N'Dri T. Assié-Lumumba is a Professor of African and Diaspora education, comparative and international education, social institutions, African social history, and the study of gender in the Africana Studies and Research Center at Cornell University. She has been a Fellow of the World Academy of Art and Science since 2006. In 1996—97 she served as Director of the Cornell Program on Gender and Global Change (GGC). She is also a member of four other Cornell graduate fields: Education; International Development; International Agriculture and Rural Development; and the Cornell Institute of Public Affairs (CIPA).

Research Interests: Higher education; education as a system; information and communication technologies; educational innovations; human resource development; education finance; equality of educational opportunity; gender; family and social institutions; African history with a focus on the European expansion and colonial period.
Tel: (607) 255-7839, Room 210 • na12@cornell.edu

Professor Assié-Lumumba earned her Ph. D. in Comparative Education (Economics and Sociology of Education) from the University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois (U.S.A.) in 1982, two Masters and two undergraduate degrees in Sociology and History, respectively, from Université Lyon II, Lyon (France) between 1971/72 and 1974/75. She studied also at Université d’Abidjan, Abidjan (Côte d’Ivoire) and Université Laval, Québec, (Canada). She is Chercheur Associé at Centre de Recherches Architecturales et Urbaines (CRAU) at Université de Cocody, Abidjan (Côte d’Ivoire), and Research Affiliate of the Institute for Higher Education Law and Governance of the University of Houston, Houston (Texas, U.S.A.). She is co-founder and Associate Director in charge of the gender unit of the Pan-African Studies and Research Center in International Relations and Education for Development (CEPARRED), Abidjan (Côte d’Ivoire). In 2003, she was a Visiting Professor in the Center for the Study of International Cooperation in Education (CICE) at Hiroshima University, Hiroshima (Japan).

Professor Assié-Lumumba came to Cornell in 1991 as a Fulbright Senior Research Fellow and Ford Foundation/Africana Studies Fellow. Prior to coming to Cornell she was a Resident Fellow in the International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP) in Paris (France) where she conducted research and co-taught courses in methodology, sociology, and economics for educational planners; she has held a teaching position and served as administrative/academic director in the Lomé (Togo) CIRSSED doctoral program in education that trained researchers and administrators in education for francophone countries; she held also research and teaching positions in other institutions including the planning unit of the Ministry of National Education of Mali in Bamako (Mali), Bard College and Vassar College (New York, U.S.A.), the Institute for Higher Education Law and Governance at the University of Houston (Texas, U.S.A.), and CRAU at Université d’Abidjan.

Professor Assié-Lumumba is the author and editor of several books: Women and Higher Education in Africa: Reconceptualizing Gender-Based Human Capabilities and Upgrading Human Rights to Knowledge (Abidjan: CEPARRED 2007) which is being translated for publication in French, Spanish, Arabic, and Chinese; Higher Education in Africa: Crises, Reforms, and Transformation (Dakar: Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa, CODESRIA 2006); Cyberspace, Distance Learning, and Higher Education in Developing Countries: Old and Emergent Issues of Access, Pedagogy and Knowledge Production (Leiden and Boston: Brill 2004);  and Les Africaines dans la Politique: Femmes Baoulé de Côte d’Ivoire (Paris: Harmattan 1996); she is co-editor of African Voices in Education (Cape Town, South Africa: Juta Publishers 2000); and co-author of HARUBA: Modernisation de l'Habitat Rural en Côte d'Ivoire (Québec: Editeur Officiel du Québec 1978).

Her peer-reviewed published monographs include: Empowerment of Women in Higher Education in Africa: The Role and Mission of Research, Forum on Higher Education, Research and Knowledge of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural organization (UNESCO), UNESCO Forum Occasional Paper Series No. 11, 2007; Recent Higher Education Innovations in Sub-Saharan Africa: Universities in Francophone Countries, ADEA (Association for the Development of Education in Africa) and AAU (Association of African Universities), Paris and Accra (2003); Assessment of Gender Mainstreaming in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Review of UNDP Supported Activities, in charge of two chapters: "Gender Mainstreaming and Empowerment" and "Governance and Gender Mainstreaming," New York, New York, 2000, United Nations, Division for the Advancement of Women, for the Africa Bureau of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA); Demand, Access and Equity Issues in African Higher Education: Past Policies, Current Practices and Readiness for the 21st Century, also published in French, both versions published by the Association of African Universities, Accra, Ghana, 1995; Higher Education in Francophone Africa: Assessment of the Traditional Universities and Alternatives for Development, initially published in French as L'enseignement supérieur en Afrique francophone: Evaluation du potentiel des universités classiques et des alternatives pour le développement, sponsored by DAE (Donors to African Education) and published by the World Bank (Washington, D.C. 1993).

She has published numerous articles in referred journals including Journal of Higher Education in Africa, African and Asian Studies, Journal of International Cooperation in Education, Journal of Comparative Education and International Relations in Africa, International Journal of Comparative Sociology, South African Journal of Higher Education, Journal of Education Finance, Journal of Educational Planning and Administration, Problématiques et méthodologies du développement de l’éducation. Her articles have also appeared as book chapters in African Families at the Turn of the 21st Century; African Women and Globalization: Dawn of the 21st Century; African(a) Philosophy of Education: Reconstructions and Deconstructions; Visions of Gender Theories and Social Development in Africa: Harnessing Knowledge of Social Justice and Equality; Women in the Third World: an Encyclopedia of Contemporary Issues; Engendering African Social Sciences; Education in the Urban Areas: Cross-National Dimensions; International Encyclopedia of Education; L’Égalité devant soi: sexes, rapports sociaux et développement; Educational Reform in International Context: Ideology, Economy and the State.

Her book manuscripts in progress include: African Renaissance, Education, and Social Transformation: Endogenous Foundation, Historical Contingencies, and Purposeful Fusion for Africa's Progress; Technological Transfer and Democratization of Education in Africa: Prospective Reflections on the Educational Television in Côte d'Ivoire (1971-1981); Africana Women and Power: from Centrality to Marginality and a Forward-Looking Perspective. She also has several forthcoming journal articles and book chapters.

Professor Assié-Lumumba is the editor or member of editorial committees of several professional prestigious journals including Comparative Education Review, Journal of Higher Education in Africa, African Sociological Review, Journal of Comparative Education and International Relations in Africa, Journal of African and Asian Studies, and Africa Education Review.

Her article "Educational and Economic Reforms, Gender Equity, and Access to Schooling in Africa" that was published in the International Journal of Comparative Sociology, received the 2001 Joyce Cain Award for Distinguished Research on African Descendants offered by the Comparative and International Education Society. In 2001, 2004, and 2006, she received special recognition on the International Women's Day by the International Students and Scholars Office and the Women's Resource Center at Cornell University and she was a nominee of 2003 International Woman of the Year Award by the International Biographical Centre, Cambridge, England.

She has been a member of the Expert Committee of the Agricultural Innovation in Africa (AIA) Project of the Belfer Center in the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University since 2009, a member of the Scientific Committee of the Council for Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODSRA) since 2009, a member of the Board of Directors of Comparative and International Education Society (CIES) since 2009, Chair of the Executive Board of the African Women’s Millennium Initiative on Poverty and Human Rights (AWOMI) since 2008 (member since 2005), and a member of the Council of Scholars of the Africa Society of the National Summit on Africa since 2008.

She has served as a member of the United Nations Committee on Development Policy (CDP) from 2001 to 2006, the Higher Education Scientific Committee for the Forum on Higher Education, Research and Knowledge of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) from 2004 to 2009.. She has served as a senior evaluator, adviser, policy analyst, and a resource person for projects and programs on African development and higher education for many institutions including various divisions of UNESCO, the United Nations Division for Social Policy and Development, the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), UNDP Africa bureau in New York City and country offices in Africa, UNICEF, UNIFEM, the South African National Research Foundation, the International Development Research Center (IDRC), the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), Africa America Institute, and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). She has worked with and is a member of many African professional associations and groups including the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA), the Association of African Women for Research and Development (AAWORD), the Forum for African Women Educationalists (FAWE), African Women’s Millennium Initiative on Poverty and Human Rights (AWOMI), the Association for the Development of Education in Africa (ADEA-formerly Donors to African Education-DAE), Association of African Universities (AAU), the South African Centre for Education Policy Development, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Foundation Partnership for African Higher Education (initially composed of the Carnegie Corporation and Ford, Rockefeller and MacArthur Foundations). She served as a regional adviser on the Advancement of Women in Africa to the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) in Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) in preparation for the Fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing (China) in 1995. She has designed and/or participated as a resource person in numerous workshops and training programs for professionals in Africa including: "Gender and Research Methodology" in the Youth Leadership program of AAWORD in Dakar (Senegal); "Gender and Quantitative Research Method in Economic Analysis," joint workshop organized by the North-South Institute, Ottawa (Canada)/GERA (Gender and Economic Reform) and the African Development Bank in Abidjan (Côte d’Ivoire); "African Perspective on Gender in Research" Gender Institute of CODESRIA, Dakar (Senegal); the Rockefeller Foundation sponsored "African Development Dissertation Workshops" African Ph. D. students, 1996-1998, Université du Québec à Montréal, Montréal (Canada); "Achieving Gender Equality in Families: the Role of Males (the Transition between the Family and the Formal School Setting)," UNICEF, Kingston (Jamaica); "Gender, Methodology and Educational Research," AAWORD, Arusha (Tanzania); "Comprehensive Education Analysis," UNICEF, Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso); "Practical Training for Educational Planners and Decision-Makers" in collaboration with the University of Florida in Tallahassee, Florida, (Lomé, Togo); "Interpersonal Communication and Development" (University of Chicago—Community and Family Study Center).

Professor Assié-Lumumba has worked in, and traveled to, many countries in North and South America, the Caribbean, Asia and Europe and throughout the African continent where she is familiar with African social contexts and is involved with institutional building and human resource development. Fluent in several languages, she has adapted herself to every type of circumstance and enjoyed working directly with people in a great variety of social settings.

BACK TO FACULTY