West African Research Association

Our fundraiser ends on Feb. 1, can you help us reach our goal?

Cuts to funding for higher education, world studies, and international aid has represented the loss of almost 50% of WARA and WARC’s annual funding. We need your help to keep WARA functional and capable of resuming its crucial programming. Please consider giving if you can.

Donate here:
https://westafricanresearchassociation.app.neoncrm.com/forms/donate

Cuts to funding for higher education, world studies, and international aid has represented the loss of almost 50% of WARA and WARC’s annual funding. We need your help to keep WARA functional and capable of resuming its crucial programming. Please consider giving if you can.

Click here to donate: https://westafricanresearchassociation.app.neoncrm.com/forms/donate

Check out this archival grant being offered by UCLA Library at UCLA! This is a great opportunity for our West African and American community members to collaborate on a digitization project!

Learn more and access additional details and resources for applicants at meap.library.ucla.edu

Questions?
Contact [email protected]

It is with profound sadness that we share the news of the passing of our dear friend, beloved colleague and brilliant scholar and filmmaker, Mbye Cham. He was laid to rest in his natal city of Banjul, The Gambia, this past Sunday, September 7, 2025.

Mbye became involved with WARA in our early years when we were created in Washington D.C., and when Howard University was one of our first institutional members. He became a WARA board member in 1997, WARA Board President in 2009 and essentially never stopped working with WARA to promote West African scholarship. Mbye helped to create some of our foundational frameworks and was a founding coordinator of the Faculty Development Seminar held annually at WARC in Senegal since 2015. Professor Cham carried with him an incomparable desire to mentor and nourish the spirit of West African scholarship and film that has reverberated throughout WARA. Our community has been forever changed by the impact of his work and mentorship, and his loss leaves a huge vacuum in our community.

We will be creating a collection of memories/stories/tributes of Mbye to serve as a memorial from his West African scholarly and artistic community in the US to his family in The Gambia. If you have a memory or some other way you'd like to honor Mbye Cham, please send it to WARA at the following email address by Sept. 26.

[email protected]

Welcome Our New Board Members!
We’re excited to introduce the newest members of WARA’s Board of Directors:

Ignatius G.D. Suglo – Assistant Professor of Rhetoric & Communication Studies at the University of Richmond, specializing in media history and African cultural representation.

Bright Gyamfi – Assistant Professor of History at the University of California San Diego, focusing on West African intellectual history, nationalism, and Pan-Africanism.

Rogers Orock – Anthropologist with a PhD from Aarhus University, Denmark, with extensive research experience in anthropology and African societies.

We’re honored to have them join our Board and look forward to their contributions in advancing WARA’s vision and impact.

WARA/WARC is one of 25 centers of international academic exchange under the CAORC umbrella. Please help us tell Congress to take action.

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has targeted CAORC funding and at least 21 other exchange programs for elimination.

CAORC, along with our partners at the Alliance for International Exchange, learned that the OMB plans to cut FY25 awards for Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) international exchange programs, which amounts to approximately $100 million in funding.

Act now. Call on Congress to reassert its authority and demand that OMB release the ECA funds it’s planning to eliminate. Make your voice heard: https://www.votervoice.net/EXCHANGE/Campaigns/128837/Respond

Alliance for International Exchange

Congratulations to Dr. Ismael Montana!

We are thrilled to see our former board president, Dr. Ismael Montana, recognized as one of The Africa Report’s "10 African Scholars to Watch in 2025."

His continued scholarship and commitment to advancing the understanding of African history and global connections exemplify the values we strive to support at WARA.

👏 Join us in congratulating Ismael on being recognized for his important research!
Check out the full article here: https://www.theafricareport.com/373603/10-african-scholars-to-watch-in-2025/

Looking for an immersive summer internship?The WARC Immersive Career Development Fellowship is now open for applications.

WICD Fellows receive up to $5,000 to intern at a non-profit organization in Senegal.
Applications are now open!

Learn more here and apply here: https://ow.ly/54ke50ULukm

WARA is excited to announce that fellowship applications are now open for 2025!

We offer four funding opportunities for research and offer our institutional members the opportunity to bring a West African Scholar to their campus for collaborative work through the residency fellowship.

Apply today: https://ow.ly/tJCq50ULuec

There are only a couple of days left to donate to our fundraiser for the West African Scholars Mobility Fellowship (WASMF)! Can you help us get to $4,000, which equals one fellowship for a West African graduate student studying in the U.S.? A sincere thank you to those of you who have already donated!

The WASMF receives more applications (of the highest quality) than any of our other fellowships offered to researchers in the U.S. There is great need and WARA seeks to offer as many of these fellowships as possible, with your help, we can do just that!
DONATE HERE: https://ow.ly/FK7n50UIAoO