PRESS RELEASE

CSUN Professor to Study, Teach in
South Africa as Fulbright Scholar

(NORTHRIDGE, Calif.) - Tom Spencer-Walters, Cal State Northridge's coordinator of international programs and an associate professor in Pan-African studies, has been granted a Fulbright Senior Scholar award to teach and conduct research in South Africa.

Spencer-Walters is one of about 700 U.S. scholars and professionals to receive the award for the 1999-2000 academic year.

"It's an honor to be recognized by such a prestigious body as the Fulbright program," he said. "I am looking forward to taking up the assignment in South Africa."

As part of the award, Spencer-Walters will conduct graduate seminars on Afro-Caribbean and African-American literatures, including the African Diaspora, at the University of Fort Hare.

His research project will focus on a comparative examination of voice as collective memory in African American and South African literatures. He plans to tap into Fort Hare's extensive archival collection of literature on South African resistance movements.

"I will be examining how the literature of the South African resistance movements and the literature of the African-American struggle against oppression are the collective memories of peoples trying to understand and transcend that oppression," Spencer-Walters said. "The University of Fort Hare has one of the largest collections of speeches, comments and works that have been written by various nationalist leaders like Oliver Tambo, [Nelson] Mandela and a host of others."

Spencer-Walters will leave CSUN for his Fulbright project in January 2000, and will return to the university in December of that year. He previously has been to southern Africa, serving as the Cal State System's resident director in Zimbabwe five years.

"We are very pleased that he has received this prestigious award, which is certain to bring distinction not only to him but to the faculty and the university as a whole," said Mack Johnson, associate vice president for graduate studies, research and international programs.

The Fulbright Program, established in 1946 under Congressional legislation introduced by the late Senator J. William Fulbright, is designed to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries.

The grants are awarded each year to American students, teachers and scholars to study, teach and conduct research around the world. Individuals are selected on the basis of academic and professional qualifications, as well as their ability and willingness to share ideas and experiences with people of diverse cultures.

Other recent CSUN Fulbright recipients include history professor Michael Meyer, who is lecturing and conducting research in Germany this spring, and educational psychology and counseling professor Stan Charnofsky, who lectures this school year in Estonia.

Cal State Northridge has about 27,000 full- and part-time students, offering 48 bachelor's and 39 master's degrees. Founded in 1958, CSUN is celebrating its 40th anniversary and is the only four-year university in the San Fernando Valley.

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Carmen Ramos Chandler, Director of News and Information


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