CIES African Diaspora SIG Emerging Scholar Award

At the 2019 Comparative & International Education Society (CIES) conference in San Francisco, I was honoured to received the 2019 CIES African Diaspora SIG Emerging Scholar Award, along with Dr. Stacey Ault of Sacramento University, Dr. Anthony Briggs of Oakland University and Dr. Travis Bristol of University of California Berkley. Below are my remark/note of thanks.

I am grateful and honoured to receive this award. Thank you to the Afrikan Diaspora SIG for for the vote of confidence in the possibility of my work. My task now is to live up to that trajectory and eventually move from an emerging to established scholar.

Thank you to my great mentors, Dr. Beverly Lindsay, Dr. Ladislaus Semali and Dr. Rodney Hopson for the unending support.

In reflecting on this award, one of the things that comes to my mind is to remember and keep in mind that we have always been contributors no matter how often it has been denied. We have to remember that we’ve always been here, just as we are here now.

We are here now
We are present in today
Our rich history is here now
Our humanity is evident in our everyday
Our greatness is not confined to the past
Our tomorrow do not hold a return to a greatness of the yesteryears
We are here now

The richness of our cultures are here now
The beauty of our skin
Of our hair
Of our clothes
Of our scholarships
Of our innovations
Of our beings
All are here now
Just as we were there then
Just as we will be there then
All in our glorious beauty that is regularly ignored
We are here now

So while some may ignore us
While some may want to explain us or explain us away
We cannot be implicit or complicit in our own undermining
We are here now and we have always been here
So let’s celebrate our fullness and our enoughness
While continuing to contribute and sharing of our stories through our scholarship.

Thank you.