search the africa institute site
The Africa Institute’s Faculty Seminar Series hosts Zambian economist, Grieve Chelwa to share his research, “Revisiting Economics and Its Africa Problem” on Tuesday, June 20, 2023 (12:00 noon – 02:00 pm) at The Africa Institute library.
In this talk, Professor Chelwa traces the impact that a blog post published in 2015 has had in forcing the economics discipline to reckon with what he termed as, “Economics’ Africa Problem”. As he initially articulated in that blog post and later on developed in scholarly publications, “Economics’ Africa Problem” manifests in the discipline’s dismal state of knowledge about the political economy processes obtained on the African continent. He discusses the initial reaction to this work particularly among the “Gatekeepers” of the discipline and the subsequent impact that the work has had in influencing, especially among younger scholars and even in disciplines beyond economics, new areas of inquiry centered on deepening our understanding of this problem. Professor Chelwa, discusses some of the emerging solutions to “Economics’ Africa Problem”, highlighting strengths and weaknesses and cautioning against potential co-optation by those with a vested interest in maintaining the status quo. The final section of the seminar points to ideas for future research that build-on that initial blog post as well as on existing scholarship.
Grieve Chelwa is a Zambian economist whose research focuses on political economy particularly as it relates to African economic development. He currently serves as Director of Research at the Institute on Race, Power, and Political Economy at the New School and as a Senior Fellow at Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research. Chelwa is also the coordinator of the Collective on African Political Economy (CAPE), a collection of emerging African academics and leaders of social movements interested in an emancipatory political economy as it relates to the African continent. Professor Chelwa previously served as a Senior Lecturer in Economics at the University of Cape Town’s Graduate School of Business, where he was also the director of the MBA program. Before joining the University of Cape Town, Chelwa was the inaugural postdoctoral fellow at the Center for African Studies at Harvard University.
His scholarly work has appeared in journals such as the Journal of Economic Literature, Applied Economics Letters, Social Science and Medicine, Daedalus: Journal of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Economy and Society, PLOS One, British Medical Journal, Energy Policy and the South African Journal of Economics among others. His research has been supported by grants from the Carnegie Foundation, the Gates Foundation, and the Open Society Foundations among others. He is a regular commentator on African economic issues, with opinions appearing in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Bloomberg, CGTN, BBC, Mail and Guardian, People’s Dispatch, Lusaka Times, and Business Day, among many others. He holds a BA in economics from the University of Zambia and a PhD in economics from the University of Cape Town.
The seminar will be moderated by Amy Niang, Associate Professor of Political Science at The Africa Institute. Read more.
Through these lectures and workshops, The Africa Institute reaffirms its mission as a center for the study and research of Africa and its diaspora, and its commitment to the training of a new generation of critical thinkers in African and African Diaspora studies.
The seminar will be in English.
The session is free and open to the public. Registration is mandatory, Click here to book your place.
The Africa Institute’s Faculty Seminar Series hosts Zambian economist, Grieve Chelwa to share his research, “Revisiting Economics and Its Africa Problem” on Tuesday, June 20, 2023 (12:00 noon – 02:00 pm) at The Africa Institute library.
The Africa Institute’s Faculty Seminar Series hosts Zambian economist, Grieve Chelwa to share his research, “Revisiting Economics and Its Africa Problem” on Tuesday, June 20, 2023 (12:00 noon – 02:00 pm) at The Africa Institute library.
In this talk, Professor Chelwa traces the impact that a blog post published in 2015 has had in forcing the economics discipline to reckon with what he termed as, “Economics’ Africa Problem”. As he initially articulated in that blog post and later on developed in scholarly publications, “Economics’ Africa Problem” manifests in the discipline’s dismal state of knowledge about the political economy processes obtained on the African continent. He discusses the initial reaction to this work particularly among the “Gatekeepers” of the discipline and the subsequent impact that the work has had in influencing, especially among younger scholars and even in disciplines beyond economics, new areas of inquiry centered on deepening our understanding of this problem. Professor Chelwa, discusses some of the emerging solutions to “Economics’ Africa Problem”, highlighting strengths and weaknesses and cautioning against potential co-optation by those with a vested interest in maintaining the status quo. The final section of the seminar points to ideas for future research that build-on that initial blog post as well as on existing scholarship.
Grieve Chelwa is a Zambian economist whose research focuses on political economy particularly as it relates to African economic development. He currently serves as Director of Research at the Institute on Race, Power, and Political Economy at the New School and as a Senior Fellow at Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research. Chelwa is also the coordinator of the Collective on African Political Economy (CAPE), a collection of emerging African academics and leaders of social movements interested in an emancipatory political economy as it relates to the African continent. Professor Chelwa previously served as a Senior Lecturer in Economics at the University of Cape Town’s Graduate School of Business, where he was also the director of the MBA program. Before joining the University of Cape Town, Chelwa was the inaugural postdoctoral fellow at the Center for African Studies at Harvard University.
His scholarly work has appeared in journals such as the Journal of Economic Literature, Applied Economics Letters, Social Science and Medicine, Daedalus: Journal of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Economy and Society, PLOS One, British Medical Journal, Energy Policy and the South African Journal of Economics among others. His research has been supported by grants from the Carnegie Foundation, the Gates Foundation, and the Open Society Foundations among others. He is a regular commentator on African economic issues, with opinions appearing in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Bloomberg, CGTN, BBC, Mail and Guardian, People’s Dispatch, Lusaka Times, and Business Day, among many others. He holds a BA in economics from the University of Zambia and a PhD in economics from the University of Cape Town.
The seminar will be moderated by Amy Niang, Associate Professor of Political Science at The Africa Institute. Read more.
Through these lectures and workshops, The Africa Institute reaffirms its mission as a center for the study and research of Africa and its diaspora, and its commitment to the training of a new generation of critical thinkers in African and African Diaspora studies.
The seminar will be in English.
The session is free and open to the public. Registration is mandatory, Click here to book your place.
Subscribe to our mailing list and get the latest news from The Africa Institute
