Pomona College students had the chance to connect with leading Africanist scholars this semester as part of a pilot course designed to demonstrate the heart of the Center for Global Engagement’s (CGE) signature initiative, the Global Collaborative.
Pierre Englebert, H. Russell Smith Professor of International Relations, not only charged students in his Africa After the End of History class with reading and discussing new essays on African politics but also with organizing a day-long symposium featuring the authors.
Such an endeavor epitomizes the Global Collaborative’s mission: to prepare Pomona students to address complex problems through hands-on learning and faculty-driven inquiry.
Weeks of spirited class discussions in Carnegie—supplemented by phone calls and email exchanges with the scholars themselves—culminated last month in the “Africa After the End of History” symposium, which had four panels of professors from across the globe.
Utku Özgür ’29, a history and politics double major from Istanbul, considers his work with Englebert this semester “the best thing I have done and will probably end up doing in my time at Pomona.”
“You had the sense you were on somewhat equal footing with all of these well-established professors,” he says. “You could talk about their ideas freely and critically. We criticized a lot of their ideas during class and came up with questions to ask them during the panels.”
Özgür himself was a panelist during the symposium, having co-authored a paper with Englebert on the lack of liberal convergence in Post-Cold War Africa that built on research he conducted with Englebert this summer through Pomona’s Summer Undergraduate Research Program (SURP).
“(The course) has been a hub of knowledge production and critical thinking,” Özgür says, “and that’s why we’re here.”
In anticipation of leading class discussions, Englebert’s students had an open invitation to call or email the authors and tap into their expertise.
Mahbuba Mohammed ’28, an Ethiopian student from Grand Rapids, Michigan, studying international relations, regularly worked with Professor Will Reno from Northwestern University to further research Ethiopian militias and state sovereignty.
Whereas generally she’s felt inclined to take scholarship as truth, Mohammed says she had the freedom in Englebert’s class to question and challenge the readings using her own ideas and theories.
“Getting to have our voices heard in class was the greatest thing,” she says. “I definitely gained a lot more confidence in my studies, in my major and in what I hope to pursue.”
Throughout the fall, Englebert’s students crafted research posters that demonstrated their grasp of the material. They also curated an Africa-focused exhibit at the Benton Museum of Art, which hosted the symposium’s opening and closing receptions and dinners.
The African Students Association, a Claremont Colleges student organization that cultivates cultural, political and social awareness about the continent, closed the all-day symposium with an Africa’s Got Talent show.
Özgür called the pilot course “intellectually stimulating,” while Englebert said the collaboration between student and scholar exposed the former to graduate level and quasi-professional work.
“I was blown away by the quality of the student participation in the class,” Englebert added.
The symposium complete, Englebert’s students will continue editing the scholars’ essays for submission to an academic journal.
“When you combine all these things,” Englebert says, “it’s a very liberal arts project in that it has multiple dimensions that were brought together in a very lovely way at the symposium.”
While work continues on building the CGE’s physical home, Englebert believes his Africa After the End of History students proved that its spirit is already present at Pomona.
“If the CGE continues to have more courses such as these,” Mohammed adds, “it’ll be very valuable to students, especially students who are studying things at the international or global level.”