African Studies Graduate Student Letter

For incoming graduate students, there are always numerous questions about required courses, the quality of the faculty, the resources available, travel and grant opportunities, as well as numerous other issues. Graduate student Alex Perullo, from the Department of Ethnomusicology and Folklore, discusses his experiences in the African Studies Program that will hopefully answer some questions for incoming students.

Dear Prospective Students,

When I was asked to share something about my experiences in the African Studies Program at Indiana University, I quickly agreed. You see, I attended a small state college as an undergraduate. Though the school was an adequate institution of higher education, it lacked certain resources, such as a useful library, which I felt were critical to my studies. When I arrived at Indiana University as an incoming graduate student, my worldview of higher education changed, in part due to the large library, but also due to the excellent African Studies Program.

One of the first trips I made on the campus was a journey to the main library. Situated comfortably on the sixth floor of the library were thousands of books on African countries, politics, and history. (Note: though many books devoted to Africa reside on the sixth floor, many more are scattered throughout the library). I went to a section devoted to Madagascar, a country of my interest, and found a plethora of materials. Where my old school was fortunate to have two or three books dedicated to this large red island off the coast of Africa, the IU library housed perhaps several hundred. In fact, for the next several years of my study, most of the African materials I needed were available at the IU library or easily attainable through another affiliated library (Click here to read more about the African Studies Collection at IU).

But there is obviously more to the African Studies Program than a library. What about faculty and other graduate students? There are over fifty-five faculty affiliated with the African Studies Program from seventeen departments. Essentially, any aspect of Africa - any focus or specialization - is fully or partially covered by a faculty member. Though my major was ethnomusicology and folklore, I became interested in history, anthropology, and art history through African Studies faculty and the courses they taught. There was never a semester without interesting African Studies courses.

As for graduate students, they are all dedicated and enthusiastic. Recently a group of students put on a conference for African studies graduate students. The students found grant money to have free food every day (including catered Eritrean food), a band, and free rooms for most people. More importantly, the talks given by students from all over the the United States and part of Europe, were interesting, professional, and, frankly, very impressive.

Language is another key aspect to the African Studies Program. Few universities have courses on an African language. IU offers or has offered in the past few years courses in Swahili, Bambara, Chindali, Kpelle, Fula, Hausa, Twi, Ndonga, Wolof, Chichewa, Oku, Zulu, Shona, Sotho, and Lingala. Almost all of the courses are taught by native speakers, which provides for an excellent learning environment. Coming from a school that had no African language courses, I was in awe of the fact that I had several to choose from!

Grants are also an important consideration for incoming students. Can students get grants? Definitely. Students have opportunities to apply for numerous grants throughout their degree program, including language grants, travel grants, and pre-dissertation and dissertation grants. Through the grants that I was awarded, I was able to learn Swahili, travel to Tanzania, my country of interest (and the reason the picture on this page is of a band from Tanzania), several times, and attend conferences.

Let me conclude by stating that the African Studies Program is clearly one of the best in the country. As long as your major department suits you, then you will benefit from the African Studies Program. I know I did.

Good luck in your decision,

Alex Perullo

Current graduate students interested in writing for this page, please contact the African Studies Program at afrist@indiana.edu.

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