Academic Programs

The Center for African Studies coordinates an interdisciplinary program in African Studies for undergraduate students.

The program seeks to enrich understanding of the interactions among the social, economic, cultural, historical, linguistic, genetic, geopolitical, ecological, and biomedical factors that shape and have shaped African societies.

Courses in African Studies are offered by departments and programs throughout the University. Each year, the center sponsors a seminar to demonstrate to advanced undergraduates and graduate students how topics of current interest in African Studies are approached from different disciplinary perspectives. Course offerings in African languages are also coordinated by the Center for African Studies.  Along with regular courses in several levels of Arabic, Swahili, Xhosa, and Zulu, the center arranges with the African and Middle Eastern Languages and Literatures Program in the Stanford Language Center to offer instruction in other African languages; in recent years, it has offered courses in Amharic, Bambara, Chichewa, Ewe, Fulani, Hausa, Igbo, Kinyarwanda, Shona, Swahili, Twi, Wolof, Xhosa, Yoruba, and Zulu.