Abstract

Abstract

Dr. Anne Bowker, Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at 杏吧原创 University.

Good morning, everyone. It is such a pleasure to be here with you today.

For those who don鈥檛 know me, my name is Dr. Anne Bowker, and I have the privilege of serving as Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences and as a professor of Developmental Psychology.

To the family members, friends, faculty, staff, mentors, and supporters who have helped our graduates reach this milestone, thank you. Today is a celebration of individual achievement, but it is also a celebration of community. None of us arrives at a moment like this entirely on our own.

And to the Class of 2026: Congratulations! You have worked incredibly hard to get here, and you should be so proud of what you鈥檝e accomplished.

As I look out at you today, I find myself thinking not only about where you鈥檙e going next, but about how much you鈥檝e changed since you first arrived at 杏吧原创.

Four years ago, many of you arrived on campus carrying a mixture of excitement, uncertainty, ambition, and perhaps a few assumptions about how the world worked. Since then, you鈥檝e encountered new ideas, complicated questions, unfamiliar perspectives, and people听whose experiences challenged and contrasted your own.

You have each learned a great deal in classrooms and lecture halls, libraries, studios, labs, work and field placements, community groups, and late-night conversations with friends. But education is never just about acquiring information. It is also about comprehensive personal evolution.

One of the great joys of working in a university is having the opportunity to watch students grow over time. I鈥檝e had the honour of seeing that growth in many of you, and what strikes me most today is not simply the expertise you鈥檝e developed through your disciplines. It鈥檚 who you鈥檝e become.

Through your classes, experiences, and relationships at 杏吧原创, you have become people who are better equipped to understand the world around you. And I don鈥檛 use the word听understand听lightly.

In my view, understanding is one of the most powerful skills a person can possess. It helps us make sense of a complicated world, build meaningful friendships, contribute to our communities, and become the kind of leaders people trust and want to follow. It is a skill that enriches every part of our lives, personally and professionally.

Throughout your Arts and Social Sciences education, you鈥檝e developed that skill in ways both big and small. You鈥檝e examined multifaceted questions from multiple perspectives, challenged your own assumptions, and learned to look beneath the surface. You鈥檝e discovered that understanding the world around us requires curiosity and a willingness to engage with complexity.

Those habits of mind may not always provide quick answers, but they often lead to better ones.

The world you are graduating into is fast-moving and often overwhelming. Information is abundant. Opinions are everywhere. Artificial intelligence can generate answers in seconds.

Yet understanding remains as important, and as difficult, as ever. Because true understanding requires something more than information. It requires inquisitiveness, good judgment, and the willingness to see beyond our own experiences.

Whether you studied psychology, English, history, music, sociology, cognitive science, or any of the many disciplines represented here today, you have spent your time exploring the human experience and developing the capacity to understand it more deeply.

As all of you now understand, the most important challenges facing our communities are not simply technical problems waiting for technical solutions. They are human challenges. And human challenges require people who can build connections, navigate nuance, and bring people together.

In other words, they require leadership. And while leadership is often associated with authority, expertise, or visibility, the most effective leaders I have known possess something much more human. They understand people. They pay attention to context. And they recognize that meaningful progress depends on trust, and that listening is often more valuable than speaking.

And that brings me to my core point I hope you鈥檒l remember from my remarks today.

Understanding matters. But what matters even more is what we do with that understanding.

We often talk about kindness as though it were simply a personality trait. A virtue. Something you鈥檙e either born with or not. Something admirable, perhaps, but not especially useful in a competitive world.

I see it differently. To me,听kindness听is a skill. It is the practical application of empathy and understanding. It is how we build trust, strengthen communities, and help others feel valued. And despite what we sometimes hear, these qualities are not obstacles to success. They are often the foundation of it.

The people who build strong organizations, meaningful connections, and healthy communities are rarely those who move through the world thinking only about themselves. More often, they are people who understand others, who earn trust, and who recognize that connecting and belonging matter.

Maya Angelou once observed that it takes courage to be kind. I think she was right. Kindness requires courage. It takes courage to remain curious when certainty would be easier. It takes courage to reconsider our assumptions. And it takes courage to genuinely try to understand people whose experiences differ from our own. But I believe kindness is one of the most valuable skills you can carry into the future.

Whether in your career, your relationships, or your community, kindness will help you build trust and bring people together in a world that often feels divided and uncertain, and frankly requires mending.

One of the great privileges of my career has been spending more than three decades teaching, mentoring, and learning alongside students like you.

People sometimes assume that learning flows in only one direction. That professors teach and students learn. My experience has been quite different.

What I can tell you is that year after year, students continue to challenge my assumptions, expand my perspective, and remind me that every generation brings new ideas, new energy, and new possibilities. They also remind me that kindness is far more common, and far more powerful, than we often give it credit for.

And that is one of the reasons I remain so hopeful. I have spent my career meeting the people who will shape the future. I see them sitting in front of me today.

So, as you leave 杏吧原创, I hope you carry forward the habits of mind you鈥檝e developed here. Continue asking thoughtful questions. Continue seeking understanding before rushing toward simple answers.

But most importantly, please continue practicing your acquired and highly dynamic and refined skill of kindness. Not because it is easy, and not because it is expected, but because it is powerful if practiced consistently and with intention.

Thank you for choosing 杏吧原创 and for enriching our Faculty with your intelligence, creativity, generosity, and of course, your skill of kindness.

Congratulations, Class of 2026. We are so proud of you and cannot wait to see where your talents take you next.

His research interests include African and Afro-diasporic cinemas, documentary film theory, history and form, transnational and world cinemas, film preservation and restoration, colonial cinema, early and silent cinema, and film festival studies.

Much of African cinema鈥檚 history remains unknown or undocumented, and the films most often studied today are
those screened at festivals, distributed internationally, or circulated beyond their countries of origin.

鈥淭hat must be accounted for properly in order to be able to really have a grasp of the further longevity of African
film history, the complexity of African history, and the interrelationship between different national contexts,鈥� says
Sanogo.

Recovering and preserving this unseen history has become the driving force of Sanogo鈥檚 work over the past decade.
That commitment led to the听听(AFHP), the initiative for which he is now internationally
known.

He says the AFHP was created in large part for African filmmakers and the larger African film community. Sanogo says many legacy creators in African cinema are insufficiently known in Africa itself. His hope is that African
filmmakers can be inspired by creative projects in their own neighbourhood.

鈥淚n other words,鈥� Sanogo describes, 鈥渨e have not yet succeeded in vanquishing the coloniality of film distribution
and exhibition.鈥�

Across Africa, the preservation of cinematic heritage is undermined by a convergence of structural, financial, and political obstacles. Many countries lack dedicated film archives, stable funding for cinema, and adequate restoration facilities, placing existing collections at constant risk.

鈥淥ur projection is thus one of repatriating the African cinematic heritage in view of its reappropriation toward the creation of other African new waves, new movements, and bold cinematic and audiovisual experiments,鈥� says Sanogo.

The AFHP also strives to expand the domain of cinema to include newsreels, documentaries, experimental and avant-garde works, short films, and even raw footage, so long as the material in question embodies important historical, cultural, and artistic elements.

Sanogo says the AFHP grew out of his role as North American Regional Secretary of the Pan-African Federation of Filmmakers (FEPACI), Africa鈥檚 leading filmmakers鈥� organization that was founded in 1970.

Through this, he launched the FEPACI Archival Project, an initiative devoted to the memory, preservation, and historiography of African cinema from each of the six regions of Africa: West Africa, North Africa, Central Africa, East Africa, Southern Africa, and the African diaspora.
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Graduate students from across all disciplines submitted nomination letters in support of their supervisors, highlighting the meaningful impact these faculty members have had on their academic journeys as well as their personal development.

This award recognizes professors who demonstrate exceptional dedication to graduate education through their roles as supervisors and research mentors. Sponsored by the Office of the Vice-President (Research, Innovation and International) and Graduate Studies, the award underscores the significant and lasting influence that strong mentorship can have on graduate student success.

This Year鈥檚 Recipients

Below are the recipients (in alphabetical order), along with selected excerpts from their students鈥� nomination letters:

Shireen Hassim, Canada Research Chair in Gender and African Politics

• 鈥淪hireen advises and guides with integrity and consistency. Her expectations are clear, her commitments unwavering, and her support steadfast. In a system where graduate students often feel invisible or expendable, Shireen鈥檚 mentorship communicates something profoundly different: that our ideas matter, our struggles are legitimate, and our growth is worth sustained investment.鈥�

• 鈥淭hroughout my time working with her, Prof. Hassim has shown me, in countless ways, what it means to be an exceptional mentor. Her guidance is always detailed and thoughtful, tailored to my challenges and questions, and she continually fosters a supportive environment that makes me feel truly seen and valued. Her belief in me has made a real difference in my journey.鈥�

• 鈥淧rof. Hassim鈥檚 sponsorship of my participation in the doctoral workshop at Makerere University (gave me) the opportunity to workshop my doctoral research with senior scholars and doctoral colleagues, receive detailed, constructive feedback and, most importantly, build lasting professional networks with doctoral colleagues (who have) become an important part of my academic and professional development.鈥�

Led by听, the initiative addressed the cultural and institutional barriers faced by women scholars by providing participants with access to resources including research supervision, seminars, placements in Canada and West Africa, leadership development, and networking opportunities.

Released February 10, 2026, this policy-focused report examines how African, Caribbean, and Black (ACB) communities are positioned within Canada鈥檚 artificial intelligence ecosystem. Drawing on data analysis, policy review, and critical insight, the report assesses AI labour markets, innovation strategies, governance frameworks, and equity outcomes.

This volunteer-driven, unfunded research project, initiated in April 2025, is intended for policymakers, researchers, technologists, community organizations, institutions, and investors working at the intersection of technology, equity, and public policy.

Beyond advocating for systemic change, the report advances clear, evidence-based policy and investment recommendations to support an equitable and inclusive AI ecosystem and to demonstrate how ACB contributions can be leveraged for national economic prosperity.

The full report and policy brief are available here:

Source:听CanAfro Research Institute,听465 Phillip St #206; Waterloo, ON N2L 6C7
Email: contact@canafroinstitute.com

The course is open to African Studies Majors, Minors graduate students and other interested students in 3^rd听year standing.

In 2026, Prof. Nduka Otiono, director of Institute of African Studies will direct the course.

Title:听Social Movements, Technological Innovation, and Youth Agency in Africa.

Host Institution:听School of Communication, Day Star University, Nairobi, Kenya

Note: 杏吧原创 university will cover accommodation, local travel in Kenya, meals during special outings or tours. Our students will be responsible for tuition to 杏吧原创 University, international travel, visas, insurance, vaccinations, everyday meals, and all incidental costs,

Communal wells have helped small-scale farmers adapt to drought in South Africa.听Courtesy Jabulile Mzimela

A small-scale farmer produces food for their family on land that is generally smaller than five hectares. Small-scale farmers sell their excess produce but have limited access to resources, technology and big markets.

Africa鈥檚 small-scale听听when there鈥檚 a drought because these farmers rely on rainwater. South Africa has been affected by听听over the years. However, 2015 stands out as the driest period on record since 1904, with drought affecting听, including small-scale farmers.

As droughts induced by climate change increase, South Africa鈥檚 small-scale farmers need to adapt to the changed farming environment so that they can continue to produce food.

听investigated how small-scale farmers, particularly women, were using听听to adapt to drought. Indigenous knowledge systems are听听by people who live closely with nature. They include ways of organising and classifying the world, practical observations about the local environment, and methods for managing resources responsibly. The terms indigenous knowledge and indigenous knowledge systems are used interchangeably.

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Source: https://theconversation.com/drought-and-farming-how-women-in-south-africa-are-using-indigenous-knowledge-to-cope-240462