On December 15, we bid farewell to the Fall 2021 UMAPS cohort at a day-long research seminar. The day was organized into a morning and afternoon session, with four UMAPS fellows presenting their research in each of the two sessions. Presentations were live-streamed via Zoom, and we were very happy to have a large virtual audience, including many people joining us from the continent! In case you were not able to participate in the event, the complete playlist of presentations is now available to watch. The links to the recordings are posted on the UMAPS Conference page.

Morning session

  • Tolulope Olawole (Covenant University, Nigeria): Bisphenol A-associated Epigenomic Changes in Young Adults in Ota, Nigeria

  • Fawzi Bakhiet (Neelain University, Sudan): Landscape of Settlement around Napata, Capital of Ancient Kush-Sudan

  • Stephen Ajwang (Rongo University, Kenya): Leveraging Big Data Analytics and Artificial Intelligence for Climate Smart Agriculture in Lake Victoria Basin, Kenya

  • Million Mengesha (Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia): Triple Oxygen Isotope Measurements on Soil Carbonates to Trace Past Environmental Condition: a Case Study from Eastern Africa

Afternoon session

  • Bantayehu Chanie (Bahir Dar University, Ethiopia): War and State Formation in South Sudan

  • Mohammed Ali (Bahir Dar University, Ethiopia): The State of Capital-Labour Relations in Late-industrializing Ethiopia

  • Fedila Hussen (University of Gondar, Ethiopia): The Need to Intervene in the Customary Justice System for the Case of Justice: the Case of Ethiopia

  • Oluwabunmi Bernard (Obafemi Awolowo University, Nigeria): Lend Me Your Penis: A Critical Analysis of Morality and Sexuality in Yorùbá Lampooning Songs

The day’s events were capped with a celebration of the UMAPS fellows, where each fellow received a plaque to mark their completion of the program, and a certificate of completion of the academic writing program lead by long-time ASC partner, Christine Feak. 

Although we are saying goodbye to the Fall 2022 cohort as UMAPS fellows, we are now welcoming them to the network of 187 UMAPS alumni!