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Director, African Studies Center

Position Summary

Michigan State University (MSU) invites applications for the position of Director for the African Studies Center (ASC). The ASC is a premier program with longstanding reputation and has made major contributions to MSU's nationally and internationally known history of impactful engagement in Africa. The Center and the Director is expected to provide strong support for key cross-college Africa-focused initiatives administered in ISP including the Alliance for African Partnerships (https://aap.isp.msu.edu/) and the Tanzania Partnership Program (https://pscd.isp.msu.edu/programs/tanzania-partnership-program/). Other initiatives the Director is expected to support include an undergraduate major in Global and International Studies with an African Studies concentration and a minor in African Studies.

The African Studies Center (ASC):

The African Studies Center is located in International Studies and Programs (ISP) which serves as a hub for international programming and research on campus. It has made significant contributions to research, teaching, and outreach at MSU on/in Africa since its establishment in 1960. It is one of only 10 Title VI National Resources Centers (NRC) for Africa and one of 13 centers for African Language and Area Studies (FLAS) nationally under the U.S. Department of Education. The ASC works closely with the area, thematic, service units, and programs in ISP. Area and thematic units include the Alliance for African Partnership, the Tanzania Partnership Program, the Asian Studies Center, Asia Hub, the Office of China Programs, the Canadian Studies Center, the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, the Center for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies, the Center for Gender in Global Context (GenCen), and the Muslim Studies Program. ISP also hosts the Office of International Students and Scholars, the Office for Education Abroad, Visiting International Professional Program, Global Innovations in Development, Engagement, & Scholarship (Global IDEAS), and other programs. The ASC also actively partners with colleges and other centers and units located on campus.

The ASC is home to distinguished scholars and a vibrant and diverse community of undergraduate and graduate students. Center-affiliated faculty hold tenure stream and fixed-term positions in colleges across the campus and they actively design and participate in the ASC programs. The Center has over 200 affiliated faculty members in the humanities, social sciences, the physical and biological sciences, agriculture and natural resources, business, law, medicine, the residential colleges, education, and other professional programs. Since 1982, the ASC produced more Ph.D. dissertations on Africa than any northern hemisphere institution, and by 1990 MSU had the largest number of faculty (> 150) studying Africa, and offered more African languages than any U.S. university, producing a large alumni network.* *

Appointment and Responsibilities:

The ASC Director is responsible for providing effective leadership and management of staff, programs, and activities of the Center. The Director is also responsible for promoting ASC-related research, educational programming, and outreach across the campus and for fostering faculty-led international partnerships with other similar programs around the globe. The Director works collaboratively with key university stakeholders across campus to provide strategic vision and leadership for the university's diverse African-related research and programming agenda. The Director works closely with center affiliated faculty and academic staff across the campus and globally to advance ISP's and MSU's Africa-related global research that furthers ISP's strategic pillars of Innovating Global Solutions, Creating Global Citizens, and Generating Gl