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Ali A. Mazrui, director of the Institute of Global Cultural Studies at Binghamton University, State University of New York, will deliver the Baccalaureate address at Lafayette 10:30 a.m. Saturday, May 22.
At the College’s 169th Commencement exercises, to be held 2:30 p.m. that afternoon, Mazrui will be awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity.
Edward G. Rendell, Governor of Pennsylvania, will deliver the commencement address and will receive an honorary Doctor of Laws.
Both the Baccalaureate and Commencement ceremonies will be held on the Quad. In case of rain, they will be held in Allan P. Kirby Sports Center. Click here for information for parents on Commencement.
Commencement will be televised live. All households within a 50-mile radius of campus can watch on RCN and WBPH-TV. The telecast will be carried statewide on PCN, Pennsylvania Cable Network.
The telecast will be available nationally via satellite (KU Band, AMC 9, Transponder K 03, Downlink Frequency 11760 Vertical). It can be viewed by those who have a satellite receiver capable of dialing into the coordinates or have access to a venue such as a restaurant that has these capabilities.
Mazrui founded the Institute of Global Cultural Studies (IGCS) in 1991. Its primary purpose is to develop new multi-disciplinary approaches to the study of culture and cultural influences across societies in the contemporary world. IGCS promotes the study of these cultural forces through research, publications, teaching, academic conferences, and mass-media educational programs.
Mazrui is also Binghamton’s Albert Schweitzer Professor in the Humanities. He holds additional appointments as Albert Luthuli Professor-at-Large in the Humanities and Development Studies at the University of Jos in Nigeria; Andrew D. White Professor-at-Large Emeritus and Senior Scholar in Africana Studies at Cornell University; and Ibn Khaldun Professor-at-Large at the Graduate School of Islamic and Social Sciences, Leesburg, Va. In 1999 he stepped down as the inaugural Walter Rodney Professor at the University of Guyana.
Mazrui has been a visiting scholar at Stanford University, University of Chicago, Colgate University, McGill University, National University of Singapore, Oxford University, Harvard University, Bridgewater State College, Ohio State University, and other institutions worldwide.
In addition to his academic appointments, Mazrui has also served as president of the African Studies Association (USA) and vice president of the International Political Science Association and has lectured on five continents. He has also served as special advisor to the World Bank and as a member of the board of the American Muslim Council, Washington, D.C.
Mazrui’s research interests include African politics, international political culture, political Islam, and North-South relations. He is author or coauthor of more than 20 books. He has also published hundreds of articles in major scholastic journals and public media and served on the editorial boards of more than 20 international scholarly journals.
His work includes the 1986 television series The Africans: A Triple Heritage, a joint production of the BBC and PBS in association with the Nigerian Television Authority.
Upon completing his doctorate at Oxford University in 1967, Mazrui joined the faculty of Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda, where he served as head of the Department of Political Science and dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences until 1973. In 1974, he joined the faculty of the University of Michigan as professor and later as director of the Center for Afroamerican and African Studies (1978-8l). In 1989, he joined Binghamton University as Albert Schweitzer Professor and IGCS director.
His awards include Britain’s Millennium Tribute for Outstanding Scholarship and Special Award from the U.K.’s Association of Muslim Social Scientists, both given in the House of Lords, June 2000.
In addition to his doctorate from Oxford, Mazrui holds an M.A. from Columbia University and B.A., with distinction, from Manchester University in England.