2008 Woodie Awards
A study in asymmetry
Some area studies programs offer majors and the resources of full departments. Others do not.
By: Matthew Stone, Editor in Chief
Issue date: 11/22/07 Section: Magazine Fall 2007
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The face and maxims of Former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan '61 have peppered the admissions materials seen by an entire generation of Macalester students drawn to the college in St. Paul, Minn., that prides itself on internationalism and its role in shaping one of the world's most prominent diplomats.
In the fall of 2002, five years into Annan's tenure as Secretary-General, Geography professor Bill Moseley arrived at Macalester and quickly discovered that the college had no prescribed course of study that focused on Annan's native region, Africa.
"I was shocked that at this school that prides itself on internationalism, that produced Kofi Annan, there was no African Studies program," Moseley, who specializes in the geography of West and Southern Africa, said in a recent interview. "It's not like the administration ever thought it had been a priority."
By the fall of 2003, Moseley had founded the college's African Studies concentration, employing a then-new academic structure at Macalester that allowed for more depth than a minor and emphasized an interdisciplinary approach to a particular area of study.
By "pure luck," Moseley said, he was able to find about six other faculty members on campus with academic interests in Africa who were needed to begin the concentration and offer the requisite courses.
Four years later, African Studies is the most popular of the three concentrations offered on campus, with 19 students enlisted in the course of study, according to Institutional Research figures. Yet, Moseley said, the African Studies program struggles with a lack of resources. The concentration is too dependent on a small corps of faculty members whose absence one semester, a sabbatical, for example, might jeopardize the African Studies program's offerings.
"There's a lot of interest in African Studies, but there's a lack of resources. There are semesters when we have no courses to offer," Moseley said.
In the fall of 2002, five years into Annan's tenure as Secretary-General, Geography professor Bill Moseley arrived at Macalester and quickly discovered that the college had no prescribed course of study that focused on Annan's native region, Africa.
"I was shocked that at this school that prides itself on internationalism, that produced Kofi Annan, there was no African Studies program," Moseley, who specializes in the geography of West and Southern Africa, said in a recent interview. "It's not like the administration ever thought it had been a priority."
By the fall of 2003, Moseley had founded the college's African Studies concentration, employing a then-new academic structure at Macalester that allowed for more depth than a minor and emphasized an interdisciplinary approach to a particular area of study.
By "pure luck," Moseley said, he was able to find about six other faculty members on campus with academic interests in Africa who were needed to begin the concentration and offer the requisite courses.
Four years later, African Studies is the most popular of the three concentrations offered on campus, with 19 students enlisted in the course of study, according to Institutional Research figures. Yet, Moseley said, the African Studies program struggles with a lack of resources. The concentration is too dependent on a small corps of faculty members whose absence one semester, a sabbatical, for example, might jeopardize the African Studies program's offerings.
"There's a lot of interest in African Studies, but there's a lack of resources. There are semesters when we have no courses to offer," Moseley said.
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