Study Abroad | Center for African Studies

Study Abroad at HU operates at several levels. Undergraduate and graduate scholarships, fellowships, and travel awards, as well as funds from the Office of the Provost and Honors Programs in various schools enable HU students to take advantage of HU study abroad program as well as programs offered at other institutions. FLAS fellowships at Howard support the study of African languages abroad.

Ralph J. Bunche International Affairs Center

The Bunche Center operates a study abroad program and facilitates study in other programs outside HU. The Center has arrangements with the Fajr Center in Cairo, Egypt where students undertake six to eight weeks of intensive Arabic training.

College of Arts & Sciences

The College of Arts & Sciences (COAS) at Howard also operates a summer and semester-long study abroad program. Over the past two years, over 250 HU students in almost all disciplines and professional schools have taken part in student exchange, research/study and service learning abroad projects in over 70 countries, including 15 African countries: Botswana, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, and Zambia. These range from 10 day study tours to summer and 1-2 semester long immersion programs.

African Languages Study Abroad - Summer Programs

HU Swahili Study Abroad (HUSSA)

The HUSSA program is a language intensive program that includes working with the community. The program offers 6 weeks of intensive linguistic and cultural experience in Kenya.

Fulbright-Hays Swahili GPA

The Fulbright-Hays Swahili Group Project Abroad (GPA) is an 8-week intensive advanced program hosted by Pwani University with homestays with Swahili families.

Fulbright-Hays Yoruba GPA

The Fulbright-Hays Intensive Advanced Yoruba Group Project Abroad is hosted at the Yoruba Language Centre at the University of Ibadan in Nigeria.

HU Zulu in South Africa (HUZISA)

HUZISA is a 6-week study abroad program for immersion in both the language and the culture of the Zulu people of South Africa.

Foreign Language & Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowships support students taking African languages (Amharic, Arabic, Somali, Swahili, Wolof, Yoruba and Zulu) and area studies coursework. The fellowships support intensive for-credit study of an African language and to promote the development of competency in African Studies either abroad or in the United States.

Go to FLAS page

Study Abroad in Africa - Spring Semester Programs

Study Abroad in Kenya (AFST 890): Africa in the Disciplines - this semester-long course includes 1 week in Kenya and the rest of the semester at Howard in the Department of African Studies. For more information, contact Dr. Esther Lisanza at estherlisanza@howard.edu.

Study Abroad in Ghana (HIST 890): Society, Culture, and Historical Memory in West Africa: An Intensive Study of Ghana - this semester-long course includes a trip to Ghana and the rest of the semester at Howard in the Department of History. This history course is an intensive study of life in culture in Ghana through a historical lens. Through secondary and primary source reading material, films, and travel, students explore the issues, events, and processes that have defined the characteristics and transformation of Gold Coast/Ghana history and society. Students also engage with the ways that the people of Ghana understand and use their history, through an examination of the various forms of popular and historical memory and the politics associated with both. For more information, contact Dr. Kay Wright Lewis at kay.wrightlewis@howard.edu or Benjamin Talton at benjamin.talton@howard.edu.

WARA & WARC

The West African Research Association (WARA) provides various fellowships for African scholars. WARA’s overseas office, the West African Research Center (WARC) in Dakar, Senegal, regularly hosts HU students doing research and summer language and culture study abroad projects.

HU School of Law in South Africa

South Africa Program of the HU School of Law, in partnership with the Law School of the University of Western Cape in Cape Town. For more information visit Howard School of Law Summer Study Abroad in South Africa page.

Alternative Spring Break Programs

Engineers Without Borders in Kenya - Since March 2009, an average of 10 students and faculty advisors of the HU chapter of Engineers Without Borders travel to Choimim, Kenya, to assist in local rehabilitation efforts, in partnership with local organization Build the Village, and to several villages in Nandi Hills, a tea farming community, in order to establish rainwater harvesting and biosand treatment systems. EWB-Howard University is a student chapter of EWB-USA. For more info contact Prof. John Tharakan, Faculty Advisor, jtharakan@howard.edu. Find our blog at howard.edu/kenya.

Alternative Spring Break Ghana Program - Launched in 2017, the program invites students to engage in service learning and career/major related scholarly projects through a lens of Pan-Africanism. For more information contact: Dr. Beverly Booker Ammah at beverly.bookerammah@howard.edu or Mr. Glen Vinson at gdvinson@howard.edu.

Spring Break with the School of Social Work - During Spring break at HU, the Dean of the School of Social Work and at least 5 faculty and 20 students undertake a two-week Service Learning project in Cape Town, South Africa and other areas, building on a new course on International Social Development (50% Africa content) that was introduced in 2008-2009.

Minority Health and Health Disparities International Research Training Program

The interdisciplinary Minority Health and Health Disparities International Research Training Program (MHIRT) at HU, under the direction of Winston Anderson, operates an all expenses paid 8-10 weeks training and research program for HU and other students in Ethiopia, Nigeria, Ghana and Mali, in partnership with Addis Ababa University, Aklilu Lemma Institute of Pathology, ICIPE, and BioEconomy Africa; University of Gondar and the Leishmania Research Center (Ethiopia); Korle Bu Teaching Hospital (Ghana); and University of Benin Teaching Hospital Microbiology Research Laboratory (Nigeria). For more information contact Dr. Winston Anderson at wanders@howard.edu.