Zubairu Wai

I received my Ph.d in April 2010 from York University. My doctoral project “Understanding Contemporary Conflicts in Africa: The Sierra Leone Civil War and its Challenge to the Dominant Representations of African Conflicts” examines contemporary conflicts in Africa. In particular, I examine how knowledge about these conflicts is produced and how these approaches to knowledge production affect international policy for Africa. It raises fundamental questions about how the international scholarly and policy communities understand Africa, its people and the sources of its conflict. My work is based on a case study of Sierra Leone, a country torn by a decade of civil war during which I experienced first hand.

During my doctoral studies, I received the Ontario Graduate Scholarship; the International Development Research Center’s (IDRC)’ doctoral research award; and York’s Susan Mann Dissertation Scholarship. I completed my MA from the International University of Japan where I received High Distinction for my Master’s thesis.

My Publications
I. Peer-Reviewed Articles

• “Whither African Development: A Preparatory for an African Alternative Reformulation of the Concept of Development;” Africa Development, Vol. XXXII, No. 4, 2007, pp. 89 – 115;

Under Review

• “Globalisation and Social Reproduction in West Africa: The Politics of Exclusion and Resistance” (Submitted, Review of African Political Economy);

• “International Relations Theory and Regional Integration in Africa,” (submitted, Canadian Journal of African Studies)

• “Africa” in the Discipline of International Relations: The Problem of Marginality”, (submitted, African Journal of International Affairs)

II. Book Chapters

• “The Role of Youths and the Sierra Leone Diaspora in Democratic Awakening” in A. B. Zack-Williams (ed.) The Quest for Sustainable, Development and Peace: The 2007 Sierra Leone Elections (Uppsala, Sweden: The Nordic Africa Institute, 2008); pp. 37 – 63;

• “Media Globalisation and Children’s Media Use in Freetown, Sierra Leone,” in Cecilia von Feilitzen and Ulla Carlsson (eds.) Children, Young People and Media Globalisation (Gothenburg: NORDICOM, 2002) pp. 171-187;

In Press

• “Conflict and Peacebuilding in Sierra Leone: The Role of the Sierra Leone Diaspora” in A. B. Zack-Williams (ed.) International Interventionism and Peacebuilding in Sierra Leone (London: Pluto Press, [2010]; forthcoming)

• “Elections as a Strategy for Conflict Transformation and Democratisation in Sierra Leone: A Critique of the Liberal Peace Agenda” in Cyril Obi (ed.) Post-Conflict Democratisation, Peace and Development in West Africa, (Uppsala, Sweden: Nordic African Institute, [2010]; forthcoming)

Conference Presentations

• “About a Will to Truth and Power: Africanist Knowledge and Conflicts in Africa”; presented at Annual Conference of the Canadian Association of African Studies (CAAS) on the theme: “Celebrating 40 Years of the Canadian Association of African Studies”; Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada, May 5 – 7, 2010.

• “Representing African Conflicts: The Media of Violence and the Violence of Media in the Sierra Leone Civil War”; presented at the 35th Annual African Literature Association (ALA) Conference on the theme: “Africa and Blackness in World Literature and Visual Arts; April 15 – 19, 2009; Burlington, Vermont.

• Chair, Panel II: “The Power of Subjection: Documenting and Disrupting Dominant Narratives” at the Sixteenth Annual York Centre for International and Security Studies Conference, on the theme “Security beyond the Discipline: Emerging Dialogues on Global Politics”; 19 – 20 March 2009; York Lanes, York University, Toronto.

• “Hegemonic Discourses and Violence in Civil Wars: Sierra Leone as a Challenge to the Dominant Interpretations of African Conflicts” presented at the Eighth Annual Critical Race and Anticolonial Conference of Researchers and Academics of Colour for Equality (RACE) on the theme “RACE-ing Hegemonies, Resurging Imperialisms: Building Anti-Racist and Anti-colonial Theory and Practice for our Time”; November 14 – 16 2008; Ryerson University, Toronto.

• “Reconfiguring the State of Sierra Leone: Democratisation within the Context of Conflict”; lecture at the University of Toronto, “Later Life Learning – African Series Lecture” Innis College, Toronto, October 23, 2008.

• “The Knowledge Question and Conflicts in Africa” Public Lecture and discussion forum at the University of Sierra Leone, (Fourah Bay College Campus), January 24, 2008; Freetown, Sierra Leone.