About Us

The Harvard University Committee on African Studies is an interdisciplinary group of scholars appointed to coordinate teaching and research and advance knowledge and understanding of Africa within Harvard. Established in 1969, its members are drawn from faculty across the University. Committee members are listed below.

Contact Information
The Committee office is located at 1730 Cambridge Street, Room 403,
CGIS South Building, Cambridge, MA 02138.
Phone: (617) 495-5265; Fax: (617) 496-5183 cafrica@fas.harvard.edu

Committee on African Studies activities include the following:

Harvard Africa Seminar and other Africa-related events

Since 1976, the Committee has sponsored the Harvard Africa Seminar to explore issues of importance to Africa or scholarship on Africa. The Seminar is multi-disciplinary, open to all members of the community. The Committee's annual Distinguished African Studies Lecture brings prominent leaders to Harvard to provide an African perspective  on contemporary African issues. The Committee also sponsors lectures, workshops, film showings, performances and social gatherings. For more information visit our events calendar.

Research

The Committee is sponsoring an interfaculty research project funded by the Provost. Known as the Africa Initiative, this multi-disciplinary project has five working groups: "African Expressive Culture"; "Power, Governance and Authority"; "Health, Healing and Ritual Practice"; "Human Capital and Economic Growth"; and "Realms of Knowledge, Memory, and Contestation."

Travel Grants

The Committee awards grants to Harvard students for travel to Africa to assist juniors with senior honors thesis research and graduate students doing thesis and dissertation research on Sub-Saharan Africa. The committee also awards grants for student interships in Africa and advanced study of African languages. All grants are awarded in a merit competition at the end of February of each year.

Harvard African Studies Listserve

Each week Dr. Rita Breen, the Committee's Executive Officer, emails the details of Harvard events on Africa to hundreds of subscribers to this listserv. These events may be sponsored by any of Harvard's schools or programs.

Faculty of the Committee on African Studies

(Consult the "People" section of this site for contact information for the members)

Caroline M. Elkins, Professor of African History; Interim (09-10) and Education Chair of the Committee on African Studies

Rawi Abdelal, Joseph C. Wilson Professor of Business Administration (Business School)

Emmanuel K. Akyeampong, Harvard College Professor and Professor of History and of African and African American Studies (On leave 09-10)

Ali Asani, Professor of the Practice of Indo-Muslim Languages and Cultures (On leave Fall 09)

Robert H. Bates, Eaton Professor of the Science of Government and Professor of African and African American Studies

Suzanne Blier, Allen Whitehill Clowes Professor of Fine Arts and Professor of African and African American Studies (On leave 09-10)

David Bloom, Clarence James Gamble Professor of Economics and Demography;
Chair, Department of Global Health and Population (Public Health)

Rita M. Breen, Executive Officer for the Committee on African Studies; Executive Director, Harvard South African Fellowship Program

CatherineS. M. Duggan, Assistant Professor of Business Administration (Business School)

Felton J. Earls, Professor of Social Medicine and Professor of Human Behavior and Development (Public Health), Director of the Harvard South Africa Fellowship Program (On leave Fall 09)

Majid Ezzati, Associate Professor of International Health (Public Health)

Wafaie W. Fawzi, Professor of Nutrition and Epidemiology (Public Health)

Deborah D. Foster, Senior Lecturer on Folklore and Mythology and Director of Studies for Special Concentrations

Duana Fullwiley, Assistant Professor of Anthropology and of African and African American Studies (On leave 09-10)

Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Alphonse Fletcher, Jr. University Professor; Director of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African & African American Studies

Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Victor S. Thomas Professor of History and of African and African American Studies (ex officio)

Allan G. Hill, Andelot Professor of Demography (Public Health)

Nahomi Ichino, Assistant Professor of Government (On leave 09-10)

Francis Abiola Irele, Professor of African and African American Studies

Biodun Jeyifo, Professor of African and African American Studies (On leave Sp 10)

Matthew Jukes, Assistant Professor (Education School) (On leave 09-10)

Calestous Juma, Professor of the Practice of International Development (Kennedy School)

Michael R. Kremer, Gates Professor of Developing Societies (On leave Fall 09)

Jens Meierhenrich, Assistant Professor of Government and of Social Studies (On leave Fall 09)

Ingrid Monson, Quincy Jones Professor of African-American Music, Supported by the Time Warner Endowment (On leave 09-10)

John M. Mugane, Professor of the Practice of African Languages and Cultures and Director of the African Languages Program (On leave Sp 10)

Jacob Olupona, Professor of African and African American Studies (FAS), Professor of African Religious Traditions (Divinity School)

Kay Kaufman Shelemay, G. Gordon Watts Professor of Music and Professor of African and African American Studies

Lucie White, Lewis A. Horvitz Professor of Law (Law School)