Alcinda Honwana appointed to Prince Claus Chair 2007-2008

June 2007
On the recommendation of the Curatorium of the Prince Claus Chair in Development and Equity, the Institute of Social Studies has appointed Professor Alcinda Honwana to the Prince Claus Chair in Development and Equity for the period 2007-2008.

Established by Utrecht University and the Institute of Social Studies, the Prince Claus Chair is a rotating chair in the field of development cooperation. Professor Honwana will deliver her inaugural lecture on 1 April 2008 at the Institute of Social Studies.

Born in Mozambique, Professor Honwana is an authority on child soldiers in Africa and on the predicament of young Africans in the context of ongoing globalisation processes in post-colonial Africa. She has been appointed to the Prince Claus Chair because she combines an excellent academic profile with a powerful and meaningful policy engagement in the field of conflict and conflict resolution in Africa. In addition, she has held positions of high responsibility in international organisations with specialist mandates in the relevant substantive field.
Professor Honwana has been Director of the International Development Centre of the Open University in England since December 2005. Before joining the Open University, she worked for the Social Science Research Council in New York, where she directed the Children and Armed Conflict Program and the Africa Program. She also worked as a United Nations Programme Officer in the Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict in New York. From 2001 to 2005, Professor Honwana was Coordinator of the International Research Network on Children and Armed Conflict.
 
The Curatorium of the Prince Claus Chair is chaired by Princess Máxima. The Chair, which is held on an annual, rotating basis by outstanding young graduates from Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean or the Pacific, alternates between Utrecht University and the Institute of Social Studies. The aim of the Chair is to advance teaching and research in the field of development cooperation, in line with the views and ideas of Prince Claus. Previous holders were Professor Nasira Jabeen (Pakistan), Professor Rema Hammami (Palestine), Professor Gaspar Rivera Salgado (Mexico), Professor Mansoob Murshed (Bangladesh) and Professor Amina Mama (Nigeria/South Africa).
 
For more information about the appointment of Alcinda Honwana, please contact Femke van der Vliet at ISS (tel.: +31 (0)70 426 0472,  e-mail: vdvliet@iss.nl).

For more information about the Prince Claus Chair, please contact Joop Kessels at Utrecht University (tel.: +31 (0)30 253 4477/+31 (0)6 5155 8107, e-mail: j.kessels@usp.uu.nl).