The Department of African Studies, Howard University, in conjunction with the Institute of African American Affairs at New York University and the West African Research Center, announces an NEH Summer Institute to be held in Dakar, Senegal, June 8 to July 6, 2005. The focus of the institute is AFRICAN CINEMA, and it is open to US College and University faculty in the humanities and social sciences currently teaching or planning to teach courses with significant African humanities content and focus. Faculty from Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU), Hispanic Serving (HSI) and Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCU) are also particularly encouraged to apply. The Institute is designed to reinforce and expand a humanistic approach to African Studies by providing College and University faculty with a site-based program on the context and significance African Cinema and its applications to college and university curricula.

The Institute will survey the history, theories, aesthetics and criticism of African cinema from 1960 to the present. It will examine the relationship between cinema and other forms of creative practice in Africa, in particular, African literature and African oral traditions. It will also explore the significance and use of African cinema in African human, cultural and social development. The Institute will be organized and conducted primarily on the basis of seminars, film screenings and discussions. These are complemented by group lunches and dinners and guided visits to various academic and film-related institutions and other historical sites in and around Dakar. In addition, the schedule allocates time to allow individual participants to view films not on the workshop screening schedule, to consult individually with filmmakers, scholars and others, and to engage the Dakar and the general Senegambian context on their own terms.

The Institute will run for four weeks, from June 8 to July 6, 2005, and participants are required to stay for the entire duration of the Institute. Attendance and participation at all sessions is mandatory. We will be based at the West African Research Center (WARC) at Fann-Residence in Dakar, a few miles from the Hotel Ngor Diarama where all participants will be lodged. Some sessions will also be held at the hotel itself.

The faculty of the institute is composed of prominent scholars, filmmakers, writers and artists from the United States, Senegal, Gambia, Guinea, Nigeria, Cameroon and Burkina Faso. Mbye Cham, a professor of literature and cinema at Howard University and Manthia Diawara, professor of comparative literature and cinema, Director of the Institute of African American Affairs and documentary filmmaker, will co-direct the Institute. Other members of the faculty include noted film scholar and literary/cultural essayist and Professor at the Gallatin School and in Africana Studies at NYU, Clyde Taylor; Samba Gadjigo, Professor of French at Mount Holyoke College and the biographer of Ousmane Sembène; historian and cultural critic Boubacar Barry of Université Cheick Anta Diop, literary scholar Ousmane Sène, also of Université Cheick Anta Diop of Dakar; Siga Fatima Jagne-Jallow, an expert in Women's Studies, Feminist, Cultural, Critical, and Post Colonial Theories; and Fatou Sow, currently with the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) in Paris and a leading figure in Senegalese cultural studies with acclaimed expertise in oral traditions and written literatures. We also have Adebayo Olukoshi, Director of the Council for the Development of Economic and Social Research in Africa (CODESRIA).

Acclaimed filmmakers and writers, with whom we have had wonderful working relationships in the past, are also on the faculty of the institute. We are glad to welcome back renowned Senegalese directors Moussa Sene Absa, Ben Diogaye Beye, Mansour Sora Wade, Khady Sylla and a new multimedia talent, Fatou Kande-Senghor. Award winning Burkinabe director Gaston Kaboré will also spend an exciting four days with us. Rounding up this distinguished group are Boubacar Boris Diop, world renowned Senegalese novelist who has worked closely with many Senegalese film directors, and art critic and scholar, Koyo Kouoh from Cameroon.

STIPEND
NEH provides a stipend of $3000.00 to each selected participant to help cover travel and living expenses in Dakar. We have worked out a package of $2850.00 for air travel from New York and accommodation (double occupancy) for the period of the institute. When selected, we will ask each participant to authorize Howard University to withhold the amount of $2850.00 from their stipend for the purpose of travel and accommodation costs. A check for the remaining $150.00 will be mailed to each participant before departure. Travel to and from New York, meals, insurance and incidentals will be the responsibility of the selected participants.

For more information on the Institute and application procedures and materials, please visit our website at the following web address. You may also send e-mail inquiries to the e-mail address provided below.

The deadline for submitting the complete application is MARCH 1, 2005. Awards will be announced April 1, 2005.

Manthia Diawara Africana Studies 269 Mercer Street New York University New York, NY 10003 Phone: 212 998 2139 Manthia.diawara@nyu.edu