Perspectives is an occasional paper series published by the Alliance for African Partnership in collaboration with Michigan State University Press. Each volume of the publication is an edited collection of scholarly “thought pieces” which are short, critical reflections providing insights on priority development challenges related to Africa and Africa’s place in the broader global context. Each volume includes multidisciplinary and transdisciplinary perspectives around a chosen theme related to AAP’s six priority areas: agri-food systems, culture and society, health and nutrition, education, youth empowerment, and water, energy, and environment as well as AAP’s three pillars: building bridges, transforming institutions, and transforming lives. The goal of Perspectives is to contribute to thought leadership and global dialogues around positively transforming institutions and livelihoods in Africa and beyond.
Perspectives is typically published 1-2 times per year. The AAP directors serve as editors for the overall series, but each volume also has guest editors with expertise in the selected theme.
Publication and distribution: Perspectives is published by the MSU Press and distributed using a creative commons licensing and will be freely available to the public by download on the website. Print-on-demand copies of the publication will be available for purchase online by the general public; discounted rates are available for selected individuals and institutions by contacting the Perspectives team via email at .
AAP held a six-part COVID-19 dialogue series in 2020 that provided an opportunity for African voices - including vice chancellors, researchers, and other relevant staff at AAP consortium universities, as well as other stakeholders - to share their stories of response, hope, and resilience during the pandemic. This collection of reflective pieces focuses on COVID-19 and higher education institutions in Africa. The issue was structured into three themes or sections. The first section was focused on responses and lessons learned from African higher education institutions (HEIs), in which contributors reflected on the ways in which their individual HEIs responded to the pandemic internally to ensure the university’s main activities— that is, teaching, learning, and research— continued as normal as possible under the circumstances. The second section examined the social and psychological impact of COVID-19 in the African higher education context. The final section looked at some of the stories of innovative approaches to issues of access to education and research in African higher education during and beyond the pandemic.
Authors responded to a Call for Thought Pieces—urgent, critical reflections of issues around race and ethnicity in higher education institutions and key stakeholder and collaborator organizations in Africa and the African Diaspora. AAP situated this volume at a time when racism and long-standing inequities came to the forefront in the US in 2020, prompting a global outcry against racial injustice. People from across racial, ethnic, gendered, linguistic, geographic, and other identities rose in protest in every US state, in countries in Africa, and in the global African Diaspora in solidarity with Black communities in the US, but also against injustices in individuals’ own countries. While progress and symbols of racial reconciliation were rendered visible in some countries, until there is recognition that systemic racism exists and is still deeply embedded in the structures and fabric of many social, political, economic, educational, judicial, and religious institutions, reconciliation will remain an idea.
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