Collaborate & celebrate
At the Center for African Studies
We work collaboratively with our constituents to investigate, narrate and celebrate global African life and cultures.
- CAS is delighted to announce that two UIUC undergraduate students, Emily Brooks, and Nina Stepaniants, have been awarded tuition scholarships for 2023-24. These scholarships are possible through the generous support of UIUC alumnus Ambassador Erik Whitaker, and... Read full story 2023-24 Ambassador Erik Whitaker Scholarship Awards in African Studies
- Dr. Charles Fogelman, Teaching Assistant Professor in the LAS Global Studies Program, has been awarded a Fulbright-Hays Faculty Research Abroad grant to spend six months conducting qualitative research in Lesotho, from June until December 2023. Dr. Fogelman's project, titled "... Read full story Dr. Charles Fogelman Receives Fulbright-Hays Faculty Research Abroad Grant
- CAS is thrilled to report the success of our application for FLAS and National Resource Center funding from the Title VI program of the Department of Education. CAS is one of the six area studies centers of the Illinois Global Institute that received Title VI support in the 2022-26 cycle. ... Read full story CAS Receives US Department of Education 2022-2026 Title VI Grant
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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.