Conference on the Teaching of African Languages

1964 ◽  
Vol 7 (03) ◽  
pp. 12
Author(s):  
L. Gray Cowan
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
New York ◽  
The United States ◽  
African Studies ◽  
Present Moment ◽  
African Language ◽  
African Languages ◽  
National Defense Education Act ◽  
Summer Session ◽  
Education Act

A small conference was held in New York on March 19 to 20, 1964, concerning the general position of the teaching of African Languages in the United States at the present moment. The conference, called at the joint request of the National Defense Education Act Language and Area Centers and Columbia University's Institute of African Studies, was attended by the directors and teachers of African language of the major centers of African studies in the United States. In the course of the two-day meeting the directors reported in some detail on the position of African language teaching in their respective universities and a number of clarifications of NDEA policy were presented by Mr. Donald Bigelow. The question of a summer session on African languages was discussed at length and a variety of suggestions were offered for possible changes in the format of the existing summer session sponsored by NDEA. In this connection, a resolution was passed urging the establishment of a summer Institute of African Languages, to be located at a permanent site, and under the sponsorship of the African Studies Association.

African-Language Study in the 21st Century: Expansion through Collaboration and Technology

2002 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 42-49
Author(s):  
Sandra Sanneh ◽  
Alwiya S. Omar
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
The United States ◽  
African Language ◽  
National Defense ◽  
Or Education ◽  
African Languages ◽  
National Defense Education Act ◽  
Title Vi ◽  
Education Act ◽  
National Resource

The formal study of African languages in U.S. universities began with the passage of the National Defense Education Act (NDEA) in 1958. Title VI of that act supported the establishment of “centers for the teaching of any modern foreign language [that is] needed by the federal government or by business, industry or education” and for which “adequate instruction is not readily available in the United States.” The act also authorized fellowships for those undergoing advanced training in these languages. Over the next two decades, a small number of universities successfully competed for the federal funding from NDEA and subsequent acts that established Foreign Language and Area Studies fellowships and later Title VI National Resource Centers (NRCs) for African studies.

II Summer Programs, 1967

1967 ◽  
Vol 10 (01) ◽  
pp. 103-105
Author(s):  
Norman R. Bennett
Keyword(s):  
Los Angeles ◽  
Language Instruction ◽  
Summer Program ◽  
African Language ◽  
Language Program ◽  
African Languages ◽  
National Defense Education Act ◽  
Duquesne University ◽  
Summer Session ◽  
Education Act

An NDEA Summer Lanuage and Area Program will be offered during the eight-week summer session, June 26-August 18, 1967, on the UCLA campus. Languages to be offered are: Swahili, Afrikaans, Hausa, and Fulani. Area courses will be offered in anthropology, English, geography, history, law, and political science. The program is open to all undergraduate and graduate students interested in pursuing a combined area and language program. Applications for admission should be directed to the Summer Sessions Office, UCLA, Los Angeles, Calif. 90024. Fellowships (NDFL Summer Awards) are available through the Office of Education in Washington, D.C. The African Language and Area Center of Duquesne University, in cooperation with the African Language and Area Centers of Columbia, Howard, Indiana, Michigan State, Northwestern, Ohio, and Wisconsin universities, is sponsoring an eight-week Intensive Summer Language Program in six African languages which is supported by matching funds provided by the U.S. Office of Education under the National Defense Education Act. The Reverend Joseph L. Varga, C.S.Sp., professor of Swahili at Duquesne University, will assume overall responsibility for language instruction; and the whole Intensive Summer Program will be under the direction of Dr. Geza Grosschmid, director of the African Language and Area Center, Duquesne University. Courses: Intensive elementary courses are offered in Hausa, Ibo, Lingala, Mende, Swahili, and Yoruba. Intensive intermediate or advanced conversation courses are offered of the same, and enrollment will determine their instruction. Each intensive elementary and intermediate course (12 credits) is five hours a day, including lab, Monday through Friday. The advanced conversation course (4 credits) is one and one half hours a day, Monday through Friday.

The National Defense Education Act and African Studies

1964 ◽  
Vol 7 (03) ◽  
pp. 3-10
Author(s):  
Lyman H. Legters
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Field Research ◽  
The United States ◽  
Instructional Program ◽  
African Studies ◽  
National Defense ◽  
World Region ◽  
National Defense Education Act ◽  
Social Sciences And Humanities ◽  
Education Act

African studies in the United States were still in their infancy in 1958 when the National Defense Education Act was passed. One instructional program -- at Hartford Seminary -- had a long history. And numbers of anthropologists were notably active in field research on African topics by that date. But as compared with the venerable tradition of oriental studies, or even with pre-World War II area instruction and research on Latin America, the African field was only just opening up as a subject of concerted academic attention. At the same time, it was clear that the postwar burgeoning of area studies programs had as much relevance to Africa as to Russia or India, and a few programs -- notably those at Northwestern and Boston -- had by this time displayed a serious intention of developing offerings of a scope comparable to those of the older fields. Indeed, the area approach had special pertinence for African studies, for with the exception of anthropology virtually none of the conventional departments inmost institutions included African specialists. The area approach was not an alternative to disciplinary modes of university organization, but rather a means of both focusing and reinforcing disciplinary competence with reference to a particular world region. The device helped to strengthen departments by reminding them of neglected fields and opportunities, and its corollary of multi-disciplinary emphasis helped to enable the social sciences and humanities to address themselves more effectively to the many contemporary scholarly problems lying on the periphery of individual disciplines. Thus, if East Asian or East European subjects of instruction and research could gain by the use of the area approach, the still more neglected African field was the more in need of such fortification. Moreover, African studies could, in the usual fashion of relative latecomers, avoid some of the pitfalls of the earliest area programs, e.g., needless tension between disciplinary and area interest or loyalty.

The Development of African Studies in the United States

1966 ◽  
Vol 9 (03) ◽  
pp. 66-73
Author(s):  
Carol A. Dressel
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
Junior College ◽  
The United States ◽  
African Studies ◽  
African Religions ◽  
African Languages ◽  
College Curriculum ◽  
Carnegie Corporation ◽  
Available Information

The earliest interest in Africa among institutions of higher education in the United States was probably that of denominational colleges which trained missionaries for Africa and other areas. But their motivation was to bring the fruits of Western civilization to non-Western areas, and this had no effect on the college curriculum of the nineteenth century. The missionary interest has continued in at least one major African studies program. The Hartford Seminary Foundation offers courses on missionary problems, African religions, and Christianity in Africa. It also teaches several African languages. Northwestern University has had an interest in African anthropology which dates back to 1927. No available information, however, has revealed whether courses then offered included the study of Africa. During World War II, there was an abortive attempt to organize an International Conference on Africa, and just after the war, an instructor at Colby Junior College included the study of African literature in an English course. The Carnegie Corporation aided the development of African studies by extending their grants for area studies to the African field, giving funds for fellowships and sending small groups of scholars to Africa for “look-see” tours. Superficial as these tours may have been, a number of their participants later became Africanists.

Foreign Language Offerings and Enrollments in Public Secondary Schools, Fall 1958

PMLA ◽  
1961 ◽  
Vol 76 (2) ◽  
pp. 36-50
Author(s):  
J. Wesley Childers
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Secondary Schools ◽  
The United States ◽  
Foreign Languages ◽  
Current Status ◽  
Modern Language Association ◽  
National Defense ◽  
Statistical Research ◽  
National Defense Education Act ◽  
Education Act

This report is the result of the first of a series of investigations on the current status of foreign languages in elementary and secondary schools and in institutions of higher learning in the United States. It is a part of the Statistical Research Project of the Modern Language Association of America under a contract from the United States Office of Education, authorized under the National Defense Education Act of 1958. Subsequent reports will present data for 1959 on foreign languages in the elementary schools, in public and independent secondary schools, and in colleges and universities.

scholarly journals The United States and Sputnik: A Reassessment of Dwight D. Eisenhower's Presidential Legacy

2018 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 29-54
Author(s):  
Matthew Joseph Bologna
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Department Of Defense ◽  
The United States ◽  
National Defense ◽  
Post Secondary Education ◽  
Post Secondary ◽  
National Defense Education Act ◽  
Policy Responses ◽  
Successful Launch ◽  
Education Act

Dwight D. Eisenhower's legacy as President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 has experienced a dramatic reversal in scholarly assessment.  Previously denounced as a "do-nothing" president whose ignorance and complacency tarnished the prestige of the executive office, the declassification of National Security Archives, the publication of Eisenhower's memoirs, and the memoirs of those closest to the president has contributed to a shift in Eisenhower's reputation from animosity to admiration.  Scholars now praise Eisenhower for his modesty, wisdom, and resourcefulness.  This paper contributes to the ongoing historiographical revaluation of Eisenhower's presidential legacy by examining his handling of an overlooked episode of American history - the Sputnik Crisis of 1957.  Upon receiving word of the successful launch of the Soviet satellite in October 1957, Eisenhower surrounded himself with scientists, academics, and engineers to formulate the most appropriate policy responses to Sputnik, and to refute Congressional calls for increased military spending.  As such, Eisenhower accelerated the American satellite program, established the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), reorganized the Department of Defense to eliminate inter-service rivalry, and provided for moderate infusions of federal funding into post-secondary education via the National Defense Education Act.  Indeed, Eisenhower's strategic handling of the Sputnik Crisis cements Eisenhower's reputation as an effective, proactive, and overall effective president.

The Research Liaison Committee: A New Service to the Africanist Community

1967 ◽  
Vol 10 (01) ◽  
pp. 57-59
Author(s):  
Miss Shirley K. Fischer
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
New York ◽  
The United States ◽  
African Studies ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Sources Of Information ◽  
Liaison Committee ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Exploratory Mission

The Research Liaison Committee was established under the auspices of the African Studies Association. It is supported by a Ford Foundation grant following the Ford-sponsored ASA exploratory mission to Africa. This mission examined opportunities for new ways in which to increase cooperation between U.S. scholars concerned with Africa and individuals and academic institutions based in Africa. Scholars from the United States constitute the largest single national group engaged in African research. In the past the responsibility for establishing friendly relations with our colleagues in Africa has been assumed by the individual scholar. However, it becomes increasingly apparent that cooperation with Africanists in Africa itself will be of the greatest importance to future research, and that the Association can play a useful liaison role in establishing this cooperation. To facilitate communication, the Research Liaison Committee is collecting information and identifying sources of information for scholars and students proposing research in African Studies. The Committee has established an office in New York at the same address as the Association's offices and under the direction of William O. Brown, with Shirley K. Fischer as Administrative Secretary. Its objectives are first, to develop and strengthen relations among scholars concerned with Africa; and second, to maintain liaison with research institutions in Africa through visits to Africa by members of the Committee.

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