Speaker: N’Dri Thérèse Assié-Lumumba
Chair: Mark Bray

May 22 at 10:30am to May 23 at 12:00am
Room 202, Runme Shaw Building, the University of Hong Kong

When analyzing contemporary educational systems in Africa, there has been a tendency to focus on formal education that resulted from the colonial experience. Yet, in spite of the profound and sweeping changes that were introduced into the African societies, the foundation and critical dimensions of Africa’s institutions and culture have survived.

This presentation will view the construction of education through the lens of African humanism as popularized by Nelson Mandela and others. The discussion will be allied to the theme of the 2015 annual conference of the Comparative and International Education Society (CIES) in Washington DC: “Ubuntu! Imagining a Humanist Education Globally”.

N’Dri Thérèse Assié-Lumumba is a Professor of African, African Diaspora and Comparative/International Education at Cornell University, USA. She is the Vice-President of Comparative and International Education Society (CIES), and will serve as President in 2015/16. Her early education was in Côte d’Ivoire, followed by France, Canada and the USA. Dr. Assié-Lumumba is a leading scholar with several books, numerous articles and book chapters on various dimensions of education, especially higher education, gender and equity.