The Africa Study Group is an informal group of graduate students who meet every other week to discuss recent publications and ongoing research concerning Africa.  The group is open to graduate students from all disciplines with an interest in Africa.  Political science is heavily represented but we’ve had participation from other departments such as anthropology and communications. 

 

Feel free to email Carl LeVan at clevan@ucsd.edu for information.

 

NEXT MEETING: Thursday, December 1, in the Ocean View cafeteria at 12:30

 

 Economic Growth (October 13)

  • Macartan Humphreys and Robert Bates, “Political Institutions and Economic Policies: Lessons from Africa,” British Journal of Political Science, 35 (2005): 403-428.
  • Nathan Jensen and Leonard Wantchekon, “Resource Wealth and Political Regimes in Africa.”  Forthcoming in Comparative Political Studies, available on NYU’s website.

 

Military Politics and Coups (October 27)

  • Patrick McGowan, “African Military Coups d’etat, 1956 – 2001: Frequency, Trends, and Distribution,” Journal of Modern African Studies, Vol. 41, No. 3 (2003), pp. 339 – 370.
  • Excerpts from Coups from Below: Armed Subalterns and State Power in West Africa, by Jimmy Kandeh.  New York: Palgrave Macmillan (2004).

 

Indigenous Authority (November 10)

  • Nicola Gennaioli and Ilia Rainer, “The Modern Impact of Pre-Colonial Centralization in Africa” (unpublished manuscript)
  • Richard Sklar, “The Premise of Mixed Government,” lecture at the University of Ibadan, 2001.

 

Power sharing (December 1)

  • Donald Rothchild, Reassuring Weaker Parties after Civil Wars: the Benefits and Costs of Executive Power-sharing Systems in Africa,” Ethnopolitics, Vol. 4, No. 3 (Sept. 2005): 247-267.
  • Denis Tull and Andreas Muhler, “The Hidden Costs of Power-sharing: Reproducing Insurgent Violence in Africa,” African Affairs 104 (2005): 375-398.