Lectures

Dan Connell is available for speaking engagements, with or without an accompanying slide show, on topics that draw directly on the author’s experience and expertise. For information about fees and availability for lectures or workshops, contact the author directly.

Redeeming the failed promise of Eritrea

In the mid-1990s, Eritrea was a bright spot on a dismal African horizon. Despite the impact of 30 years of war with Ethiopia, from which it won its de facto independence in 1991, the continent's newest nation seemed to be a model of multi-ethnic and religious harmony, growing gender equality, corruption-free administration, and debt-free development on a path toward a highly participatory form of democratic development.

Today, with the Isaias Afwerki government careening from one regional conflict to another, refusing to implement a Constitution ratified in 1997, postponing national elections indefinitely, arresting critics by the thousands, shutting down the press, and banning independent political parties and nongovernmental organizations, the country's trajectory follows a familiar path toward highly coercive one-man rule. Nevertheless, the legacy of this freedom struggle lives on, and opponents are mobilizing a grassroots democracy movement to challenge the increasingly beleaguered dictatorship.

This 45-minute talk traces this arc through Connell’s experiences with the independence movement from the 1970s to the present and sketches out what he thinks is needed to recapture the democratic impetus with which it began.

Why Africa Matters

For most Americans, Africa has long been the forgotten continent—a footnote in our world history classes and a focus of attention in the media only when there’s a political crisis or a human disaster.

But Africa emerged as a critical focus of U.S. foreign policy under the Bush administration due in part to its extensive its natural resources, including oil, and its vulnerability to the spread of global terrorism. This has increased under the Obama administration, whose top appointees reflect an appreciation of the breadth, depth and diversity of this magnificent continent, as well as its enhanced strategic importance.

Simmons College professor Dan Connell will talk about the variety and complexity of Africa, with its 50-plus countries and nearly 1 billion people and what it means to us. He will also describe his own experiences there as a war correspondent, aid worker, and human rights researcher in Eritrea, Sudan, and South Africa.

Also: Rethinking Revolution: New Strategies for Democracy & Social Justice—a lecture mixing anecdotes and analysis from his book of the same title.

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Connell has given lectures, readings, and narrative slide shows at more than 150 public forums in the U.S., Europe, Africa and the Middle East, including:

  • Pretoria University, Pretoria, South Africa
  • University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg,S.A.
  • University of Cape Town, Cape Town, S.A.
  • University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Ill.
  • JFK School of Government, Cambridge, Mass.
  • Cornell U., Ithaca, N.Y.
  • African Studies Association, Boston, Mass.; New Orleans, La.; Chicago, Ill.
  • Center for Strategic & International Studies, Washington, D.C.
  • World Affairs Council, Salem, Mass.
  • Rutgers University, New Brunswick, N.J.
  • Clark University, Worchester, Mass.
  • University of San Diego, San Diego, Calif.
  • World Affairs Council, Savannah, Ga.
  • Georgia Tech, Atlanta, Ga.
  • University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Mass.
  • Brandeis University, Waltham, Mass.
See CV for details.