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Welcome to M3, the newsletter for globally-connected faculty and researchers at MIT.
Because you have research interests in Africa or have been a friend to MISTI or the Center for International Studies you are receiving this email.
We have heard that many of you would like to know more about the work of colleagues across MIT with shared research interests in a particular location or topic. Once a semester, culling from the wide array of projects launched by faculty across the Institute, including via MIT Global Seed Funds, we’ll bring you news about Africa-focused research in all disciplines and research topics, but especially around global challenges such as climate and sustainability, health, AI and computing, democratic stability, inequality, and human development. Our hope is that this information will enable you to strengthen ties with colleagues in a way that will enhance your own research and understanding of the region.
Please share this newsletter with others in our research community who might be interested in joining. They can sign up for the newsletter here.
Thank you for being a part of our community!
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MIT Africa Innovate Conference
Friday, April 12
Saturday, April 13
MIT Media Lab
The 13th edition of the MIT Africa Innovate Conference, themed “The promise of Africa: Path from growth to inclusive prosperity,” aims to shift conversations towards building robust institutions and frameworks that propel the continent towards sustainable development and improvements in living standards for its people.
More information here.
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Sudan week: Film screening and podcast series release
Screening of “Goodbye Julia”
Monday, April 15
7 PM
Building 26-100
On April 15th, 2023, war broke out in Sudan. The conflict is still ongoing and has had disastrous consequences, with thousands of Sudanese killed and millions displaced. This event is intended to inform the MIT/Boston community about the war as well as to raise funds for those displaced after a year of violence.
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Alumni Association / MIT Africa Faculty Lecture Series
Wednesdays, April 17 – May 8
11 AM
Zoom
Topics include: Built environment and urban politics; Rethinking nuclear energy solutions for the African continent; Collaborating on space enabled designs with African leaders; MIT’s Africa engagement in the 21st century, challenges and possibilities.
More information and registration here.
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Innovation in global growth markets: Prosperity through entrepreneurship
Tuesday, April 30
8 AM – 4:15 PM
Samberg Conference Center, 7th floor
This conference brings together over 200 leading minds from across the globe to explore how entrepreneurship and innovation can unlock a new era of prosperity in growth markets. HE Mokgweetsi Masisi, president of Botswana, is among the speakers.
More information here.
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Anti-corruption champion John Githongo announced as CIS Wilhelm Fellow for 2024-2025
Githongo hails from Kenya, where he was a journalist and a leading light in the Transparency movement. Throughout his career, he has held a variety of government, non-government, and academic appointments, and was recognized by Foreign Policy magazine as one of the world’s 100 top global thinkers.
Read his complete bio here.
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Chancellor Melissa Nobles visits Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Ghana
A key MIT collaborator in West Africa, KNUST hosted Chancellor Nobles for a public lecture about the importance of interdisciplinary education.
“We have to make sure our students can think critically for themselves, be intellectually curious, and learn the fundamentals of their disciplines because knowledge in the 21st century is multi-disciplinary. It is not enough to know one thing, you have to know many things, and often, you have to know them well,” she noted.
Read more here.
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MIT teams up with the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (South Africa) to study anti-gentrification planning in a post-industrial neighborhood
The MIT Global Seed Funds (GSF) program helps MIT faculty and principal investigators create new connections by supporting early-stage collaborations with researchers at peer institutions around the world. Since 2008, the CIS GSF program has awarded nearly $22 million to more than 1,000 faculty research projects.
A recent GSF project in South Africa connected Professor Brent Ryan (MIT DUSP) with Professor Masilonyane Mokhele (Cape Peninsula University of Technology) to study anti-gentrification planning of Woodstock, a blue-collar neighborhood in Cape Town. The study is currently underway and aims to analyze historical spatial and demographic transitions to unpack the scale and nature of gentrification and post-industrial development. Past efforts have been made to rejuvenate Woodstock from its post-industrial slump and entice the upper-middle class. For example, neoliberal approaches to promote a globally competitive Cape Town have been implemented through mechanisms like city improvement districts. Such endeavors have improved Woodstock’s appeal but have displaced long-time residents and alienated those remaining. Despite their successes, the officials downplay the impact of renewal policies on the broader Woodstock community.
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MCP ‘25 Students Mikel Sandin (second from left) and Shubhi Goyal (third from right) travel to CPUT during IAP 2024 to partake in the research project. | Professor Mokhele (standing) visits MIT in October of 2023 to guest lecture on the topic and proposed research ideas. | | |
Global Teaching Labs
Ana Illanes Martinez de la Vega ’26 (left), Jean Billa ’25 (second from left), Youssef Marrakchi ’25 (back left), Anas Chentouf ’24 (back center) outside the stadium before the Africa Cup of Nations opening match in Abidjan, Ivory Coast in January 2024. The team was in the Ivory Coast as part of a Global Teaching Labs program focused on competition style mathematics.
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Global Classroom
Professor Chakanetsa Mavhunga lectures a group of MIT and Dedan Kimathi University of Technology (DeKUT) students in Kenya as part of the “Calabashing: Innovating with gourds” course he led during IAP 2024.
A hands-on team-taught undergraduate level practical field lab exploring “Design, materials innovation, and manufacturing” through one organic material—the gourd. Calabashing is the multiple ways through which different societies transform the gourd into multiplex forms of equipment (calabashes) and uses. This lab uses calabashing to approach innovation as something one can grow in their backyard, rather than complex art.
This global course was a collaboration between MISTI, STS, and the VPIA.
Learn more about Global Classrooms here.
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