Program Description: Professor Augis will discuss her 25 years of field research in the West African countries of Senegal and Niger. She’ll explain ways she constantly had to consider her role as an American woman in an African Islamic context, not just for the veracity of her studies, but in order to respect the community norms held by the people with whom she lived. This important research standard often made gathering data more challenging, but it also enabled her to conduct longitudinal research across many years where she followed the lives and experiences of Senegalese and Nigeriens who taught her a great deal. In her publications, she has also maintained high standards of reflexivity, as relaying findings must include the impact of the researcher — both for the sake of study respondents, and for the credibility of data.

Presenter Bio: Professor Augis holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Chicago and has been a professor of Sociology at Ramapo College since 2001. Her research expertise is two-fold: in addition to extensive work studying gender, religion, and migration in Africa, she is now conducting a study of anti-slavery abolitionsists from Ohio in the 1830’s. Interestingly, both the contemporary conservative Muslims in her West African research and the conservative Protestants who helped lead abolition in the 1830’s-1850’s engaged religious belief to transform society toward higher levels of equality for all. Professor Augis dedicates her career as a scholar to understanding and helping communicate the efforts of organized groups to improve human rights.

Join Webex meeting: https://ramapo.webex.com/ramapo/j.php?MTID=m6b6e2e43cb6bc572b814c849a5eb3937

(ID: 1784227540, password: HBUHEZ3T)

Co-sponsored by: The Roukema Center for International Education, the George T. Potter Library, and the Ramapo Provost Office.