African Leadership Centre Alumni Conference

The African Leadership Centre’s Alumni Association presents its 5th biennial conference to beheld virtually on the 27th and 28th March 2021.

The theme for this year’s conference is “Peace and Wellbeing in Uncertain Times: Ten yearsof conceptualizing security and leadership in Africa”.

This theme is carefully selected to celebrate 10 years of the establishment of the African Leadership Centre (ALC) and its outstanding contributions to peace, security and leadershipscholarship and praxes in Africa. It will be a platform for alumni from the African Scholars and African Women Fellowship programmes to engage with African peace and security experts on navigating uncertainty in the midst of the COVID-19 global pandemic, regional and national political calamities and interpersonal security crises.

The keynote titled, “A decade of knowledge production in peace, security and leadership:planning from the future” will be delivered by Prof. Funmi Olonisakin, Vice-President and Vice-Principal International and Professor of Security, Leadership and Development at the African Leadership Centre, King’s College London, and Extra-Ordinary Professor, Department of Political Sciences, University of Pretoria.

In keeping with the ALC’s intergenerational approach to knowledge transfer and exchange,panellists for the conference include a mix of ALC and King’s College London alumni, faculty, leading practitioners. and mentors to discuss a range of subjects relevant to the theme. The post-pandemic era presents unique challenges for leadership, peace and security in Africa, and these experts will share a variety of reflections from their research and practice.

Panelists include:

Dr Cyril Obi: A program director at the Social Science Research Council, New York,where he leads the African Peacebuilding Network (APN) and (since September 2018)the Next Generation Social Sciences in Africa programs.

Dr Awino Okech: Reader (Associate Professor) in Gender Studies at SOAS, University of London. Her teaching and research interests lie in the nexus between gender, sexuality and nation/state making projects as they occur in conflict and post-conflict societies.

Prof. Abiodun Alao: Professor of African Studies and the Director of the African Leadership Centre. He teaches on the African Leadership Centre MSc programmes and supervises postgraduate students.

Dr Fatima Akilu: Executive Director of Neem Foundation, Nigeria, and a trained psychologist with over 25 years’ experience in the field of mental health, psychology,Preventing Violent Extremism (PVE) and communications. She was appointed asVisiting Senior Research Fellow at the African Leadership Centre, King’s CollegeLondon in 2020, in addition to being inducted into the Leading Practitioners Programme.

Dr Kialee Nyiayaana: Senior lecturer in the Department of Political and Administrative Studies, and Deputy Director, Centre for Conflict and Gender Studies,University of Port Harcourt, Nigeria. He was an ALC’s MA fellow at King’s College,London 2013/2014.

Ms Nox Ntuli: Senior Specialist Ombudsman - Dispute Resolution Compliance AdvisorOmbudsman (CAO) World Bank Group. She is an alumna of the ALC. She was a2011/2012 African Women Peace and Security fellow of the African Leadership Centre.

Ms Ruth Bolline: Gender Affairs Officer at the Department of Peace Operations, UN Headquarters New York. She is an alumna of the ALC. She was an MA fellow of the African Leadership Centre, Kings College London 2011/2012.

The Day 1 Symposium - 27 March 2021 - is an open event, please register to participate using the following link.Registration is mandatory to receive the Zoom link for the symposium.