BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//Social Science Research Council (SSRC) - ECPv6.17.0//NONSGML v1.0//EN
CALSCALE:GREGORIAN
METHOD:PUBLISH
X-WR-CALNAME:Social Science Research Council (SSRC)
X-ORIGINAL-URL:https://www.ssrc.org
X-WR-CALDESC:Events for Social Science Research Council (SSRC)
REFRESH-INTERVAL;VALUE=DURATION:PT1H
X-Robots-Tag:noindex
X-PUBLISHED-TTL:PT1H
BEGIN:VTIMEZONE
TZID:America/New_York
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
TZOFFSETFROM:-0500
TZOFFSETTO:-0400
TZNAME:EDT
DTSTART:20240310T070000
END:DAYLIGHT
BEGIN:STANDARD
TZOFFSETFROM:-0400
TZOFFSETTO:-0500
TZNAME:EST
DTSTART:20241103T060000
END:STANDARD
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
TZOFFSETFROM:-0500
TZOFFSETTO:-0400
TZNAME:EDT
DTSTART:20250309T070000
END:DAYLIGHT
BEGIN:STANDARD
TZOFFSETFROM:-0400
TZOFFSETTO:-0500
TZNAME:EST
DTSTART:20251102T060000
END:STANDARD
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
TZOFFSETFROM:-0500
TZOFFSETTO:-0400
TZNAME:EDT
DTSTART:20260308T070000
END:DAYLIGHT
BEGIN:STANDARD
TZOFFSETFROM:-0400
TZOFFSETTO:-0500
TZNAME:EST
DTSTART:20261101T060000
END:STANDARD
END:VTIMEZONE
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20250925
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20250926
DTSTAMP:20251113T181422Z
CREATED:20251113T181240Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251113T181422Z
UID:10000908-1758758400-1758844799@www.ssrc.org
SUMMARY:Event Report: ASAA 2025 — Developing African Frameworks for Navigating Peace Vulnerabilities in an Emerging Post-COVID World Order
DESCRIPTION:The African Peacebuilding and Developmental Dynamics (APDD) sponsored a panel at the African Studies Association of Africa (ASAA) 2025 Conference\, held on September 25\, 2025\, at the University of Cape Verde. Under the theme “Developing African Frameworks for Navigating Peace Vulnerabilities in an Emerging Post-COVID World Order\,” the panel brought together fellows to examine how African actors are re-imagining resilience and peacebuilding in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. \n \nDr. Titilope F. Ajayi (Institute for Security Studies / Next Gen 2017 & 2019\, APN IRF 2018) who moderated the session welcomed participants and introduced the APN and Next Gen’s mission of strengthening African scholarship on peace and development\, and underscored the panel’s goal of exploring self-determined approaches to recovery and transformation. \nDr. Johannes John-Langba (University of KwaZulu-Natal . APN IRF 2015) presented his paper\, “Beyond Dependency: Reclaiming Public Health Sovereignty in Post-COVID Africa.” Drawing on the WHO Health Systems Performance Assessment Framework\, he examined Africa-led efforts to achieve public health autonomy\, highlighting local vaccine manufacturing\, investment in national health systems\, and policy ownership. “COVID-19 was a wake-up call for all of us\,” he noted\, underscoring that the pandemic revealed both the vulnerabilities of African health systems and the need to move beyond dependency. \nDr. Rosette Sifa Vuninga (University of Cape Town\, APN IRF 2024) followed with “How Does Being Part of the SADC Help Us? Interrogating the Economic and Political Benefits of DR Congo’s Southern African Development Community Membership from the Perspectives of Congolese Immigrants in South Africa.” Her presentation explored the disconnect between South Africa’s regional peacebuilding role in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and its domestic treatment of Congolese refugees. Using digital ethnography and interviews with community leaders\, she demonstrated that post-COVID regional security responses often remain detached from humanitarian realities\, highlighting the need for inclusive\, refugee-sensitive domestic policies to complement African-led peace initiatives. \nIn her own presentation\, “Whose Recovery? Centering Gender Justice in Africa’s Post-COVID Reconstruction\,” Dr. Ajayi examined the gendered dimensions of the pandemic’s aftermath. She argued that recovery frameworks are often skewed against women\, citing increases in gender-based violence\, child marriages\, and unpaid care burdens. Dr. Ajayi called for African feminist frameworks that foreground care\, accountability\, and collective well-being to ensure recovery that is not only inclusive\, but transformative. \n \nDr. Sean Maliehe (National University of Lesotho / APN IRF 2024) presented his paper on “Transnational Mobilities\, Post-COVID Responses\, and Peace in Southern Africa: Case Study of Mobile Money in Diepsloot\, South Africa.” Reflecting on fieldwork conducted between 2016 and 2023\, he analyzed how migrant networks developed transnational systems of trust\, remittance\, and economic exchange under precarious conditions. His analysis highlighted how economic pluralism and solidarity are critical for building inclusive African futures\, particularly in contexts where state responses remain exclusionary. \n  \nDr. Sokfa John (University of Pretoria / APN IRF 2024 & APN RPF 2025) concluded the panel with a paper titled\, “Post-Digital Praxis\, Local Power: Reimagining African Governance through Digital Transformation.” He demonstrated how rapid digitalization during the pandemic both enabled and constrained civic participation\, emphasizing the importance of grounding digital innovations in local epistemologies\, trust-building\, and conflict-sensitive design. \nDuring the discussion\, Dr. Rosette Sifa Vuninga asked about the role of traditional medicine in post-COVID recovery. In response\, Dr. Johannes John-Langba emphasized the importance of integrating mental health and community-based care into national health systems\, noting that traditional medicine can complement formal health services. The conversation eventually highlighted a shared commitment among panelists to centering African agency in post-pandemic recovery frameworks. \nIn his closing remarks\, Dr. Sofka John expressed gratitude to APN and Next Gen for creating spaces that “allow African researchers to pursue the work they believe in” and underscored the irreplaceable value of “meeting in person to build intellectual and social capital.” The session concluded with appreciation to the African Peacebuilding and Developmental Dynamics (APDD) program\, whose support made the panel possible\, and to the ASAA 2025 organizers and participants.
URL:https://www.ssrc.org/events/event-report-asaa-2025-developing-african-frameworks-for-navigating-peace-vulnerabilities-in-an-emerging-post-covid-world-order/
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.ssrc.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/image001-e1762979466805.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250925T150000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250925T160000
DTSTAMP:20250926T181629Z
CREATED:20250822T170327Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250926T181629Z
UID:10000903-1758812400-1758816000@www.ssrc.org
SUMMARY:Creating Moves to Opportunity: Mixed Methods Evidence on Barriers to Neighborhood Choice
DESCRIPTION:About The Lecture\nLow-income families often live in neighborhoods with fewer opportunities to get ahead\, even when they have housing vouchers that would allow them to move to neighborhoods with more potential for upward mobility. In this SSRC lecture\, Johns Hopkins sociologist Stefanie DeLuca will explore why through two randomized interventions. In these experiments\, housing voucher recipients were given varying levels of information\, financial support\, and customized search assistance to move to higher-opportunity neighborhoods. The treatment increased the share of those moving to high-upward-mobility areas from 15% to 53%. Qualitative interviews with participants in the program showed that the intervention increased families’ optimism about new neighborhoods and housing\, eased demands on families’ time and attention and addressed their specific needs. The combination of the two experiments and the qualitative data reveal that the customized support and search assistance provided by the program navigator staff was the necessary driver of the experimental impacts\, not financial assistance or information alone. These findings imply that many low-income families do not necessarily prefer to stay in low-opportunity areas and that barriers to housing searches significantly increase residential segregation by income. \nEvent Recording\n \n\nAbout Stefanie Deluca\nStefanie DeLuca is the James Coleman Professor of Social Policy and Sociology at the Johns Hopkins University\, where she directs the Poverty and Inequality Research Lab. \nDr. DeLuca uses sociological perspectives to inform education and housing policy\, and conducts mixed-methods studies that combine qualitative research with experimental or quasi-experimental designs. Some of her work focuses on the effects of programs to help low-income families relocate to safer neighborhoods and better schools through housing vouchers. Based on some of this work with young adults in the Baltimore site of the Moving to Opportunity program\, Professor DeLuca wrote a book\, Coming of Age in the Other America (with Susan Clampet-Lundquist and Kathryn Edin)\, which was named an Outstanding Academic Title from the American Library Association\, and won the William F. Goode Award from the American Sociological Association. Additional research examines how young adults make postsecondary decisions. Her work has been funded by the Department of Housing and Urban Development\, National Science Foundation\, Russell Sage Foundation\, William T. Grant Foundation\, Annie E. Casey Foundation\, Spencer Foundation\, MacArthur Foundation\, Abell Foundation\, Smith Richardson Foundation\, National Academy of Education\, Gates Foundation and the Department of Education. \nIn 2021\, Dr. DeLuca received the ASA Publicly Engaged Scholar award and is an elected member of the Sociological Research Association. She currently serves on a NASEM consensus study on economic and social mobility in the U.S. \nDr. DeLuca earned a B.A. in Sociology and Psychology from the University of Chicago\, and a Ph.D. in Human Development and Social Policy from Northwestern University.
URL:https://www.ssrc.org/events/creating-moves-to-opportunity-mixed-methods-evidence-on-barriers-to-neighborhood-choice/
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.ssrc.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/AdobeStock_1526357461.jpeg
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR