Undergraduate Advisers: Professor Hlonipha Mokoena, 452 Schermerhorn Extension, 854-2386, ham2101@columbia.edu
Professor Gregory Mann, 615 Fayerweather, 854-3168, gm522@columbia.edu

Program Office: Institute of African Studies, 201 Knox Hall, 854-4633

Interdepartmental Committee on African Studies

The African studies program is designed to introduce students to the intensive study of Africa through methodological and theoretical training across disciplines. All students take common core courses, learn an African language, and study or conduct research in Africa. An introductory course develops a critical vocabulary for engagement with Africa and its intellectual history. Interdisciplinary work prepares students to engage with Africa's rich heterogeneity and trains them in the multiple disciplines that compose African Studies as an academic field of inquiry. Training in an African language and study or supervised research on the continent ensures that students develop their skills of analysis in a concrete fashion and on its own terms.
Given the interdisciplinary nature of the program, students are expected to work especially closely with the undergraduate adviser in order to choose appropriate courses for their specialty that satisfy all of the requirements.