Five Questions with Prof. Mamadou Diouf from Baraza Video on Vimeo.

Mamadou Diouf is the Leitner Family Professor of African Studies and the Director of the Institute for African Studies at Columbia University. Educated primarially in France, Diouf is a renowned West African scholar who has taught in his native Senegal at the University Cheikh Anta Diop in Dakar and guest-lectured at many European and American universities. He previously served as the Charles D. Moody Jr. Collegiate Professor of History and African American Studies at the University of Michigan, from 2000 to 2007, and holds a Ph.D. from the University of Paris-Sorbonne (France). His research interests include urban, political, social and intellectual history in colonial and postcolonial Africa.

His books include:

• New Perspectives on Islam in Senegal: Conversion, Migration, Wealth, and Power (with Mara A. Leichtman) [2009],
  
• La Construction de l’Etat au Sénégal (with M. C. Diop & D. Cruise O’Brien) [2002],
  
• Histoire du Sénégal: Le Modèle Islamo-Wolof et ses Périphéries [2001],
  
• Histoires et Identités dans la Caraïbe. Trajectoires Plurielles (with Ulbe Bosma) [2004];
  
• Les Jeunes, Hantise de l’espace public dans les sociétés du sud? (with R. Collignon) [2001] ;
  
• Les figures du politique : Des pouvoirs hérités aux pouvoirs élus (with M. C. Diop) [1999] ;
  
• L’Historiographie indienne en débat. Sur le nationalisme, le colonialisme et les sociétés postcoloniales (edited) [1999] ;
  
• Academic Freedom and Social Responsibility of the Intellectuals in Africa (with Mahmood Mamdani) [1994];
  
• Le Sénégal sous Abdou Diouf (with M.C. Diop) [1990];
  
• La Kajoor au XIXe siècle :
  
• Pouvoir Ceddo et Conquête Coloniale [1990].

Our Five Questions followed:

1. 2011 has marked a new model of revolution that stem from practical realities and shun standardized theory. What do you think the prospects are for such demands for change that function in the absence of macro-social frameworks and ideologies? What ideas or discourses are likely to rise to the fore in the future? Does the nation state have a future as the main unit of political organization? If not, how will people and societies be organized?
2. What is the role of religion in modern society? Is there a space for religion in public/political discourse? How is the role of religion evolving in society today? How will it evolve in the future?
3. What contemporary ideas are likely to have a significant impact in shaping the future and why?
4. What is the future of the relations among people of the “global south” (economies previously labeled “developing economies” including the nations of Africa, Central and Latin America, South, South East Asia and parts of the Middle East)? How do you think the current changes taking place in these economies will effect the global order at large?
5. What is the future of Area Studies?