Panel at the African Studies Association Annual Meeting, November 2019

The BU ASC Diaspora Studies Initiative organized and presented at ASA Local Arrangements Committee panel at the African Studies Association 62^nd Annual Meeting,“Being, Belonging and Becoming in Africa,” that took place in Boston, MA, November 21-23, 2019, in Boston Marriott Copley Place. The panel Building Bridges through Migration: First Generation African Immigrants discussed the challenges that first-generation migrants from Africa to the United States are facing, as well as the positive contributions of their activities to communities in the United States and their countries of origin. It examined the role diaspora organizations and networks as important civil society actors for mobilizing economic and social resources of the migrants, and facilitating transnational exchange of knowledge, technologies and skills. The panel discussions also highlighted the role of academic institutions in enabling this engagement.

Panel presenters included Dr. Nakeisha Cody (Simmons College), Dr. Joyce Scott (Boston University), Dr. Daivi Rodima-Taylor (Boston University, panel organizer and chair), Dr. Kwamina Panford (Northeastern University, panel discussant), Ms. Vivian Birchall (Africans in Boston), Mr. Zadi Zokou (diaspora activist and film-maker) and Mr. Emmanuel Owusu (African Bridge Network).