Mahmoud Hamad takes part in drafting of Libyan constitution

Mahmoud Hamad, associate professor of political science, was selected by the United Nations to co-lead a mediation team that solved disputes within the Libyan Constitutional Drafting Assembly, which on April 20 announced they have approved a draft of Libya’s constitution.

Hamad stayed in Salalah, Oman, from March 15 to March 27 to work with the group. The mediation team included a former Jordanian prime minister and former ministers; justices; and members of parliament from Egypt, Lebanon, Morocco, Tunisia, and Oman. The consultative meeting was held under the auspices of the United Nations Special Representative of the Secretary-General Martin Kobler, the African Union Envoy to Libya Jakaya Kikwete (former president of Tanzania from 2005 to 2015), and the Omani Minister of Foreign Affairs Yusuf bin Alawi bin Abdullah. Read more in the Drake Newsroom.

Perrine’s No Confession, No Mass honored

The 28th annual Publishing Triangle Awards were presented on April 21 at a gala ceremony. Jennifer Perrine, associate professor of English and director of women’s studies at Drake, received the Audre Lorde Award for Lesbian Poetry for her work, No Confession, No Mass.

The Publishing Triangle, the association of lesbians and gay men in publishing, began honoring a LGBT writer for his or her body of work a few months after the organization was founded in 1988, and has now partnered with the Ferro-Grumley Literary Awards to present an impressive array of awards each spring. The Publishing Triangle established its poetry awards in 2001. Joseph O. Legaspi, a judge this year, and Kamilah Aisha Moon, a past finalist for the Audre Lorde Award, presented these awards, which carry a prize of $500 apiece.