The 2025 Betty Bowe Castor '63 Annual Lecture

On behalf of the Operation Uganda Renewed planning committee at Rowan University, we would like to invite you to our second annual Betty Bowe Castor '63 Lecture and Banquet on Saturday, October 11th. This event celebrates the African Diaspora in the Delaware Valley and supports our mission of creating new connections with Africa. Operation Uganda Renewed is a special cause rooted in Rowan University’s history, dating back to 1962 when students at Glassboro State created Operation Uganda to support education and literacy in the newly formed nation. This year’s event will focus on the transformative impact the original Operation Uganda had on the lives of faculty and students at Glassboro State College and now Rowan University. As was the case in 1962, Uganda and Africa as a whole remain extremely rich in culture and importance and too little understood. Through Operation Uganda Renewed, we hope to educate many in the Rowan community today and help them appreciate these influences!   The committee is excited to support Denis once again this year.  This year's featured keynote speaker is Dr. Isaac Kalumbu. A noted ethnomusicologist with a doctorate from Indiana University, Dr. Kalumbu is a Grammy-nominated singer who is currently Outreach Coordinator and Assistant Director of the African Studies Center at Michigan State University. 

As was the case for the 2024 lecture, funds raised will support the educational journey of an international student, Denis Abaine.  Last year's lecture took place on October 5th in the Chamberlain Student Center.  The audience of alumni, students, and staff celebrated six of the original participants in Operation Uganda and helped raise funds for Operation Uganda Renewed.  Photographed above, the keynote speaker was Middlebury College's Damascus Kafumbe an ethnomusicologist, teacher, performer, composer, producer, filmmaker, and instrument technician.