Rift Valley Institute

The Rift Valley Institute (RVI) is an independent research and educational association based in Kenya and the United Kingdom. In 2006, RVI established a U.S. office on the Bard College campus. The aim of the Institute, which has been working in East Africa since 2001, is to connect local knowledge with global information networks; disseminate information about the region; and address such issues as human rights, political economy, and environmental conservation through its action-oriented research initiatives. John Ryle, Legrand Ramsey Professor of Anthropology at the College, is cochair of the Institute.

RVI works with educational institutions in Kenya and Sudan, overseeing, among other projects, training courses on Sudan for aid workers, diplomats, peacekeepers, and researchers. It has also created the Sudan Open Archive, a free database of historical and contemporary documents about the region, with a linked guide to Internet resources. Bard students have the opportunity to assist with expanding the database, which is available online (www.sudanarchive.net) and in freestanding CD and DVD formats. The first phase of the archive involved digitizing several hundred reports on aid and development, from the start of Operation Lifeline Sudan in 1989 through the present. Reports on local peace processes are currently being added; ethnographic and historical literature and grammars and dictionaries of Sudanese languages are planned.

The Bard College office of RVI also organizes informational events on campus. Public lectures have covered topics such as China’s complicity in events in Darfur, contemporary slavery, and counterterrorism challenges facing the next U.S. administration.

Website: http://www.riftvalley.net/