Michigan Tech’s African Students’ Organization participated in the 2016 Midwest African Student Organization Conference (MASOCon16), formerly known as the Annual African Midwestern Conference, at the Northern Kentucky University. The highly attended conference took place September 2-4, 2016 and was themed ‘Afro-Revolution’.
There were presentations and discussions on media representations of Africa, African culture in the midst of globalization, Sino-African relations, the divide among Africans in America, African-Americans and First-generation Africans in America, the role of foreign aid in Africa’s development, colorization and the projections of western norms of beauty on African cultural milieu among others.
A Forbes Magazine 30 Under 30 in Education (2016) awardee, Constance Iloh of the School of Education at the University of California-Irvine was the keynote speaker. Her address focused on how African students could still create their own identity and shape conversations about Africa in spite of the many blockades that they may have to overcome. She also stressed the need for Africans who are outside of the continent to invest every kind of resources available to them in building the future of the continent.
There was a display of high enthusiasm during the conference with all attendees deeply involved in discussions, socialization and fun. Most of the attendees were energetic undergraduate and graduate students. Michigan Tech’s representatives were Gemechis Degaga, PhD candidate in Physical Chemistry; Erica Anderson, BS geological engineering and Master of geographic information science student; Tolulope Odebunmi and Edzordzi Agbozo, PhD students in Rhetoric, Theory and Culture. The team’s participation was funded by Michigan Tech’s Center for Diversity and Inclusion.
This year’s conference was attended by representatives from Michigan Technological University, Cleveland State University, Purdue University, Miami University, Xavier University, Kent State University, Marquette University, Northern Kentucky University, the University of Maryland, Washington University in St. Louis, the University of Cincinnati, Millikin University, the University of Iowa, Indiana University, the University of Missouri, the University of Tennessee, the University of Kentucky, Ohio State University, DePauw University, the University of Chicago, the University of California at Irvine and others. The conference closed with a picnic at the Intramural Fields and Sand Volleyball Complex of the Northern Kentucky University.
