Daemen recently hosted a visit by the vice chancellor of the Catholic University of Kabgayi in Rwanda, Balthazar Ntivuguruzwa.
Ntivuguruzwa hosted Joseph Sankoh, associate professor of political science at Daemen, while serving as a Fulbright U.S. Scholar this past year.
During the visit, the vice chancellor met with Daemen Provost Michael Brogan; Heather Maloney Stassen, founding dean of the College of Arts, Sciences and Education; Penny Messinger, chair of the History and Political Science Department and others.
Discussed during the visit was the possibility of a partnership and collaboration that could see student and faculty exchanges between the institutions of higher learning, which could involve research and service-learning projects. A memorandum of understanding is in the works, Sankoh said.
“As a developing country, they are looking to learn from us,” said Sankoh. “We have much to learn from them, too.”
As a Fulbright Scholar, Sankoh worked at the Catholic University of Rwanda, where he conducted research in comparative global genocide, including the Rwandan genocide, which killed as many as 800,000 people. Sankoh is working on a book on the topic.
During his most recent Fulbright, Sankoh also collaborated on curriculum creation for community-based sustainable development at a university in Botswana, which included teaching and supervising graduate student research.
The Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program is an international educational program administered by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.
The program offers participants the opportunity to study, teach and conduct research, exchange ideas, and contribute to finding solutions to international concerns in more than 125 countries worldwide.
Sankoh is past president of the Fulbright Association Western New York and Western Pennsylvania Chapter. He previously was a guest professor at O.P. Jindal Global University in India, where he initiated cross-cultural projects and taught a graduate course on global migration and refugees.