The Programs on Africa at the Center for Africana Studies provides members of the University of Pennsylvania, local, national, and international communities with information on faculty, researchers, activities, and programming on historical and contemporary Africa.
The faculty who participate in the Programs on Africa represent a broad range of disciplines and are based in the schools of Arts and Sciences, Graduate Education, Law, Nursing, and Social Policy and Practice, and the Annenberg School for Communication, Perelman School of Medicine, and the Wharton School. The geographic interests of faculty span the continent—including Francophone and Islamic countries—and extend to the African diaspora throughout the world. Research associates based in the Programs on Africa provide additional scholarship and research on historical topics and issues pertinent to current day Africa.
The Programs on Africa also provides information on the Foreign Language Area and Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowships for students interested in undergoing training in modern African languages.
Programming on Africa includes a variety of lectures, workshops, symposia, readings, and performances by scholars, researchers, writers, and artists from the US, the continent of Africa, and around the globe. Annual programs include the Scholar for a Day seminar, the African Languages and Cultural Day, and the Africa Lecture Series.