Editorial - Howard University, Graduate School

Volume 2, Issue 2
Fall 2006
E-Newsletter of the Howard University Graduate
School SYLFF Fellows Association (HUGSSFA)
Inside this Issue
SYLFF at Howard University
1991-2006
SYLFF Fellows 1991-
2006
SYLFF Mobility Program:
Brazil-U.S.
SYLFF Fellows
Achievements
SYLFF Advisory Committee
Recent & Upcoming
Events
SYLFF Fellows Abroad
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Editorial
Dear colleagues,
I am very honored to assist in
the preparation of this new issue of
Frontline. I hope that this new year
will bring out the best in all of us
and that we will be inspired by each
other. I am extremely excited to be
among the prestigious Sasakawa
Fellows of Howard University and
to be able to contribute to its legacy.
As an international student, I feel
that part of my mission as a SYLFF
fellow is to challenge the boundaries
that keep us from opening up to
new possibilities, new cultures, new
languages. I will wear the SYLFF
fellowship as a badge of honor as I
move on to other stages in my life.
This year we have been bombarded
by images of border patrol
officers, (Latino) immigration rallies,
plans of building walls to separate
one America from another, the
war in Lebanon, and an exodus
from the African continent to the
coasts of the Canary Islands to
name just a few. I believe that as
SYLFF fellows we have the responsibility
of engaging in critical discussions
of borders and power,
margins and media. We need to
promote dialogue on these very
important issues and find ways in
which we can make our resources
available to the people as SYLFF
fellows and Howard students/
alumni. I am also personally delighted
to hear Dr. Orlando Taylor
encourage research on immigration
in the US and in Europe. His leadership
at the Graduate School is, as
always, cutting edge and inspiring.
Ada Vilageliu-Diaz, SYLFF Fellow
2006-2007, Ph.D. Candidate, English.
Student Editor
From the Desk of Dr. Orlando L. Taylor
How to Contact Us 4
The year 2006 marks the fifteenth
anniversary year of the SYLFF program at
Howard University. Our university was the 28th
among the 69 institutions in the world to receive
an endowment of $1 million from the Tokyo
Foundation to support graduate study yearly,
each with a focus on international affairs. The
last fifteen years of the SYLFF program at Howard
have been marked by a number of interesting
developments -- some independent of the
Tokyo Foundation and some as a result of the
Tokyo Foundation's follow-up programs. These
developments have provided structure, direction
and programmatic visibility to the SYLFF Fellowship
at Howard. They include national and
international seminars; conferences; SYLFF
Fellow research days; the creation of Frontline
-- the SYLFF E-Newsletter; the SYLFF
Fellows Network; Program Development
Awards in partnership with Thailand and India,
the Fellows' Mobility Program, and the domino
effects of these developments on fostering many
collaborations with a number of SYLFF institutions
around the world. In this latter regard,
Howard has received three major grants from
the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary
Education (FIPSE) for student exchanges with
SYLFF institutions in Brazil and Europe and
most recently in Canada and Mexico. Each of
these extramurally funded initiatives with other
SYLFF institutions focus on relevant international
topics and support student exchanges and
faculty collaborations.
In the years ahead, I envision the focus
of the SYLFF program to achieve even
greater recognition and to lay the foundation for
the emergence of new academic and policy leaders
in the international arena from the Graduate
School. The 21st century will continue to need
new, young leaders with fresh ideas that will
capture the human mind and spirit in the creation
of a world of harmony, understanding and
mutual respect among all of humankind. I truly
believe that SYLFF Fellows will disprove the
prediction of Samuel P. Huntington and others
of an impending clash of civilizations with ominous
consequences for our world. SYLFFproduced
leaders will play a major role in counteracting
these dire predictions.
Dr. Orlando L. Taylor, Vice Provost
for Research and Dean of the
Graduate School

E-Newsletter of the Howard University Graduate School SYLFF Fellows Association (HUGSSFA)
SYLFF AT HOWARD UNIVERSITY 1991-2006
1991 Signing of SYLFF agreement between the Tokyo Foundation and H.U.G.S.
1999 Racism as a Human Rights Abuse in the United States. Howard SYLFF Symposium, Ralph J. Bunche International Affairs Center,
April 7, 1999. Participants included Amnesty International, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
(NAACP), the Latino Civil Rights Center, the Alliance for Justice, the Constituency for Africa, and the U.S. Global Network.
2001 Perspectives on Social Inequalities: Issues of Race, Class, and Gender. Howard University, October 31-November 2, 2001. Conference
organizers included: Howard University (U.S.A.), University of Sao Paulo (Brazil), York University (Canada), Massey University
(New Zealand), and the University of the Western Cape (South Africa).
2003 North-South America SYLFF Regional Forum sponsored by the Tokyo Foundation and the McCombs School of Business, Austin,
Texas, April 3-5, 2003. Kevin Harper and Andrew Critchfield gave presentations. Dr. Orlando Taylor and Dr. Nahal were in attendance.
International Human Rights and the Status of Minorities Around the World. Ralph J. Bunche International Affairs Center, April 17,
2003. Sponsored by the Graduate School and the Ralph J. Bunche International Affairs Center.
Women in War and Peace: Perspectives, Contributions and Resolutions. Ralph J. Bunche International Affairs Center, November 21,
2003. Sponsored by the Office of University Research and the Graduate School, the Women’s Studies Program, and SYLFF.
2004 Creation of the Howard University Graduate School SYLFF Fellows Association (HUGSSFA). Founders: Kevin Harper, Andrew
Critchfield, Wendi Manuel-Scott, and Randy Short.
First Annual Howard University Graduate School SYLFF Fellows Research Seminar (SFRS). Carnegie Building, Mach 2, 2004.
Second SYLFF Regional Forum, Egypt. Andrew Critchfield was in attendance.
First Howard University Graduate School SYLFF Fellows induction ceremony to HUGSSFA. Carnegie Building, October 19, 2004.
Frontline, the Howard SYLFF Fellows Association E-Newsletter is launched in October, 2004
2005 2 nd Annual Howard University Graduate School SYLFF Fellows Research Seminar (SFRS). Carnegie Building, January 31, 2005
Article by Dr. Joyashree Roy and Dr. Anita Nahal. “Transcontinental Collaboration through the Program Development Award. SYLFF
Newsletter, Tokyo Foundation, February 2005.
SYLFF Program Administrators’ meeting in Manila. Philippines, January, 2005. Dr. Wayne Patterson was in attendance.
Article by Dr. Orlando Taylor and Dr. Anita Nahal. “SYLFF: Financial Aid for Young Leaders” in The International Educator (Jan-
Feb 2005).
North-South America Regional Forum, Portland, Oregon, May 31-June 3, 2006. Drs. Taylor, Nahal, Patterson, Critchfield and Mr.
Laudemiro Francisco were in attendance.
3 rd Annual Howard University Graduate School SYLFF Fellows Research Seminar (SFRS). Carnegie Building, November 14, 2005.
2006 The Importance of International Education and the Impact of the Howard University-SYLFF Fellowship Symposium. Ralph J. Bunche
International Affairs Center, March 24, 2006
Sasakawa Fellows
2%
5%
2%
12%
28%
9%
History
African Studies
Sociology
Communication and Culture
Political Science
Economics
English
42%
Page 2

Volume 2, Issue 2
SYLFF Mobility Program: Brazil-U.S.
Marco Conejero, a SYLFF
fellow from the University of São
Paulo (USP), Brazil, visited Howard
as part of the SYLFF mobility program
for two months during the
spring semester of 2006. Marco
Conejero’s research is based on the
impact of the Kyoto Protocol and the
market of Certified Emissions Reduction.
During his stay in Washington,
D.C., Marco completed his research
with personal interviews of World
Bank employees, such as Ms. Noreen
Beng from the World Bank’s Carbon
Finance Unit, who confirmed his research
hypothesis.
While at Howard, Marco was
welcomed with a lunch reception by
Drs. Orlando Taylor, Wayne Patterson
and Anita Nahal, other Brazilian
students participating in the U.S.-
Brazil exchange under the Race, Development,
and Social Inequality program—Adelmo
Xavier, Jackeline
Romio, and Rebecca Freire—and
current SYLFF fellows. He met with
professors from the Department of
Economics, Dr. Haydar Kurban and
Dr. Ransford W. Palmer, who shared
Dr. Haydar Kurban, Marco Conejero, and
Dr. Ransford W. Palmer
with him scholarship on climate policies
and market based solutions.
Marco also participated in the SYLFF
program at Howard by attending a
SYLFF meeting where new fellows,
former fellows, the SYLFF advisory
committee members, the Graduate
School SYLFF director, Dr. Orlando
Taylor, and the SYLFF advisor, Dr.
Anita Nahal, were present. Shortly
thereafter, Marco presented his work
to the Howard community in a lecture
entitled: “Marketing of Carbon Credits:
An Exploratory Research.” He
concluded his experience at Howard
with a SYLFF luncheon and induction
ceremony at Fogo de Chão, a
Brazilian steakhouse.
Marco, who obtained a MA
degree shortly after he came to Howard,
expects to begin his Ph.D. in
Brazil and continue his research: “I
would like to work with green marketing
and environmental management
and to create a sustainable chain
and network framework to be applied
in our Brazilian sugar cane and ethanol
sector.”
Write-up based on conversations
between Marco Conejero and Ada
Diaz during his visit to Howard.
I think the SYLFF Program in Brazil has the
same quality of that one in Howard. In my
opinion, the [main feature] of SYLFF
Programs is that it has a world professional
network and it promotes the relationship
between [current] fellows and former fellows
from different universities around the world.
The [fellows’] mobility program is a [small]
sign of this relationship.
--Marco Conejero, Universidade de São
Paulo, Brazil
Page 3
SYLFF Fellows Achievements
Sheba Kane, 2006-2007 SYLFF fellow, participated in an intensive isiZulu language program at the Summer Cooperative African
Language Institute held in Indiana University in Bloomington. She received a Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowship from
Michigan State University. This is the third time that Sheba participates in this summer institute—she had studied Wolof earlier.
Laudemiro Francisco, who graduated last May (congratulations!), has had two recent publications in print and two are forthcoming.
While at Howard, he was involved in a large World Bank project on the Causes of Civil and Criminal Violence, a project on the
post-conflict economies with the African Economic Research Consortium, and co-edited a volume of proceedings from a conference
he helped organize in Maputo, Mozambique (2003). Dr. Francisco is currently teaching at the Higher Institute for International Relations
in Mozambique.
Andrew Jared Critchfield, Ph.D., has been teaching at The George Washington University’s Department of Organizational Sciences
and Communication since his graduation in 2002. He teaches traditional students and specialized cohorts, including U.S. Navy
officers, seeking graduate degrees, and the DC metropolitan area police officers, and criminal justice administrators. His research
focusing on diversity and gender issues at work and cultural perceptions, led the Women’s Leadership Institute at GW to invite him,
one of two men, to join as an inaugural, founding member. He has been elected to positions in the Eastern and National Communication
Associations and has volunteered for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention among other organizations.

Howard University Graduate School
Editorial Team
Executive Editor Orlando Taylor otaylor@howard.edu
Student Editor Ada Vilageliu-Diaz avilageliu@gmail.com
Advisor Anita Nahal anahal@howard.edu
Graduate School Editor Gwendolyn Bethea gbethea@howard.edu
HU Administrator for the
SYLFF Program
Orlando L. Taylor, Ph.D.
Vice Provost for Research and Dean,
Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
Advisory Board Committee and Graduate School Staff
Robert Cummings
Department of African Studies
(202) 283-2323 ; rcummings@howard.edu
Horace Dawson
Ralph J. Bunche International Affairs Center
(202) 806-4363; hdawson@howard.edu
Selwyn H.H. Carrington
Department of History
(202) 806-6815; scarrington@howard.edu
Ransford W. Palmer
Department of Economics
(202) 806-6718; rpalmer@howard.edu
Arvilla Payne-Jackson
Department of Sociology and Anthropology
(202)806-7335; apayne-jackson@howard.edu
William J. Starosta
Department of Communication and Culture
(202) 806-4039; wstarosta@howard.edu
Anita Nahal
Office of University Research and Graduate
School
(202) 806-7887; anahal@howard.edu
Gloria Llyod
Office of University Research and Graduate
School
(202) 806-6215; glloyd@howard.edu
SYLFF Fellows Abroad (Fall 2006)
Debay Tadesse, whose research is on “The Regional Dimension of Ethiopia’s Economic
and Social Development with Special Reference to the Nile River,” is currently in Ethiopia
conducting interviews with officials in the Ministry of Water Resources, Agriculture
and Energy. He will also conduct similar research in Egypt and the Sudan.
Sheba Kane is conducting field research in Johannesburg, South Africa. Her work on a
South African poet, Mzwakhe Mbuli, will lead her to interview political activists, freedom
fighters, scholars and artists.
Sheila M. Aird
History
Ingar P. Johnson
Sociology
SYLFF Fellows
2006-2007
Debay Tadesse
African Studies
Ada Vilageliu-Diaz
English
Recent and Upcoming Events
Sheba Kane
African Studies
Peng Yu
Economics
Fall 2006
October 25
November 15
November 20
Spring 2007
February 21
March (TBA)
March 30
April (TBA)
Description
Book Club (HUGS-BC)
Multicultural Diversity at Howard Event—Tribute to
Diwali, Eid Ul-Fitr, Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa
and the Chinese New Year
Brazil Black Consciousness Day
Description
HU—A Home Away From Home
SYLFF Fellows Research Seminar Day
Multicultural Dress Event
Exhibition Cricket Match
How to Contact us
If you have any information that you
would like featured in the E-Newsletter,
email us at addresses provided above
(Editorial Team), or reach us at:
Graduate School
Annex III
Room 312
4th and College Sts., NW
Washington DC 20059