The Institute for African Studies
Examining contemporary issues in Africa is an important component in the study of international affairs, both for its own sake and for understanding and responding to broader global issues. Most of the major issues confronting the global community today are at play in Africa, one of the major economic growth regions in the world today.
In spring 2016, GW officially chartered the Institute for African Studies with the goal of building the most significant academic institution in Washington, D.C., for research, scholarship, education, and debate on African issues.
The institute is rapidly becoming the structural hub for students, faculty, and researchers who share an interest in African studies. GW currently boasts more than 50 faculty members with expertise on and engagement in the African continent, and the institute provides a focal point for their work. Interdisciplinary in design, the institute brings together African comparative politics, history, economics, anthropology, geography, language, and security studies. While the institute’s core faculty members comprise scholars from these seven fields, GW faculty working in areas such as business, public health, education, public administration, the humanities, women’s studies, and American studies will be instrumental to expanding the institute’s breadth. True to the university’s strategic emphasis on interdisciplinary studies and the Elliott School’s multidisciplinary identity, the institute consistently seeks to collaborate with scholars across campus from these – and other – areas.