Professor of Sociology and Associate Chancellor for Diversity at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
About
Assata Zerai is a professor of sociology and associate chancellor for diversity at the University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign). At Illinois since 2002, Zerai's research interests have included maternal and child health, activism, people-centered development, centering the work of African women scholars, and gender/race/class/LGBTQI inclusiveness and institutional transformation. Dr. Zerai's books include: Intersectionality in Intentional Communities: The Struggle for Inclusivity (2016); Hypermasculinity and State Violence in Zimbabwe (2014). She has also authored Dehumanizing Discourse, Law and Policy in America (with Rae Banks, 2002); and Safe Water, Sanitation and Early Childhood Malnutrition in East Africa (in press). She is currently completing her fifth book manuscript, African Women, ICT and Neoliberal Politics: The Challenge of Gendered Digital Divides to People-Centered Governance (Routledge).
In 2015, while associate dean in the Graduate College, Zerai began service as co-primary investigator on a $1M award from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation to increase numbers of graduate students underrepresented in STEM. In 2015-16, Zerai served as co-primary investigator on a US State Department award to offer a Young African Leaders Public Management Institute to Mandela Washington Fellows at the Center for African Studies at the U of I. In 2017-18, Zerai is a Big-10 Academic Alliance Leadership Program Fellow.
Current Work:
How can we promote people-centered governance in Africa? Very recent research has shown that broad access to cell phones and other information and communications technologies (ICTs) is linked to more democratic governance structures. These structures are defined by World Bank indicators such as rule of law, control of corruption, regulatory and government effectiveness, political stability, low levels of violence, and voice and accountability. But in key areas, these neoliberal indicators of democratic governance fall short: they do not encompass gender equity, disability services, or pro-poor policies seen in bottom-up approaches to democratic governance. To better understand and promote people-centered governance in Africa, Zerai's project shifts our focus to the marginalized, understood on two levels: 1) Zerai examines whether access to ICTs by marginalized groups, especially women, makes a difference to the success of bottom-up governance structures; and 2) Zerai shows how research by African scholars, too often marginalized, must be used to expand and redefine the goals and indicators of democratic governance in African countries.
Professor Assata Zerai has been offered a contract from Routledge to complete African Women, ICTs and Neoliberal Politics: The Challenge of Gendered Digital Divides to People-Centered Governance. The heart of the book is a focus on ICTs, women's status and governance in Zimbabwe, Uganda, and Nigeria, respectively. She examines regional differences to discuss the varied ways that women's status, diffusion of knowledge, and quality governance are represented throughout these countries. On the basis of African women's scholarship, Zerai analyzes World Bank development and governance indicators, and challenges both the World Bank definitions of good governance as well as the conclusions arrived at by researchers utilizing these indices, that a gender-blind understanding of diffusion of knowledge sufficiently explains factors resulting in better governance in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Research Area Keyword(s):
Gender/race/class/lgbtqi inclusiveness, maternal and child health; water and sanitation; bridging intellectual digital divides; African studies
