Carleton University in Ottawa will offer Canada’s first master’s program in African Studies starting this January. Blair Rutherford, director of Carleton’s Institute of African Studies (IAS), explained in a news release why he feels that this is the right time to begin offering the concentration:
“Africa is at the forefront of many key contemporary and historical issues that make it an exceptionally important continent to study in this age of internationalization. It is home to social movements for human rights; is a key player on the international scene for trade, resources, economic and international development; and is a growing centre of world arts. Nigeria has the third largest film industry in the world and there have been five African Nobel Prize winners in literature…”
Carleton’s Institute of African Studies (IAS), launched in 2009, is Canada’s only degree-granting stand-alone African Studies unit. The new concentration is open to master’s students in 14 programs: anthropology, applied linguistics and discourse studies, business administration, economics, English, film studies, French and francophone Studies, history, international affairs, legal studies, political economy, political science, sociology and/or women’s and gender studies.