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Anthropologist is CSUN’s 2006 Jerome Richfield Memorial Scholar

(NORTHRIDGE, Calif., Oct. 19, 2006) -- Anthropologist Suzanne Scheld’s research on urban spaces in Dakar, Senegal, has earned her recognition as Cal State Northridge’s Jerome Richfield Memorial Scholar for 2006-07. The honor is reserved each academic year for an outstanding faculty member conducting research in the arts, sciences or humanities.

In 1992, the university established a memorial research endowment honoring Jerome Richfield, dean emeritus and professor of philosophy. Three units of release time are provided to Scheld by the fellowship.

Scheld is analyzing the use and development of the urban spaces of Dakar, a metropolis on the westernmost tip of central Senegal in Africa. "The research really is about the way the city has changed and the role of youth in shaping it," said the assistant anthropology professor.

"The importance of young people’s economic and social activities to the development of cities has not been well understood," said Scheld, whose ten years of traveling to Africa began in the 1990s. "In Africa, their impact is obvious because of their patterns of social migration into areas that are largely underdeveloped."

Also the recipient of the 2006 CSUN Research, Scholarship and Creative Activity Award, Scheld currently is compiling her research into a manuscript under the working title of "Youth and the City: Culture and Urbanization in Dakar."

A native New Yorker, she grew interested in African cultures as an English as a Second Language teacher in East Harlem and during her graduate studies at Teachers College, Columbia University. "I befriended many West Africans during those years, many of whom could not return to Senegal for economic reasons," she said. "So I went instead."

Her studies in Dakar have yielded considerable data about the influence of Senegalese youths on their urban environments. "The thing about Dakar," she said, "is that the informal economy is the economy, or at least an expansive part of it. Youths go there and take up informal work, since no formal jobs or even training for such jobs exist."

Even in the face of such adversity, she observed, "they strive to look respectable and to mask their unemployment, their stress, their uncertainty, going to lengths to maintain the image that they have a million dollars."

On her first visits to colorful Dakar, Scheld said, she was struck by the "fashionistas" in all combinations of traditional dress and textiles, elegant robes and evening gowns mixed up with miniskirts and the latest contemporary styles. It was astonishing, she said, to see such "a lively culture of clothing in a society so impoverished."

There is no short answer to describe how the young Dakar residents manage it. Strategies include swapping, trading and an abbreviated version of rotating credit called "the hard life," in which four or five youths pool apparel such as jeans, rotating them among members of the group for a week or so. "It’s fascinating and fun to observe," said Scheld, "but it is very serious."

California State University, Northridge has 34,500 full- and part-time students and offers 62 bachelor’s and 50 master’s degrees as well as 28 teaching credential programs. Founded in 1958, CSUN is among the largest single-campus universities in the nation and the only four-year public university in the San Fernando Valley. The university serves as the intellectual, economic and cultural heart of the Valley and beyond.