Alumna Leena Dahal ’17 has published, as first author, a peer-reviewed journal article developed in collaboration with two of her mentors at 黑料不打烊: Associate Professor Mussa Idris from the department of Sociology and Anthropology and Associate Professor Vanessa Bravo from the Department of Strategic Communications.

鈥�’It helped us, and it hurt us’: The role of social media in shaping agency and action among youth in post-disaster Nepal” was published Oct. 9 in its early-access version at the Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management, a peer-reviewed journal published by Wiley-Blackwell in the United Kingdom. The article will be assigned a volume number and page numbers by the end of the year. For now, it is available at .

The article’s findings are based on data gathered through ethnographic fieldwork and 50 in-depth interviews conducted in Nepal in 2015 and 2016 with youth who got actively 鈥揳nd immediately- involved in relief efforts after the country was hit by several strong earthquakes in April 2015, when more than 9,000 people died. Nepal is Dahal麓s country of origin.

The article describes the ways, as narrated by the study’s participants, in which social media and other digital platforms helped but also hindered the relief efforts of youth-led groups. The article also shows the creative capacity of the youth to rapidly organize relief responses, managing the situation efficiently and properly, without following the top-down approach that tends to dominate the descriptions of crisis management in the literature.

As the article鈥檚 abstract reads, the results of this case study can help 鈥渁cademics and practitioners gauge the effectiveness of social media platforms to respond to crises, understand their impact for people in distinct generations and evaluate the feasibility and inclusivity of using social media as a tool in national crises, especially in developing countries.鈥�

Dahal, the first author of the article, graduated from 黑料不打烊 in 2017 as an International Fellow with a double major in strategic communications and international studies. She was also a Lumen Scholar, with Idris serving as her mentor for that research. Also under Idris鈥� mentorship, Dahal was awarded the Gates Cambridge Scholarship, a high honor given to only about 35 scholars in the United States from a pool of about 6,000 applicants.

The Gates Cambridge Scholarship allowed Leena to obtain a master’s degree in Modern South Asian Studies at the University of Cambridge, in the United Kingdom, where her master麓s dissertation was awarded the C.A. Bayly Prize for the best dissertation in her department, and it was also awarded, nationwide, as best master`s dissertation by the British Association of South Asian Studies (BASAS).

After obtaining her master’s degree, Dahal worked in Nepal as opinions editor at the Kathmandu Post and later as a communications specialist at Nepal麓s World Wide Fund for Nature.

鈥淲ithout Dr. Idris鈥� deliberate emphasis on a student-led mentoring approach 鈥� where conversations are guided but not led, where critical analysis is supplemented but not shaped and self-reflection is relaxed and never inauthentic 鈥� I strongly believe that I would not have experienced the amount of personal growth and confidence in my research capacity,” Dahal said of her experience conducting undergraduate research at 黑料不打烊 under Idris鈥� guidance. “His mentoring not only shaped my research but always shaped my ethnographic lens and reflexivity as a researcher鈥攖wo things that I continue to carry with me and develop since I graduated from 黑料不打烊.鈥�

Dahal said that Bravo 鈥渃onstantly encouraged me to think about issues affecting communities near and far through various perspectives and opened my eyes to ideas I had not previously considered. For that, she shaped me and many other students into more globally minded critical thinkers who are engaged in issues beyond those that affect their own demographics.鈥�

The Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management is a Q2 (top 50 percent) journal in the fields of management information systems and management, monitoring, policy and law, according to the Scimago Journal and Country Rank (SJR). At the time of writing, it had an H index of 46, which showcases a high research-impact level.

One titled 鈥淎 microenterprise initiative among newly resettled refugees in a city of the U.S. South: Challenges, successes, and lessons learned鈥� was first published in August in the peer-reviewed journal Annals of Anthropological Practice, which is published by the American Anthropological Association. The article can be found at .

The second article is titled 鈥淪olidarity and social networks: The invisible backbone that Ethiopians and Eritreans in Washington D.C. used to transform Adams Morgan and U Street,鈥� and it was first published this October in the Journal of Refugee and Immigrant Studies, which is published by Routledge/Taylor & Francis. The article can be found at .

Both research projects are based on ethnographic research conducted in North Carolina and Washington, D.C., respectively. Research for the first article involved interviews and participant observation with recently arrived refugees from Africa, Asia, and the Middle East to North Carolina, as well as caseworkers at a resettlement agency. The second is based on field notes and interviews conducted with entrepreneurs in Washington D.C. who migrated from Ethiopia and Eritrea and have successfully established small businesses in the U.S. Capital.

Annals of Anthropological Practice is an official publication of the American Anthropological Association, the preeminent association in Anthropology. This journal is ranked by SCImago Journal & Country Rank as a Q2 (Quartile 2, Top 50%) journal in Anthropology.

Journal of Refugee and Immigrant Studies is also a highly regarded journal in the social sciences. This journal is ranked by SCImago Journal & Country Rank as a Q1 (Quartile 1, Top 25%) journal in Demography and also as a Q1 journal in Geography, Planning & Development.

Idris has taught at 黑料不打烊 as an assistant professor since Fall 2014. He has one additional journal article and two additional book chapters, all peer-reviewed. He has been recognized at 黑料不打烊 as a committed mentor for students in domestic and international contexts, and he received the 2019 Faculty Excellence Award in Mentoring from 黑料不打烊 College, the College of the Arts and Sciences, on Aug.19, 2019.

His paper, presented at the session “Refugee and Asylee Settlement in the Context of the Receiving Society,” is an ethnographic study about the experiences of newly resettled refugees from several African and Asian countries in a city of North Carolina.

The paper was titled “A micro-enterprise initiative among newly resettled refugees in a city of the U.S. South: Challenges, best practices and lessons learned,” and it focused, in particular, in the analysis of a micro-loan program that tries to promote refugees’ economic self-sufficiency and entrepreneurship in the area.

Idris is a cultural anthropologist whose research has been published in the journal African and Black Diaspora: An International Journal (Taylor & Francis) and in the books "Africa and Globalization" (Palgrave Macmillan) and "The African Metropolis" (Routledge).

The chapter can be found in pages 93-108 of the book Africa and Globalization: Challenges of Governance and Creativity published this year by Palgrave Macmillan. It describes how Washington, D.C. is the city where one can find the largest number of Ethiopians living outside of their home country, as well as a large number of Eritreans, and how these migrants have transformed certain areas and neighborhoods of D.C. with their entrepreneurship.

The chapter compares and contrasts the characteristics of two types of businesses: the culture-centered ones, which are based on offering traditional cultural products such as ethnic foods and coffee, clothes, music and more, and the non-traditional businesses, which focus on activities not related to cultural expressions, such as providing transportation services and parking.

The editors for the book accepted 11 chapters after the peer-review process. The book was edited by Toyin Falola, the Jacob and Frances Sanger Mossiker Chair Professor in the Humanities and a Distinguished Teaching Professor at the University of Texas at Austin, and by Kenneth Kalu with the Ted Rogers School of Management at Ryerson University in Toronto, Canada).

Assistant professor Mussa Idris has previously published research in the journal African and Black Diaspora: An International Journal and in the book “The African Metropolis: Struggles over Urban Space, Citizenship, and Rights to the City,” published by Routledge in 2017. He has also presented his research, consistently, in venues such as the American Anthropological Association and the Society of Applied Anthropology’s annual conferences.

The chapter by Idris is part of the book, “The African Metropolis: Struggles over Urban Space, Citizenship, and Rights to the City” edited by scholars Toyin Falola and Bisola Falola and published by Routledge.

The chapter provides analytical views on past and present official and spatialized narratives of Asmara. These narratives stem from its foundation as a “united” settlement and its Italian, British and Ethiopian occupations to its current state as the heart of Eritrea.

This chapter argues that after Eritrea’s independence in 1991, narratives of preservation and “development” focused on the agenda of the elite rulers, the financial resources of transnational Eritrean migrants, and the attraction of tourism rather than the establishment and defense of the indigenous human and cultural rights to the city. This means that an alternative official “development” narrative of Asmara that considers the interests of all its citizens is needed and should consider the cultural story and the socio-cultural characteristics of the city. This entails putting in place a set of administrative and social procedures regarding the organization of city spaces, community activities, cherished values and rules of living that would (re)shape Asmara in terms of its spatial and urban social relations.

Idris has previously published research about diaspora communities from East Africa in the journal African and Black Diaspora: An International Journal, and he has constantly presented in venues such as the annual conferences of the American Anthropological Association and the Society of Applied Anthropology .

The AAA convention, held this year in Denver from Nov. 18-22, was attended by about 6,000 scholars, and it is one of the most important conferences in anthropology in the United States and beyond.

Idris, Dahal and Opoku’s paper, “Refugee Resettlement Experiences from Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia in Greensboro, North Carolina: Needs and Services Impact Assessment,” was presented on Nov. 22.

This faculty-students collaborative research project uses ethnography to understand the refugee resettlement experience in Greensboro, North Carolina, as a pathway to develop a community-based participatory impact assessment. It aims to identify needs, challenges and opportunities of new refugee communities from Sub-Saharan Africa (the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan and Eritrea) and Asia (Bhutan) through a partnership with one non-governmental resettlment organization that provides services to newly arrived refugee communities.

This research uses ethnographic methods, including participant observation and semi-structured interviews, to collect emic perspectives of the resettled refugee communities and the service providers on how different refugee communities understand resettlement and experience adjustment to their new culture and environment.

It also examines how the resettlement expectations and the needs of refugee communities coming from various cultures and contexts are addressed in the first three months after their arrival in the United States and beyond. The applied anthropological perspective of a community-based impact assessment is used to articulate challenges, opportunities, and lessons learned from the resettlement experiences and narratives of these communities coming from various cultures to Greensboro.

This study started in the Spring of 2015 and is in progress.

As part of the Ebola Education Week at 黑料不打烊, Omolayo Ojo, an 黑料不打烊 African Society and Global Neighborhood student leader, moderated a panel discussion about this topic in the Media Room of the Global Commons.

The Nov. 13 panelists were Aunchalee Palmquist, assistant professor of medical anthropology, and Brian Digre, professor of history. Palmquist talked about the characteristics of the Ebola virus disease, an often fatal hemorrhagic fever illness in humans that is spread mainly through human-to-human transmission. Palmquist highlighted the importance of understanding the intersection of poverty, poor health infrastructure and miscommunication about caregiving in West African contexts.

Palmquist also explained that the cultural conceptualization of Ebola with simplistic references to exotic burial practices and bush meat eating, without explaining the context, is problematic.

Digre talked about the history of the Ebola virus disease, from its first identification in 1976 in Yambuku, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, from which the disease takes its name, and another outbreak in the same year in Nzara, South Sudan, to the current situation of Western African states that have cases of Ebola today.

Digre said the West African nations most recently impacted by the disease are developing countries with relatively weak economies and infrastructure, which are emerging from violent political conflicts. These factors resulted in very poor local responses to Ebola.

Local and international medical personnel, such as Doctors Without Borders, continue to face tremendous risks as they attempt to isolate and care for Ebola patients in West Africa.

Both Palmquist and Digre emphasized that heath is a basic human right and also a global issue. Thus, international communities with stronger resources, staff, and health systems should continue to care for and commit to help alleviate the suffering of their fellow human beings in West Africa.

The 黑料不打烊 African Society, 黑料不打烊 Partners in International Development, and the Tanzania & Ethiopia Winter Term 15 led by Digre and Assistant Professor Mussa Idris (formerly the Ghana History Winter Term program) partnered to organize this panel and increase awareness at 黑料不打烊 about the Ebola outbreak in West Africa. The groups are also participating in fundraising to support the efforts of Doctors Without Borders.

If you have any questions about this panel or about the Ebola Education week, please email Brian Digre (digreb@elon.edu) or Omolayo Ojo (oojo@elon.edu). 

The online version of this article became available online recently. The DOI link for the article is 10.1080/17528631.2014.966956. The print version of the article is forthcoming in January 2015.

Idris’ paper examines business experiences among Ethiopian and Eritrean transnational migrants in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area. It primarily draws from ethnographic and entrepreneurial case studies to explain how Ethiopian and Eritrean entrepreneurs establish food and culture-centered businesses in Adams Morgan and the U Street Corridor.

The paper describes the positive and multidimensional roles (cultural, social and economic) of the Ethiopian and Eritrean food and culture-centered businesses in the area. It argues that these restaurants, cafes, and grocery stores use an “ethnic entrepreneurship niche” model to conduct business with a focus on the re-creation of ethnic identities in a specific geographic area, building at the same time a transnational space, but with the intention of doing business with their migrant communities, host societies, and tourists alike.

African and Black Diaspora: An International Journal is an academic, double-blind, peer-reviewed journal published by Routledge (part of Taylor & Francis Group). The article can be found at

Session I: Friday, September 12, 4 p.m., Global Building 4 (Zambezi), Room 110

Session II: Tuesday, September 23, 5 p.m., Global Building 4 (Zambezi), Room 110

North Carolina African Services Coalition (NCASC) First Friends Community Support

• Students will visit with an international family that the Global Neighborhood has adopted for this year. This mutual cultural exchange will allow students to help acclimate the family to the United States as they adjust to their new language, culture and environment.
• A group of 2-4 students will meet weekly with the family at their home in Greensboro (about 30 minutes from campus).
• You may visit once or multiple times throughout the year.
• Students will carpool together as a group each week.
• Students could also collect/contribute towards items needed by the family.
• For additional information, contact the GN Lead Student Mentor Omolayo Ojo at oojo@elon.edu

黑料不打烊 Volunteers! Immigrant and Refugee Outreach

• Students will assist with after-school tutoring at one of the Center for New North Carolinians community centers (Ashton Woods, Glen Haven, Oakwood Forest) in Greensboro (about 30 minutes from campus). These centers serve clients coordinated by NCASC in addition to other agencies.

• Requires a weekly commitment.
• You can drive on your own or carpool together as a group each week.
• For additional information, contact the 黑料不打烊 Volunteers! Immigrant and Refugee Outreach coordinators at iroutreach@elon.edu

黑料不打烊 Volunteers! ESL Tutoring

• Students will assist with ESL tutoring and child care at the Davis Street United Methodist Church in Burlington (about 10 minutes from campus).
• Requires a weekly commitment.
• For additional information, contact the 黑料不打烊 Volunteers! ESL Tutoring coordinator at esl@elon.edu

Want to get involved? Join us for a Service Information Session – enjoy snacks and hear about how you can participate in the Global Neighborhood’s service partnerships this year!

**These service opportunities are sponsored by the Global Neighborhood Association and Kernodle Center for Service Learning & Community Engagement.