Metadata
Title
N‘Dri Thérèse Assié-Lumumba
Category
general
UUID
28786f70b7a7485880fae3c4c72c397b
Source URL
https://africana.cornell.edu/ndri-therese-assie-lumumba
Parent URL
https://africana.cornell.edu/africana-studies-research-center-faculty-books
Crawl Time
2026-03-09T07:19:21+00:00
Rendered Raw Markdown

N‘Dri Thérèse Assié-Lumumba

Source: https://africana.cornell.edu/ndri-therese-assie-lumumba Parent: https://africana.cornell.edu/africana-studies-research-center-faculty-books

Professor

Overview

N’Dri Thérèse Assié-Lumumba is Professor of African and African Diaspora education, Comparative and International education, Social structures, African social history, and the study of Gender, in the Africana Studies and Research Center at Cornell University. She is a member of other Cornell graduate fields: Education, Global Development (International Development; International Agriculture and Rural Development) and the Cornell Institute of Public Affairs (CIPA). She is the immediate past Director of the Institute for African Development (IAD). Assié-Lumumba joined Cornell in 1991, both as a Fulbright Senior Research Fellow and Ford Foundation/Africana Studies Fellow. She also served as Director of the Cornell Program on Gender and Global Change (GGC) and Director of Graduate Studies (DGS) of Africana Studies.

She is Distinguished Visiting Professor at the University of Johannesburg (South Africa). She was President of the World Council of Comparative Education Societies (WCCES) from 2016 to 2024, the immediate past Chair of the Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC) of UNESCO’s Inter-governmental programme for the Management of Social Transformations (MOST). She is Founding President of Global Africa Comparative and International Education Society, and Former President of Comparative and International Education Society (CIES). She is also a Distinguished Visiting Professor in the Ali Mazrui Center for Higher Education Studies in the Faculty of Education at the University of Johannesburg (South Africa, 2016-present), and Visiting Professor at the Abidjan Business School-École de Commerce (ABSEC) at Université Félix Houphouët-Boigny in Abidjan (Côte d’Ivoire).

Assié-Lumumba is a recipient of numerous awards: Fellow of the World Academy of Art and Science (Lifetime); Joyce Cain Award for Distinguished Research on African descendants given by the Comparative and International Education Society in recognition to “an outstanding article that demonstrates academic rigor, originality, and excellence, and contributes to a better understanding of the experiences of African descendants”; Ali A. Mazrui Outstanding Publication/Book & Educational Activities Award and Distinguished Africanist Award, both offered by the New York State African(a) Studies Association (NYASA); Frank Scruggs Faculty Fellow at Cornell University; “Foreign Expert in Education and Development” Professorial Fellowship by the Japanese Ministry of Education; Fulbright Senior Research Fellow; Ford Foundation/Cornell Africana Studies Fellow; Resident Fellow of the International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP) of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO); Pi Lambda Theta Honors (National and International Honor and Professional Association in Education).

Her other past academic positions include: Extraordinary Professor in the Education Policy Studies Department at the Stellenbosch University in South Africa, a Carnegie Diasporan Fellow at the University of Ghana (Department of Sociology), Distinguished Visiting Professor at the American University in Cairo (Egypt), Visiting Professor at Hiroshima University (Japan) in the Center for the Study of International Cooperation in Education (CICE), Research Affiliate at the Institute for Higher Education Law and Governance of the University of Houston (Houston, Texas, USA), Chercheur Associé at Centre de Recherches Architecturales et Urbaines (CRAU) at Université Félix Houphouët-Boigny in Abidjan (Côte d’Ivoire), past Faculty member and Administrative Director in the Lomé CIRSSED Doctoral Program (Togo) for researchers and administrators in education for African francophone countries. She has been a policy analyst in the planning unit of the Ministry of National Education of Mali in Bamako (Mali), visiting assistant professor at Bard College and Vassar College (New York, USA).

She is a member of major professional associations of her fields in the world and has been active in many African think tanks and organizations including CODESRIA (Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa) and Association of African Women for Research and Development (AAWORD) both in Dakar (Senegal), Association for the Development of Education in Africa (ADEA) and its Education Research in Africa Award (ERAA) in Abidjan (Côte d’Ivoire), and the Youth Bridge Foundation (YBF) in Accra (Ghana). She is co-founder and Executive Director of the Pan-African Studies and Research Center in International Relations and Education for Development (CEPARRED), Abidjan (Côte d’Ivoire).

Academic Training

Assié-Lumumba earned her PhD in Comparative Education (Economics and Sociology of Education with Pi Lambda Theta Honors) from the University of Chicago (USA), beginning of PhD in Education at Université Laval in Québec (Canada), two Master’s and two BA (Licence) degrees in Sociology and History, respectively, from Université Lyon II (now Université Lumière) in Lyon (France), started her undergraduate multidisciplinary studies in History, Geography, and Applied Social sciences (common track for first-year students) at Université d’Abidjan (now Université Félix Houphouët-Boigny, in Côted’Ivoire).

Languages

English, French, Baoulé (Akan/Twi), Nouchi (Ivorian French): Fluent.

Spanish: Reading proficiency.

Portuguese: Basic reading skills.

Research Focus

Assié-Lumumba’s teaching and research interests include higher education; information and communication technologies; educational innovations; knowledge production; human resource development; education finance; equality of educational opportunity; gender and education; family and social institutions/structures; African history with a focus on the European expansion and the colonial and contemporary periods. Her ongoing research projects include:  generations of African intellectuals; Gender and Disciplinary Clusters in African Universities; Education and African Renaissance; ICT, Global Agencies and Democratization of Education in Africa; Higher Education, Migration and African Women in North America; Differing Patterns of Gender Imbalance in Higher Education in Africa and the African Diaspora; and Ubuntu Epistemology and Humanist Education on a Global Scale.

She has worked in, and traveled to, more than 50 countries in North and South America, the Caribbean, Asia and Europe and throughout the African continent where she is familiar with social contexts and is involved with institution building and social transformation. She has served as a senior advisor for numerous national and international development agencies, organizations including various units of the United Nations system, foundations, and youth organizations in Africa, Asia, Europe and North America.

She has worked in, and traveled to, more than 50 countries in North and South America, the Caribbean, Asia and Europe and throughout the African continent where she is familiar with social contexts and is involved with institution building and social transformation.

Publications

Books

Assié-Lumumba has published extensively in peer-reviewed journals and books on higher education, equity, gender, ICT for/and education and knowledge production and has been involved in policy analysis related to social transformation in many countries. Her authored, edited and co-edited books include: AKWABA AFRICA: African Renaissance in the 21st Century (African World Press (Africa World Press, Trenton, New Jersey, 2024);  Leveraging Social and Human Sciences for Crisis Response: Lessons from COVID-19 (English)/Les sciences sociales face à la pandémie de COVID19:  État des connaissances et propositions d’action (French), (UNESCO, Paris, 2024);  Editor and contributor to Almara'ah wa Altaa'leem Ala'ly fi Afrikya: Ea'adat Seyaghat Alqudrat Albashariya Almurtakeza a'la Alnoa' wa Ale'rteqa' Behequq Ale'nsan fi Altanmiyah. Cairo: Dar Noon, Vol. 1 2022 and Vol. 2 2023, Arabic translation (after Spanish and French) of Women and Higher Education in Africa: Reconceptualizing Gender-Based Human Capabilities and Upgrading Human Rights to Knowledge, Abidjan: CEPARRED, 2007; uBuntu and Comparative Education and International Education for Peace (Brill, Leiden and Boston 2022); Pan African Connections: Personal, Intellectual, Social (Africa World Press, Trenton, New Jersey, 2022). Education and the Development of Human Capital: Outcomes for Equity and Governance in Africa, (Palgrave Macmillan, 2020); Re-visioning Education in Africa: Ubuntu-Inspired Education for Humanity (Palgrave 2018), Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in Retrospect – Africa’s Development Beyond 2015 (London Springer 2015), Femmes et Enseignement Supérieure en Afrique: Réconceptualisation des capacités humaines fondées sur le genre et renforcement des droits humains à la connaissance, (Paris, Harmattan, 2013);  MUJERES EN ÁFRICA: Educación y Poder, El Acceso a los Estudios Superiores (Madrid, IEPALA Editorial, 2010): A Spanish edition of Women and Higher Education in Africa: Re-conceptualizing Gender-Based Human Capabilities and Upgrading Human Rights to Knowledge (Abidjan, CEPARRED, 2007); Translation of the same book in French has been published by l’Harmattan in Paris, and  in Arabic by Noon PTM Ltd in Cairo. Translation and publication in Chinese is in progress. Higher Education in Africa: Crises, Reforms, and Transformation (Dakar, CODESRIA, 2006). Cyberspace, Distance Learning, and Higher Education in Developing Countries: Old and Emergent Issues of Access, Pedagogy, and Knowledge Production (Netherlands and Boston, Brill, 2004). African Voices in African Education (Cape Town, Juta, 2000). Les Africaines dans la Politique: Femmes Baoulé de Côte d’Ivoire (Paris, L’Harmattan, 1996).

Assié-Lumumba is dynamically engaged in several ongoing projects in research, publications and policy towards social transformation.

Forthcoming Books (2025):

Book manuscripts and research projects in progress:

Peer-reviewed articles and book chapters:

Peer-reviewed journals advisory board service including as guest-editor of Special Issues:

Editor/Guest Editor

In the news (selected cases)

Einhorn Center announces new Engaged Faculty Fellows

Einaudi Center welcomes new and returning program directors

Assié-Lumumba leads Institute for African Development

Professor joins UNESCO forum on world after COVID-19

Africana hosts talk on climate change and its impact in Africa

Umbutu: Interconnected, Looking Forward

Educational trip brings students to UN to appreciate complex world

CIES conference leads to publications for Assié-Lumumba

In the news

Courses - Fall 2025

Courses - Spring 2026