Professor Eunice Sahle will become chair of the department of African and Afro-American studies in UNC’s College of Arts and Sciences, effective Jan. 1, 2012.
“All of us in the dean’s office look forward to Professor Sahle’s leadership,” said Karen Gil, dean of the College. “We are confident that she will further advance the department, which has contributed significantly to the University and the field of African and African-American studies over the past four decades. “
Professor Sahle has been at UNC since 2001, with joint appointments in the department of African and Afro-American studies and the curriculum in global studies.
She is an award-winning teacher and scholar with recognized expertise on the political and economic development of Africa in the context of globalization.
Sahle’s publications include World Order, Development and Transformation (2010,) and she has received competitive research awards from the International Development Research Center in Canada and the Walter and Duncan Gordon Foundation. Her current research focuses on urban governance and citizenship in Durban, Toronto and Paris, and on the geographies of political violence, territory and state formation in Kenya.
She has won two honors for teaching excellence, including the 2006 Edward Kidder Graham Award and a 2011 Student Undergraduate Teaching Award.
She also has been involved in the internationalization of the curriculum — a top priority of the dean’s office — through the development of study abroad programs focusing on globalization, development and civil society. She co-directed a program that took students to Tanzania and Mexico in the fall of 2009, and she has developed another program that will begin next summer at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban, South Africa.
Sahle has a Ph.D. in political studies from Queen’s University in Canada, with concentrations in comparative politics, international relations, international political economy and women and politics. She has an M.A. in political science, and a B.A. with honors in political science and international development from the University of Toronto.
