About
The Kansas African Studies Center coordinates and develops interdisciplinary interests in all areas of African Studies across the University of Kansas, and promotes an understanding of Africa and its diaspora in the university, the state of Kansas, the Midwest, and beyond. The Center's mission includes the enhancement of curriculum, the sponsorship of research, the organization of conferences, the promotion of special projects, the acquisition of library and related resources, and the implementation of outreach programs. KASC actively pursues funding opportunities to make these activities possible and assist the university in their realization.
KASC
The Center originated from initiatives in the Department of African & African-American Studies in the 1980's. Founded in 1992, the Kansas African Studies Center (KASC) has served as the premier resource for African Studies in the Mid-America region for more than two decades.
The Center is a current National Resource Center in African Studies with Title Vi funding for the period of 2018-2022. KASC has also held NRC titles during previous two three-year cycles (1994-1997, 2000-2003) and two four-year cycles (2006-2010 and 2010-2014). KASC also awards Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) fellowships, with the U.S. Department of Education most recently funding African Studies and language training in Amharic, Arabic, KiSwahili, Hausa, Somali and Wolof from 2014-18. It will continue to offer these languages in the current cycle.
KU's Africanists have received numerous other grants from the Fulbright program, Smithsonian Institution, Carnegie, Wenner-Gren and Ford Foundations; American Council of Learned Societies, National Endowment for the Humanities, National Center for Atmospheric Research, American Philosophical Society, National Science Foundation, Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, School for Advanced Research, and Humanities Kansas .
Center faculty have also received grants from the Department of State, including University Affiliation Programs with Gaston Berger University in Saint Louis, Senegal, the University of Zambia in Lusaka, and University of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania, among others.
KASC, as well as other area studies centers, reports to the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences and works with Graduate Studies and the Office of International Programs. The Center has a direct and dynamic relationship with the Department of African & African-American Studies.
A National Resource Center
The Center is a current National Resource Center in African Studies with Title Vi funding for the period of 2018-2022. KASC has also held NRC titles during previous two three-year cycles (1994-1997, 2000-2003) and two four-year cycles (2006-2010 and 2010-2014). KASC also awards Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) fellowships, with the U.S. Department of Education most recently funding African Studies and language training in Amharic, Arabic, KiSwahili, Hausa, Somali and Wolof from 2014-18. It will continue to offer these languages in the current cycle.