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ANU Africa Network
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This website was established in 2013 by David Lucas, and renovated and relaunched in 2020 as part of a project to increase awareness of Africa and African studies in the ANU and the ACT, funded by the Australian Government’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
Another outcome of that project was a major research report, published in August 2021, African Studies at the Australian National University and in the Australian Capital Territory, analyzing the past, present and future of the study of Africa at the Australian National University and the wider Australian University sector.
The major innovation on this updated website is the creation of the ACT Africa Expert Directory which lists experts on Africa from institutions around the ACT, primarily the ANU. We will continue to curate this list, offering a key resource for media, government and non-government organizations seeking expert facts and opinions on Africa. Individuals can request to be added to the list by contacting the website managers.
Another notable addition is the expanded directory of PhD theses on Africa produced in the territory’s universities, a solid measure of the vitality of the study of Africa in the city of Canberra.
Reviewing these directories, it is revealing to note that the vast majority of research on Africa is produced by disciplinary experts (environmental scientists, economists, demographers, etc.) rather than area studies experts. This means that the study of Africa is woven into the fabric of the research culture of the ANU and the ACT’s other universities in ways that are not necessarily apparent.
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The first Caldwell African Research Visiting Fellow
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Dr Makandwe Nyirenda from the Africa Centre for Health & Population Studies, University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa has been awarded the first John C Caldwell African Research Visiting Fellowship and should arrive at the ANU later this year.
The Fellowship is funded through the John C (Jack) Caldwell Chair in Population, Health and Development Endowment Fund – Jack Caldwell being one of the ANU’s most distinguished Africanists.
Dr Nyirenda is a graduate in Demography and Economics from the University of Zambia, thus maintaining the ANU’s link with UNZA.
For more details see:
https://adsri.anu.edu.au/news-caldwell-fellowship
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“The Contribution of Constitutional Courts to the Democratic Quality of Elections in Sub-Saharan Africa” 04/09/2014
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Please see the below information on an informal presentation by RegNet PhD Visiting Fellow, Charlotte Heyl. Charlotte is part of our DAAD Research Exchange Program with the GIGA Institute of African Affairs (Hamburg, Germany) led by Dr. Bjoern Dressel of the Crawford School.
The Contribution of Constitutional Courts to the Democratic Quality of Elections in Sub-Saharan Africa
Date/Time: 4th September, Thursday from 3-4:15pm
Venue: RegNet Meeting room, level 3 Coombs Extension BuildingElectoral processes in Sub-Saharan Africa are prone to electoral irregularities. Reoccurring and unsanctioned irregularities shake the confidence of voters and candidates in the electoral process and can thus jeopardize the voters’ willingness to participate in elections as well as the elections’ competitiveness and legitimacy. Impartial electoral contestation adjudication can however serve as an “institutional safety-valve” (Mozaffar / Schedler 2002) that compensates short-comings earlier in the electoral process. In Francophone Africa constitutional courts are the electoral judges of presidential and legislative elections. Which role do these constitutional courts play in reality in electoral processes? How do they contribute to the democratic quality of elections? The doctoral thesis analyzes in a first step the institutional structure and performance of constitutional courts in five African electoral democracies (Benin, Madagascar, Mali, Niger and Senegal) before it examines more deeply the dynamics of electoral adjudication in Madagascar and Senegal.
Charlotte Heyl is a Political Scientist and a research fellow at the GIGA Institute of African Affairs in Hamburg (Germany) as well as at the University of Duisburg-Essen (Germany). She works in a research project on” Judicial Independence in New Democracies” led by Dr. Mariana Llanos. Her doctoral project deals with the role of African constitutional courts in electoral processes. She has field work experience in Madagascar, Mali, Mozambique and Senegal.
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Request for African Student Participants from Muuka Hlupho Dabali (Edith Cowan University)
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My name is Muuka Hlupho Dabali and I am currently studying at Edith Cowan University (Western Australia). I am conducting a research project as a part of the requirements of my Bachelor of Arts (Psychology) Honours degree and would like to recruit participants through this website.
My aim is to recruit roughly 100 participants. The study aims to better understand the role social support plays in the relationship between stress and psychological distress in African international university students. This will requirel participants to complete an online questionnaire. The findings will provide evidence of the factors that influence the levels of stress experienced by African international students in Australia.
This study seeks participants from across Australia, from as many universities or other tertiary institutions as possible to increase its generalisability. Participation is invited from African students enrolled full-time with International student status. It is anticipated that the data from the study will be used in research publications, academic presentations and made available for dissemination to lecturers, university leaders, universities, educational authorities and professional bodies. The study is being conducted by myself and being supervised by Dr Jennifer Loh of Edith Cowan University.
Participation in the study is designed to not be burdensome, taking approximately 5 to 10 minutes for completion. For ease of use and anonymity, participants are invited to complete an online questionnaire. The questionnaire can be accessed at https://ecuau.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_380aZ6xzObbAfw9.
This project invites African international students to report on a range of stress-related factors, social support perceptions and psychological outcomes. Most previous research in this area has focused on the African international student group in an American context, however, researchers have generally not sought participants from any universities and tertiary institutions across Australia. Given the findings of studies conducted in the United States of America, it is of concern to the researcher that similar findings may be evident in Australia, therefore data obtained from this study may play a key role in the delivery of more directive and specialized psychological support services for this population.
Questions about the study can be directed to
Principal Investigator: Muuka Hlupho Dabali
School of Psychology and Social Sciences
Edith Cowan University
Phone: 0415280554
Email: hdabali@our.ecu.edu.au
