MSU professors awarded honorary doctorate degrees by Senegalese university
Two MSU professors, Professor David Robinson and Mohamed Faisal, recently were awarded honorary doctorates in a special ceremony on occasion of the 50th anniversary of the founding of this leading francophone university in Africa, the University Cheikh Anta Diop (UCAD) in Dakar, Senegal. UCAD presented these honorary doctorates, their first such awards in five years, only to the two MSU faculty. Both were pronounced docteurs honoris causa at UCAD on November 15.
David Robinson is University Distinguished Professor of History and African Studies. Robinson has spent the past 35 years researching, writing, and teaching about the history of African Muslim societies in Senegal, Mali, and Mauritania. His books have been reprinted in France and honored in French and other African research communities. He has been President of the U.S. African Studies Association and was one of the founders of the West African Research Association (WARA) based in Dakar.
Mohamed Faisal is a Professor of Fisheries and Wildlife and of Veterinary Medicine. Faisal has been working with researchers at University Cheikh to establish a regional aquatic animal health laboratory to support local fishery and related export-import; to train Senegalese graduate students in this area; and to update UCAD’s curriculum in cell sciences, microbiology, and disease ecology.
For the past six years, Faisal and Robinson, with many faculty in the Colleges of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Arts and Letters, and Social Science, have been active in building a deepened strategic partnership between UCAD and MSU. Both institutions are working together in the fields of bioeconomy, water quality, aquatic animal medicine, remote-sensing, natural products, curricular reform, intellectual property, special education, and other areas. The MSU African Studies faculty have selected the linkage with UCAD as one of six key strategic foci for MSU to build deeper cooperation in Africa.
