Liberian Studies Association 57th annual conference

Liberian Studies Association 57th Annual Conference

Recentering Liberia:

Possibilities, Innovation, and Development in the 21st Century

April 23-25, 2026, University of Massachusetts-Amherst

The LSA 57th conference seeks to provide a platform for academics, civil society, and the private sector stakeholders to exchange ideas, share experiences, and collaboratively design strategies and new perspectives for equity, inclusivity, gender, and development in Africa in general and specifically in Liberia. Presenters will examine and posit instruments of innovation and possibilities for development and transformation. 

The LSA 57th annual conference is hosted by the W. E. B. Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies, College of Humanities and Fine Arts and cosponsored by collaborating faculty and units from several of the Five Colleges (UMass Amherst, Amherst College, Mount Holyoke).

Conference Schedule

Thursday, April 24, 2026

6:00pm – Reception & Meet and Greet (New Africa House at UMass Amherst / 180 Infirmary Way, Amherst, MA 01003) Refreshments provided by Mrs. Facia Ward

Hotel Guests should gather in the UMass hotel lobby on Floor 3 at 5:45 pm; a student will walk you over to New Africa House

Friday, April 24, 2026

The Amherst Room, 10th Floor, 1 Campus Center Way (Amherst, Massachusetts, United States 01003) - Breakfast served starting at 8:00 am

9:00 am Welcome Remarks

Jacien Carr, President, Liberian Studies Association, Assistant Director, Center for African Studies, The Ohio State University

 Fouad Abd-El-Khalick, Provost and Senior Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, University of Massachusetts, Amherst

 Maria del Guadalupe (Lupe) Davidson, Dean of the College of Humanities and Fine Arts

 Yolanda Covington-Ward, Professor and Department Chair, W.E.B. Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies, University of Massachusetts, Amherst

9:40am – 10:40am Session I: Archives and Historical Research

A Return to the Archive: A Roundtable on the Present and Future State of Historical Research in Liberia

Chair:  Jacien Carr, Assistant Director, Center for African Studies, The Ohio State University

Discussants: 

Ben Wright, Associate Professor, History Department, University of Texas at Dallas

 Andrew Wegmann, Assistant Professor, Department of History,Texas Tech University 

Ousmane K. Power-Greene, E. Franklin Frazier Chair of Africana Studies, Clark University 

10:45am – 11:45am: Session II: The State, International Trade, and Political Stability   Moderator: George Klay Kieh, Jr., Professor, Department of Political Science, Texas Southern University

Reckoning with the Firestone Plantation at 100 - Jonathan Ort, PhD student, Dept. of History, The University of Chicago

Government Performance and Political Participation - Samuel Wai Johnson, Jr., Professorial Lecturer, School of International Service, American University

Constructing the Social Democratic Developmental State - George Klay Kieh, Jr., Professor, Department of Political Science, Texas Southern University

11:50am – 12:50pm Session III: The Emotional Economy and Healing Moderator: Donald L. Cassell, Jr., M. Div., Architect, AIA, CSI, Senior Fellow, Director, Liberian Initiatives, Sagamore Institute

Emotional Politics: Trauma, Healing, and Mental Health in Recentering Liberia - Mary H. Moran, Professor, Anthropology and Africana & Latin American Studies, Emerita

Database on Sites of Massacres in Liberia: examining the geography of violence in Liberia from 1979-2003 - Aaron Weah, IBB Graduate School of International Affairs, University of Liberia and Director, Ducor Institute for Social and Economic Research

Cadences of Collective Wounds, Echoes of Collective Healing: West African Anglophone National Anthems through a Scripto-therapeutic Lens - Bartholomew Chizoba Akpah, Department of Language and Literature, College of Arts and Sciences, William V.S Tubman University

12:50pm – 1:50pm Lunch

1:50pm – 3:05pm Session IV: Gender, Oral History, and Creative Arts

Moderator: Tim Nevin, Independent scholar, formerly of Cuttington University, Liberia

Education Reframing Sandé: Contemporary Visual Practice and Liberian Feminine Knowledge Systems - Zainab Sumu, Artist and Lucy Rosenburgh, Curatorial Partner on the Supernal Beauty Series 

Introducing the Ellen Johnson Sirleaf Oral History Program - Chantal V. Bright, Oral History Program Manager, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf Presidential Center for Women and Development

The Dance Dramas of the Liberian National Cultural Troupe - Tim Nevin, independent scholar, formerly of Cuttington University

Creative Application of Liberia’s Quilting Art Elements in Women’s Clothing Design - Diana Z. Dahn, School of Fashion, Wuhan Textile University

3:05pm-4:05pm Session V: Carbon Credits, Remittances and the Middle Class  Moderator: Samuel Wai Johnson, Jr., Professorial Lecturer, American University

Remittances, Investment, and Economic Development: Evidence from Liberia - George P. Gonpu, Professor, Department of Economics

Ramapo College of New Jersey and Karl Johnson, Professor, Department of History, Ramapo College of New Jersey

Recentering the Middle Class for Economic Development in Liberia-21st century - Steve M. Kaifa, Professor, Department of Economics, County College of Morris

Unlocking Carbon Credit Markets and Natural Resource Wealth for Sustainable Development in Liberia - Morris Koffa, Founder and Executive Director, Africa Environmental Watch (AEW)

4:10pm-5:00pm  LSA Business Meeting (Members only)

6:00pm   Evening Dinner and Plenary Speech (The Amherst Room   6:00pm / 1 Campus Center Way, Amherst, MA 01003)

 Evening Performance by S#arp Attitude A Cappella

 Plenary Address:

The Gold and Rice Coasts of Africa in the Black Rice Thesis: A Reappraisal - Ishmael N. Annang - Assistant Professor of History, Mount Holyoke College

Saturday, April 25, 2026 - The Amherst Room, 10th Floor, 1 Campus Center Way, Amherst, Massachusetts, United States 01003

Breakfast served starting at 8:30 am

9:30am – 10:30am Session VI: Sovereignty and Nationalism - Moderator: Andrew Wegmann, Assistant Professor, Dept. of History, Texas Tech University

“Most…have their hearts set on returning to the Congo count[r]y”: A Microhistory of the Return Efforts of Congo Recaptives in 19th Century Liberia

Yolanda Covington-Ward, Professor and Department Chair, W.E.B. Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies, University of Massachusetts, Amherst

Braided Sovereignties Across the Atlantic: New England Afro-Indigenous Anticolonization, Liberia’s “Black Settler” State, and Diaspora Citizenship

After 2022 - Makhai Pells, Ph.D. Candidate, W.E.B. Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies, University of Massachusetts Amherst

 Recentering Liberia in Black Internationalis: Internationalist versus Nationalist Visions of the Future

Samuel G. Toe, IBB Graduate School of International Relations, University of Liberia, and Senior Fellow, Ducor Institute for Social & Economic Research

10:35am – 11:35am Session VII: Indigeneity, Imperialism, and Diplomacy - Moderator: Yolanda Covington-Ward, Professor and Department Chair, W.E.B. Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies, University of Massachusetts, Amherst

Diplomatic ties between Liberia and Imperial Russia (1866-1917): Forgotten foundations of bilateral relations

Alexander Shipilov, Institute of World History, Russian Academy of Sciences

Brewing the Bean: The Transimperial History of Liberian Coffee - Jackie N. Sayegh, Senior Program Manager, Institute for African Development, and Latin American and Caribbean Studies Program, Cornell University

Reimagining Liberia’s Social Diplomacy: Indigenous Voices in Colonial and Early Republican Encounters - Mark W. Deets, Department of History, The American University in Cairo

11:40am – 1:00pm Session VIII: Education in Liberia: An Evolving Landscape  Moderator: Michael Wannah, Associate Professor, Chicago State University

Education Financing in Liberia, Highlighting Key Policies, Challenges, Fiscal Priorities, and Strategies for Strengthening the Nation’s Education Sector

Hon. Dehpue Y. Zuo - Deputy Minister for Economic Management – Ministry of Education

The Current State of Affairs of the Educational Sector in Liberia: Accomplishments and key challenges facing the Ministry of Education - Hon. Thomas Momo Parker, Deputy Minister of Education for Planning, Research, and Development, Republic of Liberia

Important contributions of Cuttington University to Liberia’s Educational Landscape - Rudolph Monsio Bropleh, Vice President for the School of Graduate and Professional Studies (SGPS), Cuttington University

Higher Education in Liberia, Current Positioning and Challenges - Hon. Cecelia Cassell, Executive Director General, National Commission on Higher Education

1:00pm – 2:00pm Lunch / Networking

2:05pm – 3:05pm Session IX: Community-Driven Interventions and Education Moderator: Jackie N. Sayegh, Senior Programs Manager, Institute for African Development, and Latin American and Caribbean Studies Program, Cornell University

Sustaining the Momentum: Evaluating the Long-Term Impact of Community-Driven Interventions to Girls’ Education in Gbarpolu, Liberia A Follow-Up Project to Bridging the Gap: One Year Later - Anastasia Simmonds Caphart, EDS, Teacher Consultant Group, INC and Michael Adolu Wannah, Professor, Chicago State University

 The High Cost of Educational Neglect: Rural Schooling and Economic Development in Liberia - George Toto, DBA, Independent Researcher Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Educated but Disconnected: Language, Knowledge, and the Crisis of Relevance in Liberian Education - Dennis Jah, CEO, Focus on Liberia

3:10pm – 4:50pm Session X: Governance and Sustainability in Africa

Moderator:  Morris Koffa, Founder and Executive Director, Africa Environmental Watch (AEW)

When Power Flows: Electricity Governance in Nigerian Markets - Civian Kiki Massa, PhD candidate, Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Massachusetts Amherst

The Dangote Refinery Project: A Case Study - Donald L. Cassell, Jr., M. Div., Architect, AIA, CSI, Senior Fellow, Director, Liberian Initiatives, Sagamore Institute

Recentering Sustainability in African Construction: Place-Based Knowledge and Liberia as a Site of Possibility - Florence Dadzoe, PhD Candidate - Civil and Environmental Engineering, Riccio College of Engineering, UMass Amherst; Hellen (Awino) Awino, Assistant Professor of Architecture, College of Humanities & Fine Arts, UMass Amherst

6:00pm  Closing Dinner and Keynote Address

The Amherst Room  1 Campus Center Way, Amherst, MA 01003

 “The University of Liberia: Choosing among Futures” - Keynote Speaker: Dr. Layli Maparyan 16th President, University of Liberia

 Evening Entertainment Provided by Princess Fatu Gayflor and D.J. Edd

7:30 pm – 10:30 pm

 Closing Remarks

 “Parking: If you are attending the LSA conference and will be parking in the Campus Center Parking Garage, we can discount your parking fee by 50% if you register here. Please register before you park or immediately after parking.

Shutte Pick-Up: If you are flying into the Hartford Bradley International Airport and want to pre-register for a shuttle pick-up from the Hartford Airport to the campus, please complete the following form - click here for form :

“LSA Website Registration Link for Five Colleges Faculty, Staff, Students and Community Members: https://forms.gle/CgSDmvgJ18jic5KH7

Connecting to the Internet: There will be guest WIFI login information available in the Amherst Room in the campus center for conference attendees and presenters.