The Department of French (in collaboration with the Karsh Institute for Democracy) is delighted to welcome back Cheikh Ba as a visiting scholar for the Fall 2024 semester.

Cheikh is an Associate Professor in Human Geography/Planning at the Institute of Territorial Governance and Local Development, University of Cheikh Anta Diop in Dakar, Senegal. His research interests are situated at the intersection of environmental geography, political ecology, governmentality studies, and Science and Technology Studies. He has conducted extensive research on the governance of environmental crises and climate risks concerning Senegal River basin inundations in Senegal, analyzing the role of different forms of local and situated environmental knowledge in the emergence of endogenous resilience practices. He adopts a methodological approach that relies on careful empirical and historical analysis of socio-environmental ruptures, based on different sources of knowledge. He is particularly interested in how these ruptures are related to territorial governance and vice versa, and in reimagining and reformulating questions of sustainability and development through the lenses of long-time socio-ecological transformations and local knowledge. His most recent work engages with the constitution, circulation, and transformation of vernacular environmental knowledge in the context of ever-present and ongoing migratory movements and cross-border networks in the Sahara, as a porous and connected region.

Cheikh will be participating in a conversation with Prof. Boutaghou and Prof. Felwine Sarr (Duke) on Oct. 18. Feel free to come to that event to introduce yourself!

And welcome back, Cheikh. We're delighted to have you back on grounds!