Dear Friends and Colleagues,
As we turn the page on 2018 and begin 2019, I am excited to continue diving deep into my research and writing my dissertation, analyzing issues of the construction of victimhood in post-genocide Rwanda, writing an ethnography of kwibuka (commemoration), and looking at historical and current issues of peace and justice as represented through memorial spaces.
I want to also reflect on a few key accomplishments, and especially thank those who have helped me reach these goals.
- I was one of the emerging scholars awarded the 2018 Royal Air Maroc Student Travel Award from the African Studies Association. I thank Tim Longman, Erin Jessee, Jennie Burnet, Yolande Bouka, and Catharine Newbury for their support, specifically within the ASA.
- At the ASA, we also had the space to reflect on the legacy of my late professor Lee Ann Fujii. It was not easy, but I was thankful to have been able to compose my thoughts and share the ways in which Lee Ann impacted students like me. Her loss leaves a huge hole in my heart. I am thankful that other scholars and mentors have slowly been filling that Lee Ann sized hole.
- I am pleased to announce that I received the Next Generation Award from Harvard Law School’s Program on Negotiation (PON) for research titled “Convening Justice: A Comparative Study of Stakeholder Negotiations on Transitional Justice Policy in Rwanda and the African Union.” Please stay tuned for more information on this research!
- I thank Mr. Adama Dieng, the Special Adviser for the Prevention of Genocide, for his continued support and guidance during my dissertation writing process.
- I thank Dr. Eric Ndushabandi, the Director of the Institute of Research and Dialogue for Peace in Rwanda, for his continued partnership.
Happy New Year to everyone, may we all know joy, happiness, and satisfaction from our efforts. We are not obliged to finish the work, nor are we free from ignoring it.
Samantha
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I am also excited to announce the following presentations in 2019:
February 4, 2019, Yale University’s Genocide Studies Program
“Peace and Compromise, Idealism and Constraint: The Case of the Arusha Peace Accords in Rwanda and Burundi”
Location and Time TBD
February 11, 2019, Walter Rodney Seminar Series at Boston University
African Studies Center, 232 Bay State Road, Room 505 12:15pm to 2pm
March 7, 2019, World History Workshop, University of Cambridge, UK
“Cultures of Memory and Meaning in Tradition and Post-Genocide Rwanda”
14:30 to 16:30, Old Divinity School, University of Cambridge (Sir Arthur Quiller Couch Room of St. John’s College Cambridge)
Samantha Lakin, Ph.D. 