Africa Table - Survival Strategies of Somalis in the Silicon Valley

Join the Center for African Studies for our weekly lunchtime lecture series.

Speaker: Ruth P. Wilson, Professor and Chair, Department of African American Studies, San Jose State University

LECTURE:

Dr. Wilson will discuss some of the struggles Somali immigrants face and the strategies they use to maintain their social cohesiveness in the Silicon Valley. In this presentation, she explores the intersection of race, ethnicity, religion, and gender, among the Somali immigrants, a group which since 1995 has comprised the largest number of East African refugees entering California. She describes how they face challenges of historic proportions and discuss how they negotiate success and failure in community building and social integration in the Silicon Valley.

BIO:

Ruth P. Wilson is Professor and Chair of African-American Studies at San Jose State University. She graduated with honors from Oakes College (1975) at the University of California in Santa Cruz and received her M.A. and Ph.D. in Social Anthropology from Stanford University. Her specialty in medical anthropology.

Prior to Dr. Wilson’s arrival at San Jose State University, she taught undergraduate and graduate students at Southern Methodist University (1994-2000), Rutgers University, (1985-88), and medical students at the Sophie Davis School of Medicine of the City University of New York (1988). A six-year appointment (1988-94) at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia accentuated her academic career. In that capacity she provided technical assistance to CDC’s national public health programs, the United States Agency for International Development, the World Health Organization, and UNICEF. As a consultant, Dr. Wilson provides training, program evaluation and assessments to local, national and international non-profit organizations.

During the past 10 years Dr. Wilson has taught African and African American Studies at San Jose State University.  Her students develop a wealth of knowledge of the contribution and impact of  Africans and African Americans in American and international cultures.