Dr. Fredrick O. Wanyama, a Senior Lecturer from Maseno, Kenya, is a Fulbright Scholar-in-Residence this semester at Arcadia University.

A Senior Lecturer and Director of the School of Development and Strategic Studies at Maseno University in Maseno, Kenya, Wanyama comes to Arcadia with extensive knowledge on how politics affect community-based organizations, including educational institutions. He is using this experience to provide Arcadia students with firsthand information on Kenya and East Africa.

At Arcadia, Wanyama is teaching Capacity Building and Human Rights, in conjunction with the International Peace and Conflict Resolution master’s program, and Development in East Africa in collaboration with the History and International Studies undergraduate programs. While here, he also will conduct individual research and writing, guest lecture as part of Arcadia’s Visiting International Professor series, and experience American and Philadelphian culture.

Since arriving in Philadelphia in January, Wanyama says he’s enjoyed a few authentic cheese steaks, misses Kenya’s warm weather, and enjoys Arcadia’s small class sizes.

“I enjoy engaging in discussion with my students,” he says, noting that at Maseno University his classes contain 250 students, while at Arcadia he has nine in one class and 15 in another. “With a smaller class there’s more interaction and exchange between the professor and students. It’s nice to act as a guide and listen to students’ opinions.”

Wanyama holds a bachelor’s and master’s degree in government from the University of Nairobi in Kenya and a doctorate in political science from Maseno University. As an undergraduate student, he wanted to work in government, but he changed his mind in graduate school.

“It’s more exciting to read theories and ideas and see how they are applied,” he says of his decision to pursue a career in academia.

In addition to teaching, Wanyama has contributed many chapters to academic books and journals and co-edited Cooperating out of Poverty: The Renaissance of the African Cooperative Movement. He also is a Fellow of the Five College African Scholars Program in Amherst, Massachusetts and a Visiting Research Fellow at the Higher Institute for Labour Studies (HIVA) of Catholic University of Leuven (KUL), Belgium. He has served as a consultant for the United Nations Centre for Regional Development (UNCRD) and the International Labour Organization (ILO).