Africa

Penn & Africa

Penn has long been committed to providing students and faculty with opportunities to engage Africa. 

In 1942, the distinguished linguist Zellig Harris commented that Penn was “the only place in the country where serious teaching of African studies [was] available.” In the 1980s, Penn entered into a comprehensive partnership with Nigeria’s Ibadan University, becoming one of the only American universities of the era to establish a student exchange program in Africa.  In 1983, Penn’s Wharton School brought together US and African academic, business, and government figures to discuss private sector development in Africa, the first known conference on this issue.

Today, Penn offers a broad range of opportunites to engage Africa and the African diaspora – from regional centers, language courses, campus events and conversations, regional study and internship placements, and research projects. This page offers insight into the many ways the University and Penn community strengthen our partnership with the region.

Did You Know?

150+

Penn students, on average, participate annually in credit-bearing study abroad programs in Africa.

Pictured Left

Professor Sara Byala (third from the left) of Penn’s Critical Writing Program led a first-year writing Penn Global Seminar focusing on South Africa’s recent history (from 1994) and the tensions that characterize this era. Students traveled to South Africa in May 2019, and Professor Byala continues to lead other Penn Global Seminars across Africa that fulfill Penn’s writing seminar requirement.

Penn & Africa

Campus Initiatives

Penn actively engages with Africa through a range of partnerships and initiatives that foster academic collaboration, research, and student exchange. 

Botswana-UPenn Partnership

The Botswana-UPenn Partnership (BUP) is a collaboration between the Government of Botswana, the University of Botswana, and the University of Pennsylvania working to improve health and healthcare capacity in Botswana, and promote and conduct innovative research critical to better understanding the global nature of the HIV epidemic.

Holman Africa Initiative

The Holman Africa Initiative expands student financial aid and makes Penn knowledge more accessible and actionable for people in Africa, with a focus on the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The initiative provides vital new support in undergraduate financial aid, a fellowship and resource aquisition fund at Penn Libraries, and seed funding for research.

PDRI-DevLab Fellowship for African Scholars

PDRI (Penn Development Research Initiative)-DevLab aims to build capacity for rigorous research on pressing policy challenges facing low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), by providing training and research opportunities for emerging researchers. In service of this mission, PDRI-DevLab offers a fellowship program for social scientists from sub-Saharan Africa to spend a semester in residence at Penn.

Penn Museum African Section

The African collection at the Penn Museum is one of the largest collections in the country. The collection includes approximately 15,000 ethnographic and 5,000 archaeological objects and most of the collection was obtained between 1891 and 1937. The collection contains everything from masks and statuary to architectural pieces, clothing, musical instruments and ordinary household implements. 

Penn Museum Egyptian Section

The Penn Museum houses one of the largest collections of Egyptian and Nubian material in the United States, numbering in excess of 42,000 items. Assembled through nearly a century of archaeological research, this collection is unusual in that the vast majority of the objects were obtained through archaeological investigations in Egypt and entered the Museum through a division of finds with Egypt’s Antiquities Service.

In Focus

Holman Africa Research & Engagement Fund

With support from the Holman Africa Initiative, the Holman Africa Research and Engagement Fund provides financial support to faculty research projects from across the University and academic disciplines that are poised to generate new and critical insights on key debates in Africa, specifically sub-Saharan Africa.

Learn More
Holman Africa Panel at 2022 REF Symposium

Penn & Africa

Campus Centers

Centers and departments at Penn prioritizing the study and understanding of Africa and African diasporas.

Center for Africana Studies

The Center for Africana Studies is dedicated to fostering a deeper understanding of the peoples of Africa and their diasporas. Through its research, academic initiatives and public programming, the Center engages in debate and discussion, learning and understanding about race and the lives, cultures, and history of people of African descent on the continent and around the world.

Department of Africana Studies

Africana Studies is committed to a cooperative, interdisciplinary, and cross-regional studies approach – that includes North America, Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa, and the Middle East – bring fresh perspectives to studying and teaching a new global black studies.