitioners. It also furthers work initiated by the China-Africa Research Initiative (CARI) at Johns Hopkins SAIS. CARI, funded by the Carnegie Corporation, is winding down its public programming due to a faculty retirement, has transferred certain project elements to new homes, and will focus for the grant’s remainder on writing up, archiving and publication.   A collaboration between Georgetown’s Asian Studies and African Studies programs at the School of Foreign Service, the proposed program would encompass classroom teaching (cost covered by African Studies), public events, and the establishment of a policy-focused experts roundtable, the latter to draw upon China-Africa experts in the Washington, DC area (see names listed in LOI). Through affiliation with CA/AC, the roundtable would also bring views from Africans and Chinese into the discussions. The program’s activities are aimed at supporting knowledge sharing between scholars, policymakers and the NGO sector, in order to, as the proposal states, move beyond “the headlines, the rhetoric, and the problematic and simplistic narratives currently in circulation” and develop capacity to encourage a cross-regional, interdisciplinary community of research and practice on China-Africa issues.   The work would fill a gap in public programming within the Beltway left by CARI’s transition and would help demonstrate the value of an envisioned multi-year effort of research activities, training and capacity building for early career scholars, including those from the Global South and US minority communities, as well as broader dissemination of program output by digital and other means. The Ford Foundation-Beijing has encouraged CA/AC to submit a proposal for a complementary effort and Carnegie is open to a request from Georgetown once the CARI grant concludes at the end of 2021.   The effort would be led by Yoon Jung Park, former associate director of CARI and a founder/former executive director of CA/AC. Park is a freelance researcher with affiliations at the Sociology Department at Rhodes University (Grahamstown, South Africa) and the African Studies Program at Georgetown. Her work looks at Chinese migrants in Africa, African perceptions of and responses to them, and the impacts of these migrant communities, particularly in South Africa. For the past seven years her teaching at Georgetown has included a course on China’s evolving role in Africa.   The requested grant would support partial compensation for Park and a student assistant; honoraria, travel and accommodation for speakers; and other costs associated with public events and roundtables. Georgetown has waived indirect costs.   Georgetown’s China-Africa proposal furthers several Asia Program goals/objectives/strategies, including in higher education (continued investment in China studies); policy ( provide policymakers and diplomats with access to scholars and other experts and their work, and cultivate and support diverse input in policymaking); and public education (e ncourage public-facing efforts and public scholarship by scholars, experts, and other knowledge makers/keepers).   Submitted by Helena Kolenda