Interest in African Studies rises

Author: Zoey L. Burrows

Twenty students and seven professors congregated Tuesday afternoon in the Robert A. Jones '59 house for the second formal African Studies meeting in the past several years. History Professor and African Studies Director Jacob Tropp said the meeting was long overdue in light of the growing general interest and the boom in students pursuing majors and minors in African Studies.

Director of International Studies Ian Barrow pointed out, "It is a relatively new major and reflects the growing number of faculty who teach on or about Africa and the increasing number of students who are interested in studying about Africa."

While there are a total of six alumni with majors in African Studies, there are also currently 12 interested or declared African Studies majors on campus. "Something's going on. It's like an alien invasion or something," Tropp joked.

African Studies minor Marisa Lipsey '06 described her interest in the field of study, saying that, "Africa is such a diverse and dynamic place, and it is often neglected in our studies throughout American educational institutions."

Tropp explained that in the past there has been "confusion and disconnect" among African Studies students and professors, mainly stemming from the lack of a forum on campus. Thus the meeting was geared towards clarifying options for studying African Studies on campus as well as simply putting names and faces together so that they can work as a more cohesive whole.

On campus there are many options for students interested in pursing this field of study. These range from taking formal courses on Africa to courses with components on Africa where a student may choose to focus on Africa via a final project. Recently, African-related senior theses supervised through various departments have become a popular option in the program as well. Finally, of course, students can choose to minor or major in African Studies, with the major being a formal discipline in the International Studies department.

Because African Studies is part of the International Studies program, students who want to be majors must submit a proposal to the International Studies department for approval.

African Studies professors boasted that so far they have a 100 percent proposal acceptance rate, encouraging interested students that the proposal is required not as an application but rather as a way to ensure that students have designed a "cohesive major that makes sense."

Students majoring in African Studies must fulfill all of the International Studies requirements and must study in Africa for at least a semester. Depending on whether they go to an Anglophone or a Francophone part of Africa, they must learn Kiswahili, an African language spoken in multiple countries, or French and an indigenous language. Recently declared African Studies major with a focus on religion, Jamie Zug '08, said that she is very excited about it, but that "learning Swahili will be the challenge."