1 GRADUATE COUNCIL MEETING 9 May 2012 102 Kern Graduate ...

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Table 1: Sample 400-Level and 500-Level Africa-Related Courses Offered at University
Park (2009-2011)
Semester Course Abbrev. Short Title
2009/2010S GEOG 496A South Africa Project
2009/2010S GEOG 497E/498A Society and Environment of South Africa
2009/2010S CED 497E Ag 2 Africa Ex.
2009/2010S CED 497C E. Africa Agricultural Systems
2010/2011S CED499C FS-AG 2 Africa
2009/2010S PLSC 497B International Relations of Africa
2009/2010S FOR 497E South Africa Tour
2010/2011S CMLIT 423 African Novel
2009/2010S CSA 502 Org & Admin Structures of Africa
2009/2010S CSA 504 Rsh & Asmnt/Stu Africa
2010/2011F FR596B African Lit of Fr Exp
2010/2011S CMLIT 523 African Lit
The integrative orientation of the proposed program builds on its multidisciplinarity and is
further embedded in two components: a pedagogy that assists doctoral students to synthesize
their thematic and/or regional interests in African Studies; and an overall structure that allows
doctoral students to combine their interests in their major discipline with African Studies into a
single intellectual endeavor. No other avenue currently exists at Penn State for doctoral students
to pursue this intellectual convergence between their major discipline and African Studies.
The multidisciplinary, comparative intellectual vision of the proposed Dual-Title Doctoral
Degree Program in African Studies is consistent with the mission of Penn State’s College of the
Liberal Arts (CLA), as enunciated in the College’s Strategic Plan for 2008-2013, titled, “From
National Prominence to National Leadership.” In this document, the CLA makes the following
commitment to the development of new and exciting intellectual programs, including, dual-title
doctoral degree programs.
We must continue to strengthen the core elements of the liberal arts that
are the foundation of any university that aspires to excellence. At the same
time, we are also attuned to ways in which our disciplines are evolving and
to the ever-growing importance of multi-disciplinary work in addressing the
most important questions we face. We have furthered multi-disciplinarity
most obviously by investing in a variety of multi-disciplinary degree-granting
units, including during this last planning cycle, the creation of the department
of applied linguistics, the development of dual degree programs in women’s
studies, the reorganization of Science, Technology, and Society under the joint
administration of Engineering and Liberal Arts, and, most recently, the
establishment of an Asian Studies program. We plan further investments to
support planned dual degree programs in Asian studies, in bio-ethics,
language science, and in African American studies.
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