SOCCIS co-sponsored a symposium honoring the late UCLA professor Boniface Obechere and the biennial meeting of the Liberian Studies Association, March 18-21, 1999, at CSU Northridge. The Obechere symposium was co-sponsored with the UCLA James S. Coleman African Studies Center, the CSUN Pan African Studies Department, and the Africana Studies Department at CSU Dominguez Hills. The primary activities of the symposium included the participation of nationally and internationally respected authors and scholars from Africa, Europe and the Middle East who made presentations on the African Diaspora. The Obechere symposium coincides with the meeting of the Liberian Studies Association that promotes interdisciplinary research on Liberia, an African state founded by freed slaves from the United States in 1848.
The Obechere symposium presentations involved scholars from institutions that are members of SOCCIS (universities in southern California) and CSU Northridge - Pan African Studies Department, administered the program.
The SOCCIS Film Library serves the international Studies faculty of consortium member institutions. Through the Film Library, instructors at member institution may borrow audiovisual learning materials without paying rental fees or handling charges. By pooling these resources, SOCCIS makes available a wide range of expensive educational materials at no cost to consortium members. Beginning 2000, SOCCIS is pleased to announce the addition of 28 videos to the Film Library, for a total of 347 videos and films in the SOCCIS collection. There are four new films on Africa being added to the collection, including "Facing the Truth with Bill Moyers", "Mandela: From Prison to President," Sudan: On the Slave Trail," and "Healers of Ghana." In addition, there are 24 videos on Brazil that are being added to the SOCCIS Latin American collection.