An African Studies graduate student investigates the program's decline and Yale's new focus on Africa
By Scott Ross
Yale Daily News - Sunday, December 1, 2013
My welcome to Yale was quieter than I expected. On orientation day in
August 2012, I took my seat among the seven other first-year African
Studies Master’s students in a small classroom on the first floor of
Luce Hall. We could hear chatter and laughter coming from other
department meetings upstairs, but the atmosphere in our room was
subdued. We introduced ourselves and waited for the meeting to begin.
The eight of us came from all over — the West Coast, the East Coast,
China, Ethiopia — but we had all come to Yale for the same reason: to
learn about Africa.
I had just graduated from Arizona State University, where I’d fallen
in love with Africa after getting involved with campus advocacy efforts
to raise awareness about the Lord’s Resistance Army, a rebel group in
Uganda and Congo. I’d fundraised to rebuild schools in the region, met
with elected officials to discuss U.S. involvement, and devoted hours
and hours to learning about the conflict.
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