The IAD seminar series examines a broad range of critical concerns in contemporary Africa including food production, human resource development, migration, urbanization, environmental resource management, economic growth, and policy guidance. The weekly presentations are made by invited specialists.

Rebecca Upton, Professor of Global Public and Environmental Health, Africana and Latin American Studies at Colgate University, is a medical anthropologist and global health scholar with research focused in southern Africa on issues of gender, migration, reproductive health and the implications of the HIV/AIDS epidemic.