N’Dri Assié-Lumumba, professor of Africana, recently co-edited a special issue of the International Review of Education-Journal of Lifelong Learning (IRE) titled, “Rediscovering the Ubuntu Paradigm in Education," Birgit Brock-Utne (University of Oslo) and Dr. joan.Osa Oviawe (visiting scholar at Cornell) were co–editors. This is one of several publications, including books and special of other journals such as Bandung: Journal of the Global South, to come from the 2015 59th annual conference of the Comparative and International Education Society (CIES) that was held in Washington, DC.
The theme of that conference, organized by Assié-Lumumba during her term as President-Elect of CIES in 2014/2015, was “Ubuntu! Imagining a Humanist Education Globally.”
“The 2015 Washington conference was a major success, setting new records in the history of CIES for the number of abstract submissions, parallel events, fundraising as well as revenue surplus,” saysAssié-Lumumba. It included more than 1,900 abstract submissions leading to about 730 plenary and concurrent sessions including 34 pre-conference workshops and more than 3,300 attendees from more than 100 countries.
Assié-Lumumba ended her 2015/2016 tenure as CIES President earlier last month. She will continue to serve on the CIES Board of Directors and serve as representative of CIES to the World Council for Comparative Education Societies (WCCES) which will hold its XVI World Congress in Beijing (China) in August 2016.
Assié-Lumumba is a professor of African and diaspora education, comparative and international education, social institutions, African social history and the study of gender in the Africana Studies and Research Center. She came to Cornell in 1991 as a Fulbright Senior Research Fellow and Ford Foundation/Africana Studies Fellow. She is a Fellow of the World Academy of Art and Science.