Collaborate & celebrate
At the Center for African Studies
We work collaboratively with our constituents to investigate, narrate and celebrate global African life and cultures.
- Undergraduate Students The African Connections Program (ACP) scholarship for a 2-week study abroad in Kenya, May 2025. Now in its third year, ACP scholarships provide full funding for undergrads for a two-week study abroad to Nairobi, Kenya. Students will be hosted at the United... Read full story NEW!!! 2025 Funding Opportunities in African Studies for UIUC students and faculty, and K-16 teachers
- The 2024 Timbuktu Talks series continues with a compelling lecture titled "Between Progress and Regression: The Arabo-Islamic Instructor in the Senegalese Countryside." The talk will be delivered by Prof. Djim Dramé of the Institut Fondamental d'Afrique Noire at Université Cheikh Anta Diop... Read full story Timbuktu Talks with Prof. Djim Dramé
- The Center for African Studies invites everyone to an exciting end-of-semester celebration on December 10 at 4:00 PM at the Bruce D. Nesbitt African American Cultural Center (BNAACC), located at 1212 W. Nevada Street, Urbana, IL. This event promises a vibrant showcase of Swahili and Wolof cultures... Read full story TAMASHA
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Preparing the next generation of students in the new global age
The Center works with other units to promote the study of Africa as widely as possible. Such efforts include arranging visiting appointments for scholars on Africa, providing for visiting lectures, mentoring students, developing teaching aids, and organizing seminars, conferences, and symposia where people can exchange ideas. Browse our library of signature talks.
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Explore our graduate programs
The graduate program in African Studies includes a two-year master's program, a joint MA in African Studies and an MS in Library Information Science, as well as a graduate minor open to all master and doctoral students. The program exposes students to many facets of Africa and to many ways of looking at various issues relating to the continent from an interdisciplinary perspective.
Introduction to Modern Africa
Modern Africa has sustained the world's most rapid and profound changes following centuries of the Atlantic slave trade and colonialism. The African continent saw its social systems, economic structures, political organizations, and religious and cultural practices profoundly transformed by centuries of European imperialism.
Seminar Abroad: Benin
This course seeks to investigate current and past approaches to the "Africa development problem" and challenge preconceived notions of development and globalization in the context of Benin; students will examine impacts on local individual actors and the variety of ways in which these realities are navigated.
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Global Impact
The Center for African Studies is part of the Illinois Global Institute (IGI), which was established in 2019 as the home of the university’s area and global studies centers and thematic programs.