The increasing interconnectedness of disparate regions of the world requires that scholars strive for new levels of awareness about how knowledge is produced and in what new ways it can be shared. Much of the knowledge produced in Africa has been marginalized and its circulation has furthermore been limited within Africa. The result is that scholars tend to learn about Africa through the teaching and publications of intellectuals, both Western and African, who live outside the continent. Moreover, Africa is often used as a simple field site for research that is subsequently written up and, in turn, circulated in the West. Change in this pernicious cycle can only come through initiatives taken simultaneously in Africa and in the industrialized nations of the northern hemisphere. The University of Pennsylvania African Studies Center seeks to make its own contribution to this kind of change by working towards institutionalizing "dual intellectual citizenship" among the next generation of those who study and work in Africa. 

To this end, we propose to provide an opportunity for American Africanist graduate students to:  

* interact with and establish mentoring relationships with African scholars; 
* familiarize themselves with intellectual trends and scholarship produced on the African continent, and analyze the alternative perspectives found there; 
* develop relationships with their African peers that may develop into lifetime intellectual partnerships. 

The African Studies Center of the University of Pennsylvania has received Ford Foundation funding over three years to provide Penn graduate students with scholarships to pursue the goals of dual intellectual citizenship in Dakar. We would like to extend an invitation to other graduate students to participate provided they can secure their own funding. 

The program, which will take place from 6 June until 1 August 1999, will consist of the following components: 

1) A seminar series will be organized by the West African Research Center from mid-June until the end of July 1999 for American and African graduate students in any discipline. It will follow the theme of the December 1998 General Assembly of the Council for Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA): "Globalization and the Social Sciences in Africa." Students will have access to papers presented at the Assembly, either on-line through the CODESRIA web site hosted by the Penn African Studies website or in the CODESRIA salle de documentation in Dakar. They can read papers of relevance to their own field of specialization and use them for a basis of discussion during the seminar series. 

The seminar series will use the following format. Once a week, a leading African scholar will hold an in-depth seminar session on a current issue in African Studies. Papers among those presented at CODESRIA's General Assembly will be assigned as reading, as well as other articles of the scholar's choice. It is hoped that the ensuing discussion among seminar scholars, African students and American students will bring to light a variety of intellectual perspectives and approaches to the study of Africa. Scholars will also be available to students during their stay in Senegal for advising and providing feedback and suggestions on research proposals.  

2)All students will have the opportunity to attend CODESRIA's Gender Institute, whose 1999 theme is "Gender in African Plural Economies." The institute dates are 15 June - 1 August. Students wishing to remain in Dakar to attend Codesria's Governance Institute on "States and Taxation," running from 3 August-15 September, may do so. For students who are not interested in these issues, contacts will be made for them to work with and attend activities at institutions/centers related to their fields of study (e.g. Centre de Linguistique Appliquée de Dakar, Population Council, CODESRIA, Department of History at U Cheikh Anta Diop, etc.). 

3)African graduate students, currently studying at Université Cheikh Anta Diop de Dakar and Université Gaston Berger de St. Louis, will be selected to participate in the program with their American counterparts. Both American and African students will ideally be at the beginning of their graduate studies but will already have a dissertation topic well in mind. Thus, some of this program could be profitably used to prepare or fine-tune a dissertation proposal. 

Budget 

Estimated costs for American students wishing to pay their own way are $3500. This includes travel, lodging in a host family, meals, and local transport during the summer program period.  

Application details 

Interested students should submit: 
* a statement of purpose describing the benefits they would derive from the summer program in terms of both their graduate studies and their later professional or academic life. 
* two letters of academic reference 
* graduate transcripts 
* certification of French language proficiency 

NB: Priority will be given to students with a good knowledge of the French language. Students should be prepared to follow lectures and read scholarly work in French as well as English. Selected students will be asked to submit a $100 administrative fee to the African Studies Center.  

Completed applications should be sent by February 1, 1999 to:  
Dual Intellectual Citizenship Summer Program 
African Studies Center 
645 Williams Hall 
University of Pennsylvania 
Philadelphia, PA 19104 

For further information, contact: 
Dr. Leigh Swigart,  
Assistant Director, African Studies 
email: lswigart@---------------- (after Jan. 1, 1999: swigart@------------) 
tel: 215-898-6449 (after Jan.1, 1999: 215-898-9979)