We are now a few days into the Fall semester. I’d like to extend a welcome to the new and returning members of the UF Center for African Studies community. I hope you have had a restful, healthy, and enjoyable summer and are ready for the semester ahead.
If you haven’t gotten a chance to meet us in person, please look below to get acquainted with the Center for African Studies Team and our roles. I am available, as always, via email, Zoom, appointment. The main office, 427 Grinter Hall, is open weekdays 8:30am-5pm. At the Center, over the summer we were busy with our 3rd annual Global Health Institute— a program for Florida high school students interested in pressing issues in global perspectives on public health. We also held the African Flagship Languages Initiative (AFLI) Summer Program, providing 54 students from institutions around the country intensive training in Akan, Wolof, Swahili, Zulu and French. Funded by Boren and FLAS fellowships, this opportunity is available to graduate and undergraduate students. You can contact ailori1@ufl.edu or Dr. Rose Lugano, the new Program in African Languages Coordinator, rslugano@ufl.edu for more information.
Summer also offered the opportunity to develop our new African Languages Across the Curriculum (ALAC) program, bringing African languages into a diverse range of courses, from Architecture and Music, to History, Anthropology and Conservation Science. Several graduate students utilized CAS pre-dissertation funding to travel to Africa for research, Nigeria, Mali, Ethiopia, Senegal. Others conducted remote-research with in-country research collaborators. Through our Research Tutorial program CAS affiliated undergraduates undertook worked closely with faculty mentors to conduct research and contribute to academic publications. Fields and topics varied widely, including maternal health, endangered languages, Africa-China relations, historical linkages between Haiti and West Africa, and inter-species disease transmission. These research experiences will be featured in our Student African Studies Association (SASA) talks throughout the upcoming academic year.
We encourage you to participate in the many events we have scheduled for this semester. Our weekly Friday afternoon Baraza will continue in an online format. CAS Working Groups are back in full swing. Two new groups, Digital Africa and Africans in Europe, join the established roster of topical research sharing networks focused on Islam in Africa, Africa-China, Natural Resource Managements, Institution and the State, Health, and African Architecture. The 2021 Carter Conference, in collaboration with the College of Arts, will take place over several days this fall with a focus on dance and choreography, “Back to the Future: Choreographers Mobilizing Africa-sourced Futures in the (post) COVID Era.
We welcome your involvement in CAS. Be sure to join our listservs to receive weekly CAS newsletters, visit our website, and follow us on social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube) to stay up-to-date on Center activities, events on the Continent, and the latest scholarly work and debates in African Studies.
Dr. Brenda Chalfin
Director, Center for African Studies