The Summer program will be directed by Prof. Grover Hudson, Faculty, Department of Linguistics and Languages, Michigan State University. The three day seminar on Ethiopia for students, faculty, and members of the public with a special interest in Ethiopia will be offered June 1719, 1999. Lecturers will be drawn from across the nation and from Ethiopia, and will include more than 10 MSU faculty who have taught, worked, and conducted research in Ethiopia. Amharic Intensive Summer Program participants are expected to participate in this gratis workshop. This workshop aims to enhance social science, natural science, and humanities undergraduate courses that teach about the African environment, by encouraging the use of film and video images that are accurate representations of Africans and Africa and that challenge the conventional concept of the African environment.
Registration is free, however there is a small fee to cover materials, breaks and an African meal.
The course will be presented as a seminar that surveys the visual arts of the Akan peoples of Ghana and Cote d'Ivoire. The readings will be drawn from a variety of sources including historical data, ethnography and recent historical, art historical and anthropological studies of the Akan. The course does not have prerequisites and it is open to juniors, seniors and graduate students with an interest in the cultures of Africa. Articles focusing on issues relating to the African people are accorded higher consideration. Contributions may be in the form of commentaries, critiques, poems, reports, short stories or even artwork.