Project Summary
Parfait's project consists in modeling the HuMetricsHSS values in his course “West Africa to West Philly” and thus provide a prototype to those interested in Africana and diaspora studies. The course brings scholarship to the public, while considering the public’s contribution to the creation and sharing of knowledge. It envisions to foster academic culture transformation and engage communities in a value-inflected way. “West Africa to West Philly” is a community learning course which not only brings together students and members of the West African immigrant community, but it also allows the participants to break free from the traditional boundaries of classroom for a co-learning experience. The approach creates opportunity to nurture social change and help to rethink and improve academic learning objectives.
Biography
An Assistant Teaching Professor in the Global Studies and Modern Languages department at Drexel University, Parfait teaches French language and culture, as well as Francophone African literature and cinema. He is also an affiliated faculty in the Africana studies program. Parfait’s work has an interdisciplinary focus, as his studies and professional experience denote. He received his Licence and his Maitrise degree in Law from the University of Bouaké, Côte d’Ivoire. He also received a Master’s degree in Conflict Resolution from the University of Cocody, Côte d’Ivoire, and a Master’s degree in French Literature from the Arizona State University. Before earning his PhD in French from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, Parfait previously worked as a journalist, covering conflicts in West Africa, and more specifically the civil war in Côte d’Ivoire. He also worked for the United Nations, advocating for peacebuilding and human rights.