African Studies Center, Michigan State University
Encyclopedia
Founded in 1960, the African Studies Center (ASC) at Michigan State University
(MSU) is a major academic center for the study
of Africa
and one of 11 Title VI National Resource Center
s on Africa designated by the U.S. Department of Education
. The Center’s strength is based on the more than 160 MSU faculty who provide research, teaching, and service on Africa. Center faculty have research, projects, and expertise in 32 African nations.
http://africa.msu.edu/languages.php and teaches 9-12 languages each year and intensive African languages in the summer http://africa.msu.edu/scali. The Center is home to the national e-LCTL Initiative http://elctl.msu.edu/, with a website that a) catalogs the 220+ "Less Commonly Taught Languages
" (LCTLs) offered in the more than 120 Title VI National Resource Centers of Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, Middle East, and Canada, b) offers essays on priorities among LCTL languages for instruction in the U.S., and c) provides a database of "web objects" for teaching some LCTLs. See also the Center's Webbook of the African Languages http://www.isp.msu.edu/AfrLang/hiermenu.html, a directory of description, texts, and experts for 82 important African languages.
and humanities
, African Studies at MSU has been distinguished by its focus on Africa’s human needs - poverty alleviation, food security
, education for development, environment and development, tropical disease, ethics of development, and gender equity. See research interests of the faculty at http://africa.msu.edu/research.php. For almost two decades, MSU graduate students have produced circa. 15 Ph.D. dissertations annually on Africa, especially in history, social sciences, economics and agricultural economics, and education. The African Studies Center offers the Title VI Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowships for academic year http://africa.msu.edu/flas.php and summer intensive study http://africa.msu.edu/scali of African languages and area studies.
For schools and colleges, the program offers Exploring Africa http://exploringafrica.matrix.msu.edu/ (online gratis materials for teaching Africa K-12) http://exploringafrica.matrix.msu.edu/ and South Africa: Overcoming Apartheid, Building Democracy http://overcomingapartheid.msu.edu/ (an online curricular resource).
Databases from the ASC provide online information on Africa - African Media Program Database http://www.africanmedia.msu.edu/ (Online database of 14,000+ films and videos on Africa); African Higher Education Resource Directory http://africa.msu.edu/AUP/ (online database of contact information on African universities, colleges, and their faculties created in partnership with the Association of African Universities/Association des Universités Africaines (Accra), the African Studies Association (U.S.)); Afrobarometer http://www.afrobarometer.org/ (A collaboration with African social scientists to conduct surveys in 18 African countries on sociopolitical and economic attitudes in Africa, with data online); Food Security and Food Policy Information Portal for Africa http://aec.msu.edu/agecon/fs2/test/index.cfm (a project of UN-ECA and MSU Agricultural Economics); African Books Collective-Oxford http://msupress.msu.edu/african%20books_.php (An MSU Press collaboration to distribute books of African authors and publishers in the U.S.); MSU Working Papers on Women and Gender in Africa http://www.wid.msu.edu/resources/papers/africantopics.htm (Working Papers on African Women of the MSU Women in International Development Program).
The Center offers a weekly Tuesday Bulletin http://africa.msu.edu/tuesdaybulletin.php with news of African events at MSU and of African conferences, colloquia, fellowships, and grant opportunities nationwide.
Michigan State University
Michigan State University is a public research university in East Lansing, Michigan, USA. Founded in 1855, it was the pioneer land-grant institution and served as a model for future land-grant colleges in the United States under the 1862 Morrill Act.MSU pioneered the studies of packaging,...
(MSU) is a major academic center for the study
African studies
African studies is the study of Africa, especially the cultures and societies of Africa .The field includes the study of:Culture of Africa, History of Africa , Anthropology of Africa , Politics of Africa, Economy of Africa African studies is the study of Africa, especially the cultures and...
of Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
and one of 11 Title VI National Resource Center
National Resource Center
The National Resource Center Program of the U.S. Department of Education provides funding grants to American universities to establish, strengthen, and operate language and area or international studies centers that will be national resources for teaching any modern foreign language.Also known as...
s on Africa designated by the U.S. Department of Education
United States Department of Education
The United States Department of Education, also referred to as ED or the ED for Education Department, is a Cabinet-level department of the United States government...
. The Center’s strength is based on the more than 160 MSU faculty who provide research, teaching, and service on Africa. Center faculty have research, projects, and expertise in 32 African nations.
African languages
MSU can offer instruction in 32 African languagesAfrican languages
There are over 2100 and by some counts over 3000 languages spoken natively in Africa in several major language families:*Afro-Asiatic spread throughout the Middle East, North Africa, the Horn of Africa, and parts of the Sahel...
http://africa.msu.edu/languages.php and teaches 9-12 languages each year and intensive African languages in the summer http://africa.msu.edu/scali. The Center is home to the national e-LCTL Initiative http://elctl.msu.edu/, with a website that a) catalogs the 220+ "Less Commonly Taught Languages
Less Commonly Taught Languages
Less Commonly Taught Languages is a designation used in the United States for languages other than the three most commonly taught foreign languages in US public schools: Spanish, French, and German...
" (LCTLs) offered in the more than 120 Title VI National Resource Centers of Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, Middle East, and Canada, b) offers essays on priorities among LCTL languages for instruction in the U.S., and c) provides a database of "web objects" for teaching some LCTLs. See also the Center's Webbook of the African Languages http://www.isp.msu.edu/AfrLang/hiermenu.html, a directory of description, texts, and experts for 82 important African languages.
Library
The MSU Africana Library collection http://www.lib.msu.edu/services/africana is served by two PhD Africanist librarians, more than 237,000 items, and a large annual budget. The Library hosts the African e-Journals Project http://africa.msu.edu/AEJP/, a directory of journals about Africa and full-text of 11 African journals online. The Library houses the African Activist Archive http://africanactivist.msu.edu which preserves records and memories of activism in the U.S. to support the struggles of African peoples against colonialism, apartheid, and social injustice from the 1950s through the 1990s. The project holds the physical deposits at MSU of records of many activist organizations and individuals. The online African Activist Archive includes a directory of other archives and circa 2,000 historical materials, including pamphlets, newsletters, leaflets, buttons, posters, T-shirts, photographs, audio and video recordings, and personal remembrances and interviews with activists.Research and service foci
In addition to African languages, social sciences, and artsARts
aRts, which stands for analog Real time synthesizer, is an audio framework that is no longer under development. It is best known for previously being used in KDE to simulate an analog synthesizer....
and humanities
Humanities
The humanities are academic disciplines that study the human condition, using methods that are primarily analytical, critical, or speculative, as distinguished from the mainly empirical approaches of the natural sciences....
, African Studies at MSU has been distinguished by its focus on Africa’s human needs - poverty alleviation, food security
Food security
Food security refers to the availability of food and one's access to it. A household is considered food-secure when its occupants do not live in hunger or fear of starvation. According to the World Resources Institute, global per capita food production has been increasing substantially for the past...
, education for development, environment and development, tropical disease, ethics of development, and gender equity. See research interests of the faculty at http://africa.msu.edu/research.php. For almost two decades, MSU graduate students have produced circa. 15 Ph.D. dissertations annually on Africa, especially in history, social sciences, economics and agricultural economics, and education. The African Studies Center offers the Title VI Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowships for academic year http://africa.msu.edu/flas.php and summer intensive study http://africa.msu.edu/scali of African languages and area studies.
Outreach and service
For more than 25 years, MSU’s African Studies Outreach Program http://africa.msu.edu/outreach.php has provided professional assistance on Africa to K-12 schools, colleges and universities, communities, state and federal government, businesses, and journalists.For schools and colleges, the program offers Exploring Africa http://exploringafrica.matrix.msu.edu/ (online gratis materials for teaching Africa K-12) http://exploringafrica.matrix.msu.edu/ and South Africa: Overcoming Apartheid, Building Democracy http://overcomingapartheid.msu.edu/ (an online curricular resource).
Databases from the ASC provide online information on Africa - African Media Program Database http://www.africanmedia.msu.edu/ (Online database of 14,000+ films and videos on Africa); African Higher Education Resource Directory http://africa.msu.edu/AUP/ (online database of contact information on African universities, colleges, and their faculties created in partnership with the Association of African Universities/Association des Universités Africaines (Accra), the African Studies Association (U.S.)); Afrobarometer http://www.afrobarometer.org/ (A collaboration with African social scientists to conduct surveys in 18 African countries on sociopolitical and economic attitudes in Africa, with data online); Food Security and Food Policy Information Portal for Africa http://aec.msu.edu/agecon/fs2/test/index.cfm (a project of UN-ECA and MSU Agricultural Economics); African Books Collective-Oxford http://msupress.msu.edu/african%20books_.php (An MSU Press collaboration to distribute books of African authors and publishers in the U.S.); MSU Working Papers on Women and Gender in Africa http://www.wid.msu.edu/resources/papers/africantopics.htm (Working Papers on African Women of the MSU Women in International Development Program).
The Center offers a weekly Tuesday Bulletin http://africa.msu.edu/tuesdaybulletin.php with news of African events at MSU and of African conferences, colloquia, fellowships, and grant opportunities nationwide.