Global Women's History Project
invites women from around the globe involved in bringing peace to their regions to meet with one another and with women from the United States in order to learn about and develop common strategies for peace and for justice. Through conferences, networking, and educational programs, the Project creates international links among women involved in bringing peace to their regions through both political structures and grassroots organizations.

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AFRICA ALIVE!

Africa Alive! introduces a model for African Studies at Westfield State College. The goal is to link private and public education by sharing resources related to African Studies, and to link with Africans in surrounding communities. We believe that bringing African history alive through film, literature, and song, and on-campus guest lecturers from Africa, sharing their visions and life experiences, more closely illustrates both oral and written traditions, as they surface and resurface over time.

AFRICA ALIVE! is a community-based model of African Studies, initiated by Dr. Elise G. Young, History Department, in 2006, and linking Westfield State College with the Five College African Scholars/Studies Program and with other community-based organizations centered on Africa.

Dr. Elise G. Young, History, wrote the proposal in March of 2006 and successfully implemented the program in April 2007. The vision is of a community-based learning model utilizing existing resources in the Pioneer Valley and creating a network between the Five College African Studies Council, the African Cultural Council of Springfield, and Westfield State College.  Springfield College joined the network in Spring, 2009.

AFRICA ALIVE! Puts Africa at the center where it belongs. AFRICA ALIVE! allows us to revision history as a cellular moving shifting form that transcends colonialist divisions.

On-going plans include initiating alternative learning courses connected to AFRICA ALIVE! and Global Women's History Events, two week Visiting Scholar programs at Westfield connected to programming, and providing a venue for Westfield students to take courses with Africanists in the Five Colleges.

AFRICA ALIVE! highlights the history, visions, struggles, accomplishments, of Africa from the perspective of African artists, scholars, musicians, activists, and others. The program has been implemented for three years with the on-going support of the core committee of Dr. Samba Gadjigo, African Film and Literature, Mt. Holyoke College, Gabriel Mkwuah, African Cultural Council of Springfield, Dr. Catherine Newbury, Africanist, Smith College, Alex DeMontrichard, Office of the African Scholars Program, Dr. Almicar Shabbaz, Director, W.E.B. Dubois Center, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Dr. Nathan Therien, Director of Academic Programs, Five Colleges Inc., Dr. Elise G. Young, Westfield State College, as well as with the support of many others at the Five Colleges, particularly Dr. Joyce Bowman, Director of the African Cultural Council, Year One,  Dr. Elliot Fratkin, current Director of the African Cultural Council, Dr. John Higginson, guest speaker, Year One, and at Westfield State College, particularly in Year One, Dr. Michael Konig, Chair, History Department. Dr. Mulugeta Agonafer has joined us as a representative of Springfield College.

This unique educational opportunity, providing a link between public and private education, is invaluable in terms of sharing resources on Africa and to expand funding options for the purpose of developing creative programming on Africa in our region. The Project provides a venue for education coming from Africans themselves within and outside of Academia. One of the most effective ways to break through the barriers of colonialist education is for people to get to know one another through informal conversations and experiential events.

YEAR ONE: Africa Alive! African History through Film Story and Song Featuring Nigerian novelist Sefi Ata, and the West African Highlife Band. Members of the Band are from Nigeria, Ghana, and the African disaspora. Featuring two weeks of films by Africans about Africa: Le Petite Vendeuse de Soleil; Al'leessi, An African Actress, Malentendu Colonial (Colonial Misunderstanding); and the film Bamako, opening night. Films were preceeded and followed with discussion led by Dr. Samba Gadjigo and Dr. John Higginson. Baba Ken Okulolo presented Master musician classes at both Westfield State College and at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

YEAR TWO: BAMAKO: Globalization on Trial in Africa Screenings of Bamako Smith College, with faculty Panel Westfield State College, with Nicole Lee Umass Amherst, with Producer and film star, Danny Glover

Conference, March 1, 2008, Smith College, In collaboration with Westfield State College and the West African Research Center in Dakar. Student panels and community participation. 'Connecting College and Community: Activism and Globalization,' Keynote Address by Nicole Lee, Executive Director, TranssAfrica Forum

Interactive Video Conference with Dakar, Senegal on the film Bamako

YEAR THREE: Africans on Africa: Gender, Generation and Globalization
Featuring Aissata Tall-Sall and Penda Mbow, from Senegal and hosted on the Westfield State College campus

'Women and Sengalese Politics, Life Stories and Community Dialogue' Westfield State College, April 6

'Women and the "Heroism of Everyday Life", Mt, Holyoke College, April 7th, Film screening and panel

CONTEMPLATIVE PRACTICE IN LEARNING

History as Dharma: Teaching the Middle East and Africa

Over the past five years I have developed a historiographical model rooted in contemplative practices, to teach case studies from the Middle East/Africa. This workshop/teacher training module emerges out of twenty-five years as a Middle East historian, researcher, writer and activist (with a focus on Women's Studies, historiography, and Africa); and it emerges out of twenty-five years as a student and practitioner of contemplative practices in the Vipassana and Zen Buddhist Thich Nhat Hanh and Yogic/Ayurveda traditions.

Educators who access this module may do so for professional development or to reframe or supplement courses in higher or secondary educational settings, or as a vehicle for activist work in community settings.

The pedagogical model of this teacher training module is praxis. Participants are invited to experience contemplative practice as we explore its usefulness for teaching contentious historical and political realities.

Many educators face difficulties teaching my area of specialization, Palestine. Hegemonic historical methodologies and narratives (such as modernization theory) are dualistic and hierarchical. History is then conceptualized as a struggle of good vs. evil, one side vs. another, victor vs. victim, etc. From this position, it has not been possible to resolve issues, or even to accurately identify historical developments central to this region and to war in the region. History as dharma provides a unique and alternative approach that lives outside of the confines of the more common nationalist and colonialist discourses.

When one views history as dharma, the central inquiry is- 'how' are we in the world as human beings? Rather than asking participants to evaluate 'sides' within dualistic analytical models, this approach encourages participants to 'understand' historical developments and historical actors within the context of ontological and epistemological models rooted in Yogic, Buddhist, and feminist traditions. Studying history becomes an inquiry into the nature of suffering and liberation.

The study of history brings to the foreground the roots of violence and of liberation. Many ancient teachings tell us that suffering is caused by identification of ego with higher Self; and from minds full of craving, aversion, and a sense of separation. Yogic traditions assert that uniting 'opposite' patterns within the nervous system (sun/moon) opens up the core of the body to experience its innate freedom. History as Dharma takes this inquiry into the realm of centuries old Yoga philosophies and into the language of Thich Nhat Hanh and Zen Buddhism, so that participants can begin to experience Interbeing as the ground of their investigation. Awakening to these processes is the first requirement for approaching historical texts and for 'reading' history as it is happening.

This model traces the roots of the war over Palestine (generally taught within the context of modernization theory and in the context of European history) to Africa, beginning with the Berlin Conference, 1984/85. I introduce the terms Afro-Eurasian landmass and   African/Arab/European fusion as well as inquiries into language and into concepts such as Self from Buddhist/Yogic perspectives. Rather than teaching history as a series of hierarchical movements/struggles and as linear, this module focuses on movements that are rooted in ahimsa, wholeness, one-ness, paradox. As noted, this model is experiential as well as explicative. Participants will engage in contemplative practice and in exercises specifically designed to experience dharma in the context of historical inquiry.

Philosophical traditions that are political inform our study of history. The work of studying history is informed by the questions that we ask in contemplative practice contexts. The mind/body relationship as it informs a range of philosophical/political traditions sits firmly in the background of all discussions of history, but is not often raised. Thich Nhat Hanh notes that:"Deluded mind (parikkalpita) is the mind that is conditioned by duality and notions of self and permanence, caught by ignorance, craving, and anger. Its nature is obscured. (pg. 192, 'Understanding Our Mind'). Feminist historiography, a second historiographical model introduced in this module, is rooted in examination of mind/body relations as it focuses on gender, class, and race, in historical and geographic context. Participants can begin to contextualize and to explore movements, visions, strategies in service of world peace, across nationalist and religious boundaries.

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