Date:聽Wednesday, April 4, 2018
Time: 6:00pm Light Refreshments; 6:30pm Talk
Where: Conference Hall, Main Bldg, 91探花
Lecture: Between Caliphate and Colonizer: Palace Architecture in Early 20th-Century Western Cameroon
Speaker: Mark DeLancey
Speaker Biography
Mark Dike DeLancey is an Associate Professor of History of Art and Architecture and Director of the Islamic World Studies Program at DePaul University in Chicago, Illinois (USA).
He wrote an article within the Cameroon chapter of a soon-to-be-published book about African Architecture (DOM Editions), which is how I heard of him (I had written and compiled information for the chapter). As I got to know him via Facebook, I became curious about his background, as he appeared to have extensive ties to Africa in general and Cameroon in particular, beyond his academic specialty.
Dr. DeLancey was born in South Carolina, USA. His family moved to Cameroon when he was two years old, in 1975. Both mother and father were Professors of African Studies; as Dr. DeLancey recounts it: 鈥淭hey became interested in Africa as a result of being stationed in Buguma for 2 years with the Peace Corps. His mother鈥檚 doctoral fieldwork was on the relationship between women in the workforce and fertility. One and a half years later, the family moved to Nigeria, where his father taught at the University of Nsukka. Mark DeLancey received an Igbo middle name from the headmaster of the school where his parents taught, in Buguma, Sir B.M Okororie (who named his own child DeLancey Okororie), and became Mark Dike (Dike meaning 鈥渟trong or courageous person鈥�).
