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Ghana Foreign Study Program

This  biennial program will run in fall 2024.  

  • Fall 15 Ghana FSP participants: Siddharth Hiregowdara, Hamdia Ibrahim, Tyne Freeman, Tramon McZeal, Nana Adjeiwaa-Manu, Professor Ayo Coly, Kristina Williams, Sydney Latimore

  • The Institute of African Studies at the University of Ghana.

  • Fishing boats in Accra, Ghana.

  • Labadi Beach in Ghana.

Program Details

The Department of African and African American Studies (AAAS), working in partnership with the Council on International Educational Exchange (CIEE), offers a foreign study program in Accra, Ghana. The AAAS FSP is Dartmouth's only FSP program in West Africa. Classes, designed specifically for the Dartmouth FSP, are taught on the campus of the University of Ghana, Legon, with faculty and lecturers drawn from the University and elsewhere in Ghana, and a Dartmouth faculty member affiliated with AAAS.

In the program, classroom learning is integrated with research conducted in the community and local archives as well as visits to important historical and cultural sites in Accra and throughout Ghana. Students will have the opportunity to participate in volunteer and other community engagement activities during the term. Students live in a homestay situation with local families. You can expect to use public transportation to commute to campus from homes in the greater Accra region.

Accra is Ghana's capital and largest city, with an estimated population of 4 million. Accra stretches along the Atlantic Ocean and is home to Ghana's central financial district, glittering beaches, historic monuments, museums, traditional markets and lively nightlife. Ghana's importance in the African Diaspora is immense. People from this region represented a significant percentage of those forcibly brought to the "New World." This resulted in a mélange of cultures linking this part of West Africa to African-descended communities in the U.S. and other parts of the Americas. Ghana is also an important site for homage and return in the African Diaspora because of its unique historical position as the first sub-Saharan African nation to receive independence and because of the Pan-African advocacy of Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana's first president.

The application deadline for the Fall 2024 program directed by Professor Jesse W. Shipley is February 1, 2024. 

Prerequisites

Preference will be given to students who have taken at least one African studies course.