Conference Presenters’ Page
April 5, 2016
Dear Colleagues,
We are excitedly looking forward to hosting you in two days. This note includes helpful information that will assist you in your preparations for the conference.
Weather
The Michigan gods of snow and cold weather have not been cooperating with us; and I am sad to report that the weather forecast for East Lansing on the days of our conference is COLD. The forecast for Thursday, (with a possibility of snow showers), is a high of 41 degrees and a low of 27 degrees; Friday, (with a possibility of snow showers), is a high of 34 degrees and a low of 19 degrees; and Saturday is a high of 33 degrees and a low of 19 degrees. So please pack a warm jacket.
Airport Shuttles/Michigan Flyer/Hotel Address
We have arranged a Marriott Shuttle to pick up all guests flying into Lansing International Airport. We are hoping that our guests flying into Detroit International Airport have booked their Michigan Flyer bus tickets. If not, please do so at http://www.michiganflyer.com/. For those of you driving, the name and address of the hotel is East Lansing Marriott at University Place, 300 M.A.C. Avenue, East Lansing, MI 48823. The hotel phone number is (517) 337-4440.
Opening Reception
At 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Thursday evening, April 7, MSU President Lou Anna K. Simon will be hosting a welcome reception at her official home, the Cowles House, on Michigan State University’s campus. Heavy hors d’oeuvres and beverages will be served. JWAH conference staff will pick up guests at the Marriott at 6:45 p.m. to shuttle them to Cowles House for the reception. They will also be shuttling guests back to the Marriott from Cowles House at 9:00 p.m.
Registration
Registration will take place Friday morning from 8 a.m. to 8:20 a.m. You will find a registration table located on the second floor of the Marriott hotel, staffed by the JWAH graduate student committee.
Conference Panels
Please note that each presenter will have no more than 15 minutes to present their papers. Since we have scheduled two long days of presentations, we intend to religiously enforce this time limit. To this end, if you have any technological needs, please let us know as soon as possible. If you plan on giving a PowerPoint presentation, you can either send your presentation to us at jwah@msu.edu (please include subject line JWAH conference PowerPoint) before your arrive on Thursday and we will have it all set up for you for your presentation. If you are not quite ready with your PowerPoint, then members of the JWAH graduate team will be available on the morning of your presentation to help you set up. Just look for the people in the JWAH t-shirts.
Meals and Student Scholar Interviews
We will be providing breakfast, lunch, and dinner for our invited guests; as well as a beverage table.
Scholar-Student Interviews
During breakfast on Friday and Saturday morning, we will be recording short 5- to 8-minute student-scholar interviews. These conversations offer an opportunity for our graduate students to informally interact with our invited scholars by posing a few questions. If you are interested, as I am hoping that you will be, please make sure to sign the video release form which will be included in your welcome package and bring it down with you to breakfast.
Special Events
Museum Gallery Tour
On Friday evening, we have planned a reception and gallery tour of the Eli and Edyth Broad Museum’s “Material Effects: Contemporary Art from West Africa and the Diaspora.”
African Student Performance
On Saturday evening, members of Michigan State University’s African Student’s Union will stage a short performance for our guests. The performance will include a number of African dances and some poetry. During this performance, we encourage guests/spectators to “spray” the performers with money in appreciation of their performance, as is customary in West Africa. We will have one-dollar bills available for exchange for those who might wish to participate in this “thank you” ritual, but only have larger bills.
Once again, thank you; and very much looking forward to your contributions.
Thank you so very much, and best regards,
Nwando Achebe
Professor of African History
Editor-in-Chief, Journal of West African History
March 12, 2016
Dear Colleagues,
Greetings. We are very much looking forward to hosting you next month. To this end, we have created meal pages on our conference website http://conference.
We also encourage you to visit our conference website conference.jwah.msu.
Thank you so very much, and best regards,
Nwando Achebe
Professor of African History
Editor-in-Chief, Journal of West African History
February 17, 2016
Dear Colleagues,
Greetings. We are in the process of booking rooms for all our guests at the Marriott; arriving April 7, 2016 and departing the morning of April 10, 2016.
If you need to have these dates adjusted, please let us know as soon as possible.
Also, this is a friendly reminder to those of you who haven’t sent us your flight information to please do as soon as possible, so that we can arrange Marriott airport shuttle pick you up on April 7th from Lansing International Airport (LAN). If on the other hand, you are flying into Detriot International Airport (DTW), then please reserve a round trip Michigan Flyer shuttle through this link. http://www.michiganflyer.com/.
Very much looking forward to seeing you in April.
Best regards,
Nwando Achebe
Professor of African History
Editor-in-Chief, Journal of West African History
February 13, 2016
Dear Colleagues,
Conference Program, LAN airport pick up/drop off, parking tokens, and other information
Greetings. I trust that all is well. Thank you once again so very much for accepting my invitation to participate in what I am confident will be a very important conference. It is my fervent hope that as you prepare your presentations, that you plan on reworking them into article length papers for publication consideration in JWAH.
Please find attached, the schedule for JWAH’s International Launch conference on the “State of the Field and New Directions.” I encourage you to visit our JWAH conference website: conference.jwah.msu.edu for up-to-date information on the conference.
Michigan State University President, Professor Lou Anna K Simon, will be hosting JWAH’s opening reception at her official residence, The Cowles House, at 7 p.m. on April 7, 2016. It is therefore with great excitement that I extend an invitation to you to attend. We will arrange transportation from The Marriott to The Cowles House.
In order to keep our preparations as seamless as possible, my JWAH conference team is in the process of putting together flight information for all JWAH conference panelists so that we can make arrangements for pick up and drop off from our preferred airport, Lansing International Airport (LAN) on the afternoon of April 7, 2016. LAN is the closest airport to the conference venue of East Lansing; and the Marriott runs shuttles from LAN to the hotel. Detroit International Airport (DTW) is about 90 miles from East Lansing and the Michigan Flyer shuttle runs frequently (please see schedule) from DTW to the East Lansing Marriott. And with an advance reservation, a discounted round trip ticket is $50. Please book here.
If you already have your flight information to LAN, we will be happy to arrange the Marriott airport shuttle to pick up and drop off for you. If you are however flying into DTW, then please reserve a shuttle through this link.
If you plan on driving, we will be happy to arrange a parking token for your stay at the Marriott.
I would also like to use this opportunity to thank my very able and efficient student, Mr. Shaonan Liu, PhD candidate in African history, for his incredible work on this conference. He leaves for Nigeria in a few days to begin his dissertation research on Chinese immigrants to Nigeria. He will be missed. Another PhD student of mine, Mr. James Blackwell, will be taking over from Mr. Liu. James Blackwell and Ms. Tara Reyelts (both copied on this message) are my graduate student assistants and JWAH office managers; and will be communicating with you for now until the conference.
Do take good care and best wishes,
Nwando Achebe, Ph.D.
Professor of African History
Editor-in-Chief, Journal of West African History (JWAH)
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