Carnegie African Diaspora Fellows Counter "Brain Drain" and Add Value to Home and Host Countries

The Carnegie African Diaspora Fellowship Program (CADFP) has now selected and approved a total of 110 Fellows since its inception two years ago. The most recently selected follows are traveling to Africa beginning this month to conduct joint projects with colleagues at host universities in Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa. The advisory council, comprised of academic leaders from Africa and prominent African diaspora academics, has remarked on the quick growth, high quality, and impact of the program, which allows African universities to take the lead in hosting African diaspora scholars at their institutions.

According to Council Chair Dr. Paul Tiyambe Zeleza, Vice President for Academic Affairs and Professor of History at Quinnipiac University, "Diaspora academics constitute a critical facet of higher education internationalization. The connections fostered through them ultimately support capacity building and innovation in home and host countries."

Many Fellows have continued the work resulting from their academic collaborations after returning home, extending the impact of the fellowship on both their home campus in North America and their host campus in Africa, and both hosts and Fellows have identified the program as a positive catalyst for ongoing cooperation.