Wilmot James, an internationally recognized public health expert and former member of South Africa’s Parliament, is the new director of the Watson School’s Africa Initiative. James has ambitious plans for the initiative, which will highlight African contributions to global affairs and focus on the continent’s future and untapped potential.

Having spent time at the Watson School’s Africa Initiative as a visiting research fellow in 2023, Chikezirim “Chike” Nwoke was eager to return as a postdoctoral research associate after completing his Ph.D. at Carleton University.

Senior International and Public Affairs (IAPA) concentrator Bruna da Silva Melo found the perfect vehicle for community building in the Watson School’s Africa Initiative.

The Watson Institute's Africa Initiative is the only U.S. partner in the Consortium for Advanced Research Training in Africa (CARTA), an organization dedicated to building a vibrant multidisciplinary African academy that produces world-class research.

Daniel Jordan Smith’s newest book on Nigeria, Every Household Its Own Government: Improvised Infrastructure, Entrepreneurial Citizens, and the State in Nigeria, was recently published by Princeton University Press. The Director of the Africa Initiative since 2016, Smith is also the Charles C. Tillinghast, Jr. ’32 Professor of International Studies and a professor of Anthropology.

Madison Paulk is a current student in the Graduate Program in Development at the Watson Institute. She is involved with the Africa Initiative as her research interests specifically include urban anthropology and public art in South Africa. She is completing her dissertation research in Durban. 

Nitsan Chorev is the Harmon Family Professor of Sociology and International & Public Affairs and is currently the director of the Graduate Program in Development. Chorev is the author of three books, the most recent of which, Give and Take: Developmental Foreign Aid and the Pharmaceutical Industry in East Africa, was published by Princeton University Press in early 2020. 

Over the last decade, a series of Ebola outbreaks have affected significant numbers of patients, often fatally, and particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. Just 15 months after the latest major outbreak began in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), approximately 3,300 cases and 2,200 deaths have been reported — a case fatality ratio of about 67 percent.