Presentation of Unequal Partners at the 2017 Annual Global Affairs Conference of Rutgers University

I was invited to speak at the 2017 Global Affairs Conference organized by the Rutgers Division of Global Affairs (DGA) and The Student Association of Global Affairs (SAGA) in Newark, NJ on April 21. The theme was “Dynamics of Global Inequality: New Thinking in Global Affairs.” I presented my work and my book Unequal Partners in the panel “Tracing the Roots of Oppression,”  alongside Professor Taja Nia Henderson (Rutgers Law School), Dr. Miloš Hrnjaz (University of Belgrade), and Tyler Huether (Embry-Riddle).
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Unequal Partners: Teaching Resources

I created powerpoints based on my book Unequal Partners: American Foundations and Higher Education Development in Africa (Palgrave, 2016) to use in classrooms (copyright Fabrice Jaumont).

The book Unequal Partners:

  • Offers a flesh and bone approach to international development for a wide audience, including international organizations, governmental agencies and NGOs involved in international assistance
  • Provides insights into building the educational capital of developing countries
  • Analyzes the role of American philanthropy abroad and its impact on higher education in Sub-Saharan Africa

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A History of Unequal Partnerships between American Foundations and African Universities – An Article for HistPhil

I contributed a post to HistPhi, a web publication on the history of the philanthropic and nonprofit sectors, based on my new book, Unequal Partners: American Foundations and Higher Education Development in Africa (Palgrave-MacMillan, 2016). Continue reading “A History of Unequal Partnerships between American Foundations and African Universities – An Article for HistPhil”

Unequal Partners book launch at Carnegie Corporation of New York

I launched my new book Unequal Partners: American Foundations and Higher Education Development in Africa (Palgrave Macmillan., 170 pp., ISBN 978–1–137–59347–4) at Carnegie Corporation of New York. President Vartan Gregorian, who also wrote the preface, introduced the book and myself during a beautiful reception.

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Marybeth Gasman, University of Pennsylvania, endorses Unequal Partners: American Foundations and Higher Education Development in Africa

Fabrice Jaumont has written a book that needed to be written decades ago. Unequal Partners: American Foundations and Higher Education Development in Africa tells the complicated story of how philanthropy has shaped higher education, in both positive and negative ways. Although the “great” philanthropists have been lauded in many books for decades, recent scholarship has challenged their benevolence and that of their foundations. Jaumont provides a fair portrayal of major foundation players in African higher education—those with a long track record and those that have just started to play a role. Rather than present these foundations as saviors that uplift higher education on the continent, Jaumont presents a nuanced view, detailing the profound impact as well as the “unequal” relationships that result when one of the partners has more resources and the other is in need of resources. Of note, the discussions and themes featured in the book are useful to those studying and working with foundations in the USA as well as in Africa. Interestingly, many of the interventions in Africa are similar to those in urban and minority communities in the USA. Overall, Unequal Partners is beautifully written, succinctly and effectively argued, and timely.

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“Measuring the Influence of Language on Grant- Making by U.S. Foundations in Africa” – An Article for Reconsidering Development

I contributed an article with Jack Klempay in Reconsidering Development, an international, open access, and peer reviewed e-journal that aims to create an equitable space for dialogue and discussion concerning the theory and practice of international development (published by the University of Minnesota Libraries Publishing). Continue reading ““Measuring the Influence of Language on Grant- Making by U.S. Foundations in Africa” – An Article for Reconsidering Development”

Private Foundations and the Perils of Education Development

Issues around the impact of donor funding on education reform have resurfaced both in the local and global arenas. A recent editorial in the Los Angeles Times [1] questioned the role of foundations and philanthropists in U.S. public education, highlighting the Gates Foundation’s debatable “failures” to accomplish concrete results. On her well-followed blog, Diane Ravitch even called the funding choices of Bill Gates, Eli Broad or the Walton Family “unwise” and “undemocratic” [2]. This debate is hardly new as major newspapers [3]  have regularly underscored the negative impact of major private donors’ gifts on the United States’ secondary school system, particularly during the dire economic climate which left schools facing abysmal budget cuts. Continue reading “Private Foundations and the Perils of Education Development”