Course Information
AFSP 2205 + 2207
3+1 Credit
Eligibility:
Sophomores, Juniors, Seniors
The course and trip have no prerequisites, but background in African studies is a plus. We are seeking students with serious interest in Africa, prepared to do demanding study and fieldwork in Ghana during Spring Break.
Dates:
March 1, 2025 to March 9, 2025
Description:
What is Africa to you? How should Africa be written? How should Africa not be written? These fundamental questions are among other crucial questions informing the direction of this class, where the world’s second largest continent, Africa — humankind’s cradle — will be at the center of our discussions. We will contend with the historical representations of Africa, its peoples, societies and cultures, and what it means to imagine Africa in the contemporary moment. In doing so, we will not just leave at the representation of Africa as a geographic tragedy but as a complex space that has long teemed with a “human vibrancy” that enabled the peopling of the world.
We will conduct a field visit to Ghana to familiarize ourselves with the sociocultural and political economic environments of the country. It is hoped that the visit will allow students to use Ghana as a pinhole through which to fathom the myriad afterlives of slavery and colonization in postcolonial Ghana. Specifically, the visit will offer students the opportunity to engage with the sights, smells, sounds, and tastes of Ghana through the experiences of Ghanaians themselves. Primarily, we are interested in affording students the chance to understand how Ghanaians/Africans imagine and interact with the complex sociocultural environments resulting from the historical legacies of slavery and colonization. It is hoped that these engagements will serve as gateways for students to not only study Ghana but to also learn from Ghanaians writ large. This taste of Ghana would offer them a renewed critical understanding of the African continent.
Professor Information
Kwame Edwin Otu is an Associate Professor in the African Studies Program at the Edmund Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. Otu is a cultural anthropologist with interests ranging from the politics of sexual, environmental, and technological citizenships, public health, to their intersections with shifting racial formations in neocolonial and neoliberal Africa and the African Diaspora.
Itinerary Highlights
Black Star Square; W. E. B. Du Bois Center; Kwame Nkrumah Mausoleum; Nkyinkyim Contemporary Museum; Shai Hills Reserve; Cape Coast; Kakum National Park; Elmina Castle; Java Museum
Travel Details
The Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service (SFS) will cover the costs of travel and accommodation including airfare, lodging (double occupancy hotel), transportation for the company visits, some meals, site visit entry fees, and tips for all undergraduate students accepted to this C-Lab.
Students are responsible for covering tuition and fees, books/materials for the classes, any related visa costs requirements, any immunizations, Covid-19 or other testing (if required), GU international health insurance ($65), some miscellaneous meals, laundry, phone and data charges, transportation to/from the airport to campus, and any out-of-pocket personal expenses. We estimate a cost of $100-300.
Visas, if required, cost $25-$125 on average for application and processing fees. It is students’ responsibility to research requirements and secure visas if needed. Please reference relevant visa information here. Travel information will be covered further in info sessions for accepted students.
If you do not have a valid passport or a passport that will be unexpired for 6 months following return from the program, please apply for a passport now.