| Welcome to the African Studies Program at Indiana University! We are committed to being one of the nation's leading programs for the interdisciplinary study of Africa. Our diverse teaching activities promote greater understanding and appreciation of the continent and its people. There are several degree options for both undergraduate and graduate students. These degrees are enhanced by a broad range of African Studies courses, including cross-listed courses in a broad range of disciplines and our own courses, our African Civilizations and Contemporary Africa courses at the undergraduate level, and our Graduate Seminar, African Studies Bibliography and Interdisciplinary Methods courses at the graduate level. Our African language courses adopt performance-based pedagogical methods and stress cultural understandings.
Undergraduate students are encouraged to study abroad in Africa, in Indiana University or those at other universities. Graduate students can apply for FLAS fellowships to support their study of African languages. The African Studies Program regularly organized conferences and workshops, on its own or in collaboration with other programs and institutes, on a variety to topics. The backbone of our academic programming is our affiliated African Studies faculty. They engage in innovative research and excel in teaching at all levels. Supporting our faculty is our African Studies staff, housed in Woodburn Hall. We encourage you to explore our academic offerings.
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Faculty Highlight
Beth Buggenhagen
Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology
Faculty Member of the African Studies Program and Graduate Faculty at IU
 Beth Buggenhagen has conducted fieldwork in Dakar and Tuba, Senegal, and in the North American cities of Chicago and New York City. Her current research interests include the politics of social production and value, material culture, visuality, gender, Islam, and globalization. She is currently at work on a book manuscript, Prophets and Profits: Gender and Islam in Global Senegal, which analyzes the multilayered connections of prophets and profits in the Senegalese postcolony to understand debates over women’s ritual and religious practices, family law and religious authority in an era of economic volatility....In New York City her research has considered the predicament of Senegalese Muslim traders who deal in grey market goods (designer purses, CDs and DVDs). Her work has considered the political dimensions of official and unofficial economies to address topics that are gaining attention within and beyond academia such as Islam, civil liberties, immigration reform, debates over new media technologies, unregulated economic networks and the U.S. led global War on Terror...
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African Studies Outreach
Visit the Outreach Homepage
Current Outreach Events
Film: Everyone’s Child
Date: Tuesday, November 24, 2009, 7pm - 9pm
Location: Monroe Country Public Library, 303 E. Kirkwood Ave.
Cost: Free
Synopsis: Through the tragic story of one Zimbabwean family devastated by AIDS, the film challenges Africans to reaffirm their tradition that an orphan becomes Everyone's Child.
Everyone's Child tells the story of four siblings, Itai, Tamari, Norah and Nhamo, whose parents have both died of AIDS. The exceptional soundtrack features 12 original songs by Zimbabwe's most popular musicians, including Thomas Mapfumo, Leonard Zhakata and Andy "Tomato Sauce" Brown. Leading Zimbabwean actors star in the film, but many of the younger roles were played by actual street children trained in a special workshop.
Film: Thunderbolt
Date: Tuesday, December 8, 2009, 7pm - 9pm
Location: Monroe Country Public Library, 303 E. Kirkwood Ave.
Cost: Free
Synopsis: The first half of Thunderbolt is in a sense a retelling of the Othello story - except the protagonists are not Abyssinian and Venetian but Yoruba and Ibo.
In the second half of the film a distinctly West African emphasis on the supernatural comes to the fore; curses and ritual cleansing take the place of psychological explanations.
Thunderbolt will come as a bolt out of the blue to most Americans, even aficionados of African cinema. It is one of the best examples of the little-known but burgeoning video industry of Nigeria.
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