Professors N'Dri Assie-Lumumba and Tukumbi Lumumba-Kasongo have each received the 2010 Distinguished Africanist Award from the New York State African Studies Association (NYASA). The awards were given March 27 at NYASA's annual conference, held at Binghamton University. The NYASA Executive Board gives the award to academics for outstanding contributions to the field of Africana studies in New York.

Assie-Lumumba is a professor in the Africana Studies and Research Center and a member of the graduate fields of education, international development, international agriculture and rural development, and the Cornell Institute for Public Affairs. She has edited several professional journals and has published extensively, with expertise in higher, comparative and international education, gender/women's studies, and equity. Her ongoing research projects include "Generations of African Intellectuals" and development of African universities, supported in part by the Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies and the Cornell Institute for the Social Sciences.

Lumumba-Kasongo is a visiting scholar in the Department of City and Regional Planning, and a professor of political science and chair of the Department of International Studies at Wells College. He is editor-in-chief of African and Asian Studies and co-editor of the African Journal of International Affairs/Revue Africaine des Relations Internationales. The author of several volumes on African politics, his forthcoming book is "Japan and Africa Relations."