My current book project Engaged Citizens: Culture and Protest in Africa Today continues my research that is informed by pan-African approaches to the dynamics of protest. This project builds on African Freedom where I explored ongoing struggles for meaningful freedom as represented in film and literature within the context of national liberation and its afterlives. Engaged Citizens pivots to the present and considers the role culture plays in cultivating an awareness of democracy within citizen-led movements of the twenty-first century. I explore specific forms of popular cultural expression in three different case studies: Y’en a marre, Senegal; Balai citoyen, Burkina Faso; La LUCHA in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. This project grew out of teaching a course on Human Rights across different contexts while in conversation with activists in the field. Areas of common concern across these movements include defending democracy, improving quality of life for a majority of people, maintaining peace and security, and reflecting on historical struggles for freedom and justice in Africa.
In Human Rights Across Contexts, students read theories of freedom, human rights and social justice and are invited to think comparatively across contexts. This serves as preparation for talking with activists in the field via zoom chat about their current priorities and initiatives. Final projects involve designing and implementing some form of human rights practice in collaboration with activists in Africa. Since 2018, I have conducted a wide range of interviews with leaders and activists in all these movements and made three fieldwork trips to Dakar, Senegal.
