Influenced by Jean-Jacques Rousseau and her academia background, she wrote about citizenship, civil society, democracy, development, ethnicity, gender, globalisation, human rights, identity, nationality and the state in an African and Senegalese context by using a political insight.
[1] Diaw finished her studying with a postgraduate diploma and dissertation on the theory of conflicts of the political thinking of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, which earned her the Très Bien distinction from the jury by a unanimous decision.
[1] After graduation, Diaw returned to Senegal and joined the Cheikh Anta Diop University's (UCAD) Department of Philosophy, Faculty of Arts and Humanities.
[1] Two years later, she was appointed one of the first laureates of the first edition of the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) on Democratic Governance,[4] a Pan-African academic research organisation,[2] publishing the monograph Démocratie et logiques identitaires en Afrique on behalf of the institute,[3] In 1994, Diaw wrote L'invention de la politique en Afrique and Repenser la société civile in 1998.
She was made director of the UCAD's director of Information, Cultural and Sports Activities in 1996, was selected as fellow at the Bellagio Study and Conference Center of the Rockfeller Foundation in Italy in 2001, was chair of the National UNESCO Sub-Commission on Social Sciences and Humanities,[1] and vice-chair of the West African Research Association in 2002 and was chair of the Commission on Encounters and Exchanges of the Dakar Biennale in 2004, 2006 and 2008,[1] making her responsible for exchanges and meetings of the commission.
[4] She was also director of cultural and scientific animation at the UCAD's rectorate,[3][6][7] and wrote articles from discussion learnt from African Feminist Forum, African Gender Institute, DAWN on Globalization, Friedrich Ebert Foundation Institute for Democratic Alternatives in South Africa, Rendez-vous de l'histoire de Blois and Women Living Under Muslim Laws.
[3][4] According to Dior Konaté, who wrote Diaw's entry in the Dictionary of African Biography, Rousseau's political thoughts and her background in academia influenced her to employ their theoretical insights to comment on Senegalese current affairs such as citizenship, civil society, democracy, development, ethnicity, gender, globalisation, human rights, identity, nationality and the state in an African and Senegalese context.