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WORD FROM THE DIRECTOR

By John Janzen, Professor of Anthropology and Director, ASRC

Writing from the vantage point of New Year, 2003, is a good time to take stock of where we are in African Studies at the University of Kansas. We had a great fall semester, with record enrollments in a range of courses across the University, a successful seminar on "New Perspectives in African History" with stimulating speakers, and an enriching brown bag luncheon series. We look forward to a promising spring program, with continuing courses, a seminar series closing with a mini-conference on "Shari'a Law and Women in African Islamic Societies," and a conference on "Africa and Latin America: Histories, Continuities, Identities" Yet in this editorial I want to concentrate on the longer- range view (analogous to driving ahead at 60 mph while occasionally glancing in the rear view mirror).

Our recently submitted National Resource Center proposal to the U.S. Department of Education afforded us the opportunity to articulate our goals and priorities, while portraying recent accomplishments in African Studies at KU. First, the accomplishments, along the lines of our general program emphases.

  • Training undergraduates in African Studies, to achieve increased awareness and knowledge of Africa among college-trained Americans; Indicators are * African Studies UG enrollment in 2001-2 (2,186) is 217% of 1995-6 (1,009); * 704 UGs in Africa courses fall 2002 for non-western requirement.

  • Training Africa specialists in graduate and professional programs, to increase Africa specialists prepared for academia, government, and the professions; Indicators: * 9 M.A.s, 10 PhDs, awarded 1998-2002; * 45 graduate students in African studies courses, 2001-2, 50 % increase since 1995.

  • Placement of Graduates, to place graduates in Africa-related positions regionally, nationally, and internationally; Indicators: 2000-2 baccalaureate grads, at least 15 are working in the private sector, 12 are in graduate study, four with NGOs abroad, others are in federal government, the military, and higher education; of the 2000-2 Ph.Ds we know about, four are in higher education, one is in government service.

  • Training Undergraduate and Graduate Students in African languages, to increase African language expertise in America. Firsts and noteworthy accomplishments at KU are: 57 language students, fall 2002; first KU SCALI participant, 2001; launching of Morocco Arabic Summer Institute, 2002; Kenya summer for 2 students in advanced KiSwahili, 2002.

  • New Course Development, to create a coherent curriculum uniquely suited to KU; "Introduction to Africa" AAAS 103, was launched as foundation course, spring 2002; we began realignment of disciplinary introductions, and began to articulate 2nd tier & graduate courses around thematic emphases.

  • Faculty & Student Exchanges, Study Abroad Programs, to facilitate learning and acquaintance with different lifestyles and cultures in overseas settings: First students exchanged with U. Gaston-Berger, Senegal; * Summer Institute for Arabic in Morocco;* 20 UG students in Africa 2001-2; * 10 medical students intern in Africa; 5 African medical students to KC in 2001-2.

  • African Studies Seminars, to provides intellectual stimulation to faculty /students; * 10 sessions of 2001-2 Seminar attracts 100 faculty and 419 students.

  • Outreach Conferences, to provide forum for Africanists to meet and discuss interests and issues, to build networks for collaboration:* MAAAS in 8th year as regional network and annual event; * "Democratization," "Post-Cold War," "Great Plains Library" conferences 2001-2.

  • Outreach events, speakers, performers: K-12 pupils in NE Kansas exposed to African performers and issues* 195 teachers, 1331 students, and the general public, reached in 2001-2 programs.

  • Teacher Summer Institute & in-service training, to integrate Africa into K-12 curriculum and teacher training: 20 persons attend 2 week Summer Institute 2002 on "Islam in Africa."

  • Support of library acquisitions, to enhance growing Great Plains collection of Africana:* 2,500 volumes & videos acquired 2000-2002 at KU.

The recent proposal also spells out the objectives and priorities that will move us toward our mission of improving and promoting African Studies at KU, in our region, throughout the U.S., and globally. Each of these priorities will require careful work by many individuals and groups of us working together as the ASRC staff, instructors, and faculty of the language program, the Executive Committee, and the African Studies Council. The objectives and priorities are:

  • To further strengthen the undergraduate and graduate curriculum by enhancing second tier undergraduate and graduate curriculum through course clusters in areas of curricular strength; to create a graduate African Studies certificate.

  • To continue to improve the quality and depth of African language instruction, and increase enrollment; priorities are to bring the Kiswahili teaching position to one. FTE with KU funding; ACTFL oral proficiency testing through sponsored accreditation of one faculty member; supporting language teaching beyond the undergraduate requirement of 4 semesters to accommodate senior undergraduate and graduate students.

  • To offer opportunities for faculty and students in cross-cultural experiences in African universities in all regions of our language concentrations; to maintain our existing exchanges with African universities; to formalize a collaborative relationship with a Swahili-speaking East African institution, and to establish a Hausa exchange/linkage.

  • To identify needs in the library collections; priority areas are Arabic language and culture, selected areas of graduate study, and recommendations of the April 2002 library conference.

  • To continue the Teacher Summer Institute and expand outreach through more varied formats to educators and other publics; priorities are to collaborate with colleagues and institutions in MAAAS; to experiment with other formats.

  • To hold thematic seminars and to sponsor related research and outreach conferences within the focus and scope of our programmatic statement, by hosting at least one conference per year on topics of KU faculty strength and interest; to identify and acquire funds for an African migration project; thereby adding a research dimension to MAAAS sponsorship.

  • To focus course and outreach initiatives on societies of Islamic prevalence in the regions of our language concentrations. We will articulate a course cluster around the diversity and interactions of African religions; study aspects of Islam such as law; emphasize language as a vehicle of culture and religion; develop related library resources; and offer special outreach programs on Islamic Africa

The work of Spring, 2003 and beyond will be to build on our strong foundations and make these goals and priorities become realities. This will require that we become vigilant yet visionary in a world that holds particular pitfalls for Americans, who are more than ever challenged to be sensitive to the peoples and cultures of the rest of the world, and to learn about them, and from them.

John M Janzen
January 2, 2003