As Daphne Ntiri finishes her Fulbright Scholar Program in Burkina Faso, West Africa, one of the things she will miss the most is the warmth and receptiveness of the Burkinabe people.
Since January – after being awarded a Fulbright Scholar grant – Ntiri has been teaching at the University of Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso. She returns home in July. Her scholarship includes teaching and lectures on Africana studies, along with research on adult education and literacy.
“The love of learning expressed by the students at the University of Ouagadougou will remain with me forever,” said the Wayne State professor of African American studies. “They are almost overzealous, if I can say that about learning. For those who can afford college education, there is tremendous effort to learn, and they are very passionate about American culture and history.”
Ntiri is one of approximately 1,100 U.S. faculty and professionals who are abroad through the 2014-15 Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program, which operates in more than 155 countries worldwide.
At the University of Ouagadougou, Ntiri’s primary role has been holding graduate seminars with students in American and Anglophone studies. Her curriculum is similar to what she teaches at WSU on gender theories and multiculturalism. Ntiri provides leadership to a class of graduate students on thesis organization, development and reference styles such as MLA and APA.
“While graduate seminars have a size that is akin to sizes in the United States the undergraduate courses — one of which I taught on African-American culture — is overwhelmingly full,” Ntiri said. “I had a regular attendance of more than 350 students in auditorium-style classrooms; however, during exam time, another 200 students were added to the roster of students taking the exam.”
In other words, she had more than 500 papers to grade. In addition, Ntiri also engages with women’s associations that take action on violence against women and other cultural rituals that have become challenging issues in the age of globalization.
For more than 30 years, Ntiri has worked locally, nationally and internationally in the field of adult education/adult literacy. She has served as a consultant to the United Nations in field assignments on literacy in France, Senegal and Somalia.
Her breadth of work was recently acknowledged during the 32nd annual Finer Womanhood Scholarship Luncheon, where she was recognized as their “Woman in Education.”
“I feel very honored and uplifted by this recognition,” Ntiri said. “I treasure the fact that the community reached out to celebrate my achievements and successes and show appreciation for my years of hard work in higher education. This will definitely spur me on to greater achievements.”