AGS's Specialist of African Politics Invited to an International Conference at the University of Zimbabwe

AGS's specialist of African politics Professor Douglas Yates was invited to participate in the Young Scholars Initiative (YSI) "Africa Convening" international conference in Harare, Zimbabwe from 16-18 August 2018. The Young Scholars Initiative is an international research network gathering 5,000 scholars, students, and young professionals in 125 countries working on finding a new economic paradigm besides the hegemonic neoliberal model. It is one of the affiliate programs of the New York-based think tank Institute for New Economic Thinking, founded in 2009, in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, to support research on the relationship between finance and the broader economy as well as areas such as environment, inequality, and the economics of innovation.

The conference was held at the University of Zimbabwe, the oldest university in Zimbabwe, founded in 1952 through a relationship with the University of London. Professor Yates was invited to be a "mentor" in the Economic History group, one of the several topical and geographical working groups around which the conference was organized. This working group covered three large themes: agriculture and industrialization, labor and enterprise, and politics and identity.

"This kind of conference provides scholars from sub-Saharan Africa with funding to get involved in a global movement in international finance and economics that might otherwise marginalize their voices because of a lack of funding." said Professor Yates. "INET’s Young Scholars Initiative in particular gives graduate students a voice, a platform for their research, and a continent-wide network to promote new economic thinking. This is especially important, as AGS has always believed that graduate students are the future of research and higher education.”

Professor Yates heads the African concentration in the Master of International Relations and Diplomacy program at the American Graduate School in Paris. He is the author of several books on the topic, including The Scramble for African Oil: Oppression, Corruption and War for Control of Africa's Natural Resources (London: Pluto Press, 2012).