Twelve students from Carleton’s Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences have embarked on a trip to Ghana, West Africa this month to study Urban and Rural Music in Community. This course is led by Kathy Armstrong, an Instructor in Music, who is cross-appointed to the Institute for African Studies (IAS), which facilitates these experiential courses annually.
Carleton’s Institute of African Studies Study Abroad Course allows students to move from the study of Africa in Canada to the study of Africa in Africa. Every spring, the course shifts from one African region and city to another. Through lectures and workshops led by a Carleton professor and the coordinator of the course for the year, Carleton students are immersed in experiential learning with African instructors, fellow students in the host community, as well as and artists, activists and policy experts.
Nduka Otiono, Director of IAS reflects: “The study abroad trips, quite popular with our students, are notable for facilitating positive, life-changing international knowledge and cultural exchange, friendships, partnerships, placement opportunities and career directions.”
This year’s Music-based course abroad in Ghana quintessentially fulfills the objectives of the course by enabling our students to experience drumming, dancing, singing and community life in Dagbamete, an Ewe village in the Volta Region of Ghana, as well as attend live music concerts in Accra and partake in sessions at the University of Ghana in Legon.
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